Mode I fracture of large-scale welded thin-walled AA 6061 extruded panels

This paper presents the experimental and numerical investigation on deformation and fracture of the large-scale welded thin-walled AA 6061 panels under Mode I loading. The proposed model is able to successfully capture crack initiation, initial growth, as well as a more complicated phenomenon where the crack undergoes a sudden jump to a new location and steadily propagates. The fracture process was explained by an in-depth analysis of the local stress and strain fields along the crack path.