Investigation into Fracture Mechanics and Ductile Fracture Propagation in Fibre Laser Welded High Strength Steel

General Information

The fracture toughness and ductile fracture propagation of high strength steel sheets joined by a high power fibre laser will be analyzed for crack growth along the welds. The analysis will be performed for laser welds in high strength steel sheets of 1.47 to 2.44 mm thicknesses. The weld strength overmatching influence on the fracture toughness, as well as ductile fracture mechanism and crack path features will be investigated, since the high power laser welding processes yields the considerable weld strength mismatch, as a result of the high cooling rate and thermal cycle which takes place in the vicinity of the weld edges. The analyses of the crack growth will be performed by the tensile testing of welds using center cracked wide plates as well as sheets containing central holes of various diameters in longitudinal and transversal directions. There is a need to investigate the failure behaviours of fibre laser welded thin- sheets under tensile loading and use recent failure prediction methods, such as FITNET FFS Procedure.

This project is a contribution to the RFCS co-funded FIBLAS project. It will be conducted at GKSS, the trainee will be Ms. Alena Britanova of Welding Research Institute, Bratislavia, Slovakia.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	DG Research K, Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS)
Project Type	Accompanying measure for training and mobility
Contract Number	RFS3-CT-2008-00031
Co-ordinator	Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon (DE)

Total Eligible Costs (€)	Hereon Eligible Costs (€)	EC Funding for Hereon (€)
24.750	24.750	24.750

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Mustafa Kocak, WMF Phone: +49 4152 87 2536, Fax : +49 4152 87 2595 E-mail contact

Participants

Welding Research Institute at Industrial Institute of the Slovak Republic (SK)

Last Update: 18. May 2021