Behavior of cracks in cladded components under consideration of residual stresses
Abstract
The present study is concerned with an experimental and numerical investigation of the behavior of sub-clad and surface cracks in ferritic steels with austenitic (welded) cladding. For this purpose, two component tests have been performed. The residual stress field was determined by means of a high precision numerical simulation of the welding and heat treatment processes. Based on the results, a numerical simulation of the component tests was performed for a fracture mechanics assessment of the situation at crack initiation and arrest. In the present tests, it was observed that failure was initiated in the ferritic range whereas the austenitic cladding remained intact even in the case of a limited crack extension in the base metal.
