Influence of welding residual stresses on the ductile crack growth resistance of circumferentially cracked pipe

Welding residual stress is one of the main concerns for fabrication and operation of steel structures due to its potential effect on structural integrity. This paper focuses on the effect of welding residual stress on the ductile crack growth resistance of circumferentially cracked steel pipes. Two-dimensional axi-symmetry model has been used to simulate the pipe. Residual stresses were introduced into the model by using so-called eigenstrain method. The complete Gurson model has been employed to calculate the ductile crack growth resistance. Results show that residual stresses reduce the ductile crack growth resistance. However, the effect of residual stresses on ductile crack growth resistance decreases with the increase of crack growth. The effect of residual stress has also been investigated for cases with different initial void volume fraction, material hardening and crack sizes.