Issue 29

L. Zhao et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 29 (2014) 410-418; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.29.36 414 sub-model. 90387 and 46110 8-node linear brick elements are adopted in the global model and sub-model, respectively. There are 28020 elements in the vicinity of 2 mm around the crack front in the sub-model, more than the half the element total number. The minimum size of the element is about 0.02mm in the sub-model. Figure 5 : Mesh of the finite element model. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSIONS echanical factors, such as crack opening stress, plastic strain and J -integral ahead of crack front, are always important to discuss the SCC crack growth behaviors. To quantitatively estimate SCC growth rate of the flaws in DMW joints, the local opening stress, plastic strain and J -integral ahead of crack front are investigated in this section. Distributions of the hoop stress and hoop strain The hoop stress and the hoop plastic strain are shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, respectively. It is obvious that the effect of operating loads on the DMW joint containing defects is much smaller than that of residual stress. Only operating loads (OL) applied, the hoop stress and strain is linear along pipe through-thickness. Comparing Fig. 4 with Fig. 6, the hoop stress induced by RS and OL is not a simple summation of that induced by hoop RS and OL due to the high stress, which exceeds the yield stress of Alloy 182 weld. Under the combined effects of RS and operating loads, the distribution of hoop stress and hoop strain along pipe through-thickness is consistent with that of hoop residual stress in Fig. 4. 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0 100 200 300 400 500 RS+OL Only OL Hoop stress,  h (MPa) Normalized distance from pipe inside to outside 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0000 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.0010 0.0012 RS+OL Only OL Hoop plastic strain,   h Normalized distance from pipe inside to outside Figure 6 : Hoop stress along pipe through-thickness. Figure 7 : Hoop strain along pipe through-thickness. M