Effects of arc energy, plate thickness and preheat on C-Mn steel weld metal hydrogen cracking

TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 461/1992

By R J Pargeter

Background

There is very little information on the risk of weld metal hydrogen cracking in multipass welds, made under practical cooling conditions, from which guidance on safe welding conditions can be derived. In the present work, critical preheat and interpass temperatures for avoidance of cracking at specific hydrogen levels and fixed interpass time were generated for C-Mn steel welds in 50 and 30mm thick plate at 1, 3 and 5kJ/mm. The data generated will form the first stage of a predictive system for avoidance of hydrogen cracking in multipass weld metal.