A ductile tearing assessment diagram to estimate load resistance versus crack extension for welded connections with surface cracks

Abstract This paper proposes a ductile tearing assessment diagram to assess the evolution of load resistance versus stable tearing in material and structural components. This approach extends beyond the failure assessment diagram documented in engineering standards and allows the assessment for the tearing process in a cracked structural component through a single assessment curve derived from the experimental records of a fracture specimen. The validation of the proposed approach utilizes two types of specimens: (1) material fracture specimens, made of HY-80 steel and aluminum alloy 6061-T6511; and (2) welded structural components including the S355 steel welded pipes and the S690 steel welded tubular joint. The proposed method predicts the load resistance versus crack extension relation for a structural component with an extending crack, which translates the tearing assessment into a load level assessment. The load resistance at different crack extension, estimated from the tearing assessment curve developed from fracture specimens, remains within 10% compared to the experimental results for welded structural components presented in this study.