Study on welding crack sensitivity assessment method based on thermal elastic plastic finite element analysis

Abstract

This study presents a new welding crack sensitivity assessment method with the equivalent plastic strain increment as an indicator, and the reliability is verified by comparing the computed results and experimental results of bead-on-plate joint under different welding conditions. Then the proposed method is applied to assess the welding crack sensitivity of multi-pass joints in the bridge rehabilitation engineering. The results show that the equivalent plastic strain increment increases with increasing heat input and constraint degree, and decreases with increasing preheat temperature. The equivalent plastic strain increment can be used as an indicator for assessing welding crack sensitivity assessment of joints. With regard to multi-pass welded joints, the welding crack sensitivity decreases with the increase of number of weld passes in terms of equivalent plastic strain increment. The welding crack sensitivity assessment method proposed in this study is reliable and can provide a practical tool for assessing the performance of welded joints.