Evaluation of Plastic “Eta” Factor for Welds of SS316L(N) with High Strength Mismatch Ratio

Fracture testing standards of ASTM and ISO recommend expressions for plastic η factor of various fracture test specimen geometries to evaluate the fracture behavior of materials. These are intended for homogenous specimens, but according to ISO 15653, it can be extended for weldments up to a strength mismatch ratio (M) of 1.25. In practice, M > 1.25 is encountered in many applications. In the present study, η factor has been evaluated for welded compact tension specimens using a limit load-based approach. The η factors obtained using this approach for homogenous specimens with elastic–perfectly plastic material model are found to be within ± 4% of those from the ASTM E 1820-17a, thereby validating the procedure. For welds, the limit load is obtained from nonlinear (elastic–plastic) FE simulations. η factors for specimens with various crack lengths (a), weld width (h) and strength mismatch have been evaluated and found to be significantly influenced by these parameters. For M > 1.25, the estimated η values were found to be ~ 16% lower compared to that from the ASTM E 1820-17a. Thus, the use of the η values from the proposed method provides a conservative estimate of J–R curve for the welds. Further, it has been observed that depending on the slope of the blunting line, the JIc value may vary significantly with the estimated η values.