Numerical investigation of crack opening-closing behavior on pre-fatigued welded joints repaired by HFMI

This study aims to understand crack opening-closing behavior on pre-fatigued welded joints repaired by High Frequency Mechanical Impact (HFMI). Detailed rat-hole specimen models inserting different depths of rectangle slit in the weld toes to simulate initial cracks were used in the HFMI treatment simulation. Induced compressive residual stress, change of slit geometry, and opening-closing behavior of the slit after HFMI treatment simulation were investigated numerically. The amount of induced compressive residual stress around the slit tip is reduced when slit depth becomes larger, and slit size of about 0.4 mm remains when the slit depth is 2.0 mm. The opening-closing behavior of HFMI treated slit was examined based on change of strains along the slit face. The slit is opened from the bottom side prior to its treated surface. Additionally, the crack opening-closing behavior was investigated experimentally using pre-fatigued out-of-plane gusset welded joints repaired by impact crack closure retrofit treatment. Phased array ultrasonic testing system was used to examine the change of echo height from cracks. It could be concluded that similar behavior as the numerical investigation is observed. From both investigations, experimentally and numerically, the behavior on pre-fatigue welded joints repaired by HFMI could be studied successfully.
QC 20221109