Influence of Plastic Anisotropy on the Limit Load of an Overmatched Cracked Tension Specimen

Abstract

Plastic anisotropy is a common property of many metallic materials. This property affects many aspects of structural analysis and design. In contrast to the isotropic case, there is a great variety of yield criteria proposed for anisotropic materials. Moreover, even if one specific yield criterion is selected, several constitutive parameters are involved in it. Therefore, parametric analysis of structures made of anisotropic materials is quite cumbersome. The present paper demonstrates the effect of the constitutive parameters involved in Hill’s quadratic yield criterion on the upper bound limit load for weld stretched overmatched tension specimens containing a crack of arbitrary shape, assuming that the crack is located inside the weld. Different sets of the constitutive parameters are involved in the yield criteria for weld and base materials. Since the limit load is an input parameter of many flaw assessment procedures, the final result of the present paper shows that it is necessary to take into account plastic anisotropy in these procedures. It is worthy of note that the limit load is involved in the flaw assessment procedures in combination with the stress and strain fields near the tip of a crack. In anisotropic materials, these fields may become non-symmetric even under symmetric loading. This behavior affects the propagation of cracks.