Fatigue Crack Propagation Behavior and Life Prediction of Welded Joints of SMA490BW Steel for Bogies

Abstract

In this paper, the precrack propagation behavior of an SMA490BW welded joint in the core zone and heat-affected zone was analyzed through experiments based on the FRANC 3D and ABAQUS cosimulation method, and life prediction of these cracks was also investigated. The results show that the experimental crack propagation path and crack propagation rate in the weld core zone and heat-affected zone agree well with the simulation results, with a small relative error. The life span of the prefabricated crack in the heat-affected zone was higher than that in the core zone. Furthermore, regarding the life prediction results for the two samples, the relative error obtained using FRANC 3D was about 5%, which was verified using the method of joint simulation of crack propagation behavior in the zone simulation and their life prediction with accurate feasibility.