Fatigue crack propagation analysis of a CT test specimen with cladding

Abstract

In this study, a system for fatigue crack propagation analysis based on XFEM referred to as sim2d, which can model crack independently of finite elements, has been developed. A fatigue crack propagation analysis of a carbon steel CT specimen with stainless steel cladding has been performed by the system. The stress intensity factor for initial crack front obtained by sim2d is compared with that by FEM. In addition, crack propagation analysis was performed and the geometry of propagating crack front was simulated.