Effect of residual stresses on the crack-tip constraint in a modified boundary layer model

Residual stresses play a crucial role in structural integrity assessment. In this study, a large cracked cylinder with a weld in the center is applied to investigate the effect of residual stresses on the crack-tip constraint. A modified boundary layer model with a remote displacement-controlled elastic K-field and T-stress under small scale yielding has been used to simulate the problem. A two-dimensional tensile residual stress field due to the weld is introduced into the model by the so-called eigenstrain method. It has been shown that the residual stresses can significantly elevate the crack-tip constraint and thus increase the probability for cleavage fracture. The constraint parameter R introduced by the authors can be used to rank the crack-tip constraint induced by the bi-axial residual stresses. The R value decreases with the increase in the applied J-integral. The residual stress-induced constraint is also coupled with the T-stress. The R value becomes smaller with larger T-stress.