A study on the fatigue crack growth behavior of aluminum alloy weldments in welding residual stress fields

용접잔류응력장 중에서의 Aluminum-Alloy용접재료의 피로균열성장거동 연구

The fatigue crack growth behavior in GTA butt welded joints of Al-Alloy 5052-H38 was examined using Single Edge Notched(SEN) specimens. It is well known that welding residual stress has marked influence on fatigue crack growth rate in welded structure. In the general area of fatigue crack growth in the presence of residual stress, it is noted that the correction of stress intensity factor (K) to account for residual stress is important for the determination of both stress intensity factor range(.DELTA.K) and stress ratio(R) during a loading cycle. The crack growth rate(da/dN) in welded joints were correlated with the effective stress intensity factor range(.DELTA.Keff) which was estimated by superposition of the respective stress intensity factors for the residual stress field and for the applied stress. However, redistribution of residual stress occurs during crack growth and its effect is not negligible. In this study, fatigue crack growth characteristics of the welded joints were examined by using superposition of redistributed residual stress and discussed in comparison with the results of the initial welding residual stress superposition.