Welds may suffer three different fracture mechanisms:

Ductile
Brittle
Fatigue
Often a complete fracture of a weldment will be a combination of fracture
types eg initially fatigue followed by final ductile fracture.

Ductile Fractures
Occur in instances where the strength and the cross-sectional area of the
material are insufficient to carry the applied load.
Such fractures are commonly seen on material and welding procedure
tensile test specimens where failure is accompanied by yielding, stretching
and thinning as shown below.

The fracture edges are at 45 to the applied load and are known as shear
lips.

Brittle fracture
Is a fast, unstable type of fracture which can lead to catastrophic failure.
The phenomenon was first identified during World War 2 when many Liberty
Ships broke in two for no apparent reason. Since that time many brittle
failures have occurred in bridges, boilers, pressure vessels etc sometimes
with loss of life and always with expensive damage.

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Weld Fractures
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The risk of brittle fracture increases;

As the temperature (ambient or operational) decreases

With the type and increasing thickness of the material
Where high levels of residual stresses are present
In the presence of notches.
Increased strain rate ie speed of loading

Courtesy of Douglas E. Williams, P.E., Welding Handbook, Vol.1,

Ninth Edition, reprinted by permission of the American Welding Society
Eeffect of notch on a tensile specimen.

Distinguishing features of a brittle fracture are:

Surface is flat and at 90 to the applied load.

Will show little or no plastic deformation
The surface will be rough and may be crystalline in appearance.
May show chevrons which will point back to the initiation source.

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Weld Fractures
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Brittle fracture surface on a CTOD test piece.

Fatigue fracture
Fatigue fractures occur in situations where loading is of a cyclic nature and
at stress levels well below the yield stress of the material.
Typically fatigue cracks will be found on bridges, cranes, aircraft and items
affected by out of balance or vibrating forces.
Initiation takes place from stress concentrations such as changes of section,
arc- strikes, toes of welds. Even the best designed and made welds have
some degree of stress concentration.
As fatigue cracks take time firstly to initiate then to grow, this slow
progression allows such cracks to be found by regular inspection schedules
on those items known to be fatigue sensitive.
The growth rate of fatigue cracks is dependant on the loading and the
number of cycles. It is not time dependant
Fatigue failures are not restricted to any one type of material or temperature
range. Stress-relief has little effect upon fatigue life.
Structures known to be at risk of fatigue failure are usually designed to
codes that acknowledge the risk and lays down the rules and calculations to
predict its design life.

Rev 1 January 2010

Weld Fractures
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Typical fatigue fracture in a T joint.

Identifying features of fatigue fracture are:

Very smooth fracture surface, although may have steps due to multiple
initiation points.
Bounded by curved crack front
Bands may be visible indicating crack progression.
Initiation point opposite curve crack front
Surface at 90 to applied loading

Fatigue cracks sometimes stop of their own accord if the crack runs into an
area of low stress. On the other hand they may grow until the remaining
cross-section in insufficient to support the applied loads. At this point final
failure will take place by a secondary mechanism ie ductile or brittle.

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Weld Fractures
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Assessment of fracture surfaces

The Senior Welding Inspectors examination requires fracture surfaces to be
assessed. This should be done in the following manner:
Make a sketch of the fracture specimen.
Indicate on the sketch the salient features ie initiation point (Note: There
may be more than one ignition point), the first mode of failure and the
second mode of failure, if there is one.
For each of these indicated features describe what it is and how you
recognised it.

Rev 1 January 2010

Weld Fractures
Copyright TWI Ltd 2010