Issue 41

M. Vormwald et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 41 (2017) 114-122; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.41.16 118 Figure 4 : S-N curves for alternating loading and stress-relieved specimens. Figure 5 : S-N curves for alternating loading and as-welded specimens. N UMERICAL ANALYSES Notch stresses n the numerical part of the study, notch stresses were calculated with an idealised weld end geometry. The modelling steps of such an idealised weld end geometry are comprehensively described in [1-6]. A submodelling technique has been used, in order to calculate the von Mises equivalent stresses. The geometry of the submodel takes as a basis a radius of r root = 0.05 mm at the weld root and a radius of r toe = 0.2 mm at the weld toe, Fig. 7a. The solid FE-model, as shown in Fig. 7b, is represented as a mesh of tetrahedral elements with a quadratic shape function. It incorporates linear elastic material behaviour. The maximum equivalent stresses were obtained for both cases in a zone, where weld root migrates to the weld toe at the weld end. This critical zone, which is not to be seen in the view of Fig. 7, consists of a part of cylindrical weld root and weld toe regions at inner and outer tubes. The local stresses are plotted in the critical zone for both load cases, see Fig. 8. The Figures indicate that in these cases the highly stressed nodes are located at completely different sites. I