TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 689/1999
D J Abson and A J Kinsey
Background
For service applications of pressure vessel, pipeline and structural steels where the behaviour may depend on the material hardness, it is desirable to be able to estimate, in advance of any welding, the likely value of the maximum HAZ hardness. The challenge of predicting the maximum as-formed HAZ hardness in the coarse-grained HAZs of C-Mn and low alloy steel weldments has been met by several investigators. The same approach has generally been adopted by each author, namely to determine empirical equations to describe the maximum as-formed HAZ hardness obtainable at rapid and at slow weld cooling rates, and to fit an empirical equation to describe the hardness at intermediate cooling rates. This project was undertaken to examine the published equations, and to determine the most satisfactory means of predicting maximum HAZ hardness.
Objectives
- To establish the most satisfactory method of predicting the maximum value of the as-formed HAZ hardness of C-Mn and low alloy steels.