Effect of soft root weld layer on fracture toughness of under-matched weld joints on Q+T steel
- Univ. of Maribor (Slovenia). Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
- GKSS Research Center, Geesthacht (Germany). Inst. of Material Research
Welding of quenched and tempered (Q+T) high strength low alloyed steels can cause weld strength undermatching to satisfy the toughness requirements for the weld deposit. Cost of pre-heating of these steels can be saved if one can prove that use of soft electrodes for root passes do not endanger the overall quality of the joint. By welding of 40 mm thick Q+T structural steel (grade HT 80), over-matched condition had appeared in the root area of the X-groove weld despite of welding consumable which would give entire weld under-matched properties. This is the effect of weld metal alloying by elements from base material. So, the weld joint is not protected against cold cracking especially in the root region, therefore, a high preheating should be used to reduce the possibility of this phenomenon. In this work soft (lower strength) filler metal was used for first two and four root passes of X-joint. In this case root area was also alloyed by elements from base material and obtained mis-matching factor M was higher than it was expected. So, one homogeneous and two non homogeneous weld joints (with two and four soft passes) were considered. Mechanical properties of weld joints were measured by round tensile bars taken from different parts of the weld. The under-matching factor of weld joint with two and four soft root passes was around 0.80--0.90 in the soft root layer. It was expected that uneven strength distribution along the fatigue crack tip line would affect fracture initiation behavior of all three different weld joints. The metallographical post-test sectioning has revealed the initiation points mainly at the lowest weld metal strength.
- OSTI ID:
- 403634
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9606279--; ISBN 0-7918-1492-0
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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