Assessment of the effect of residual stresses in elastic-plastic fracture of dissimilar welded components

Residual stresses in welds pose a significant threat to the structural integrity of a component, especially in the presence of defects and are required to be accounted for in assessing component safety. Although the R6 assessment procedure suggests various approximate methods for incorporating these effects in defect assessment, most of them are overly conservative and not very cost-effective. A more reliable approach is to characterise the weld residual stresses around a defect and study how they interact with primary load. The current paper analyses the effects of weld residual stresses on the fracture of a dissimilar weld in the presence of defect. The weld is made between modified 9Cr–1Mo steel and 316LN stainless steel using autogenous electron beam welding. A C(T) specimen was extracted from the centre of the weld and a crack introduced in the fusion zone using electro-discharge machining. The residual stresses around the crack were measured on a grid of measurement points at mid-thickness of the C(T) specimen using neutron diffraction on the strain diffractometer SALSA at ILL, Grenoble. The measured residual stresses around the crack-tip were incorporated into a finite element model and the interaction of these with applied load was predicted under fracture.