Crack analysis of a welded HSLA-100 steel plate

In this study, Nine HSLA-100 steel plates with three different thicknesses are considered. First, all specimens are cut and welded. Second, central cracks are prepared on the plates mechanically. Third, plates with different thicknesses are loaded under uniform axial tension according to three different loading rates. For the numerical and experimental points of view, stress and/or strain analyses are completed by using both finite element and strain gage measurement techniques. For this purpose, then, plates are modeled as a simplified and powerful finite element model regarding to general purpose finite element codes, namely ANSYS and MARC. Finally, the numerical and experimental results are compared and discussed.