USE OF MICRO-TENSILE TESTS RESULTS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF FEM SIMULATION OF STEEL WELD

The crucial role in the case of any FEM simulation play input data. There is significantly increasing demand on material data measurement for FEM simulation and on their accuracy. The paper deals with the simulation of heterogeneous weld bending determination with the use of local mechanical properties measurements using micro tensile samples. Newly developed Micro-Tensile test technique (M-TT) is employed here. M-TT specimen dimensions are: thickness of 0.5 mm, width of 1.5 mm and parallel length of 3 mm. ARAMIS system using Digital Image Correlation method (DIC) enables precise strain measurement in the course of M-TT. In the current paper, comparison of heterogeneous weld simulation using "standard material data" such as base metal and weld metal with local material properties determined with the use of M-TT measured from the first base metal, across heat affected zone, weld to the other heat affected zone and second base metal. The simulation is compared to experimental bending of heterogeneous weld. In order to be able to perform a detailed comparison of the results obtained by the experiment and simulation, next to standard load displacement measurement in the course of tests, also local strain measurements were carried out using digital image correlation systems. A final comparison confirmed significantly better agreement of the simulation using local data measurements in both investigated fields, load-displacement record and the local strain distribution in the course of bending.