A novel method for evaluating plane stress dynamic fracture toughness of 0Cr18Ni10Ti stainless steel welded joints

A novel method was proposed for the evaluation of Mode I dynamic fracture toughness (DFT) under plane stress and small scale yielding conditions for welded joints of stainless steel (SS), 0Cr18Ni10Ti. In a hybrid experimental-numerical approach, the experiments were carried out on the Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus, and three dimensional (3D) transient numerical simulations were performed by a finite element (FE) computer program. Macroscopical plastic deformation was observed at the loading and supporting points, on the specimens, after the test, which could cause a large error if omitted in the numerical simulation. Therefore, elastic-viscoplastic analysis was performed on the specimen by adopting the Johnson-Cook (J-C) model to describe the rate-dependent plastic flow behavior of the material. The material heterogeneity in the mismatched welded joints, induced by the difference in the base metal (BM) and the weld metal (WM) in yield stress, has also been taken into consideration by using the J-C models separately. Good accordance was obtained between the experimental and the computational results by the present approach. The relationship between plane stress DFT and loading rate was also obtained on the order of 106 MPa·m^1/2·s^-1.