Modelling of crack propagation in welded structure using a separated phase-field approach

In this study, a separated phase-field procedure has been utilized to model crack propagation in compact tension (CT) specimen machined from the pre-welded structure. The influence of the attained welding residual stresses and plastic strains on the crack propagation has been investigated. Herein, the residual stress values measured experimentally have been taken from the scientific literature while the plastic strains have been estimated using the hardening law. The phase-field (PF) framework has been implemented into finite element (FE) software Abaqus and Fortran via user subroutines. All the numerical computations have been done using plane strain assumption. It was observed that the presented PF approach can properly model crack propagation through the welded structure.