A case study on the effect of thermal residual stresses on the crack-driving force in linear-elastic bimaterials

The effect of thermal residual stresses in bimaterial structure with initial crack located near a sharp interface is discussed in this paper. Bimaterial compact tension (CT) specimen is used in the analysis, and the residual stresses are introduced by cooling of the specimen. The residual stresses affect the stress and strain fields near the crack tip, and the crack-driving force is different compared with that in the homogeneous material without residual stresses. This difference can be quantitatively expressed through an additional crack-driving force term—the material inhomogeneity term, Cinh. In this paper, it is evaluated using the post-processing procedure based on the concept of configurational forces, following a finite-element analysis. The results indicate that accurate numerical analysis of pre-cracked bimaterials should include the effect of thermally induced residual stresses. This effect cannot be neglected, even for bimaterials with homogeneous mechanical properties and inhomogeneity in thermal properties only (e.g. welded joints of ferritic and austenitic steel). Based on the obtained results, data from this study can be used in engineering practice to improve integrity and work safety of various inhomogeneous structures.