DETERMINATION OF FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH PARAMETERS IN WELDED JOINT OF HSLA STEEL

The structural integrity and operational safety of welded pressure vessels primarily depends on the behaviour of weldments. In spite of all efforts in material production and improvements in welding techniques, including strict codes, requirements and directives, the crack occurrence in welded structures cannot be completely excluded. This is why fracture mechanics analysis is inevitable in the structural integrity assessment of all welded structures. Examples of practical application of fracture mechanics parameters in cracked pressure vessel structural integrity are considered. This paper shows the determination of parameters of the fatigue crack for constituents of welded joints produced of high strength low alloyed steel Nionikral-70 (yield strength 700 MPa). Results have shown that the position of notch and crack initiation affect the values of the stress intensity range of fatigue threshold Delta K-th and parameters in the Paris' equation.