Residual Stress Effects in Stiffened Structures - An Alternative Approach

Abstract

The fatigue crack growth behavior in integrally stiffened, welded panels is influenced by residual stresses caused by the welding process. The paper presents a semi-numerical method for the determination of stress intensity factors, taking into account the residual stresses in such a way that the relaxation of the residual stresses during the crack propagation phase is covered. This approach is different from the one presented in [1].