Abstract
This study is aimed at proposing a fracture energy calculating method for ductile fracture analysis of welded joints subjected to cyclic bending load. Finite element analysis using shell elements is performed to investigate mesh dependency of fracture energy. As a result, it is revealed that equivalent plastic strain upon deleting the element is independent on element sizes. By performing solid element analysis without deleting elements, an estimated formula of equivalent plastic strain upon deleting the element is obtained. Based on these results, a new calculating method of fracture energy corresponding to element sizes is proposed. By comparing the results of the analysis with deleting elements using the proposed method to the experiment results, it is showen that the proposed method is mostly appropriate for practical use.
