Slide 4 of 81

COMMONLY OBSERVED DISCONTINUITIES IN FUSION WELDING

TYPE
Lamination
Delamination Seams & laps

EXISTS
Pm
Pm Pm

REMARKS
Base metal, genarally near mid thickness of section.
,, Base metal surface, often at all times longitudinal.

Lamellar tears
Cracks Crater cracks Fissures Stray flash Spatters

Pm
Pm, Wm Wm/Pm Wm Wm Pm Pm

Invariably near the HAZ in flange plate of T-butt joint.

Restraint, Hot, Brittle & Under bead cold cracks; which may be either in longitudinal or transvers direction. Usually with multi axial cracks at the point of termination. Micro cracks generally in fully austenitic stainless steel & less ductile metal.
Appears away from the weld seam as a trail of arc spots with micro fissures, excesively brittle & hard character.

Globular weld particles ejected out of an arc zone & scattered shabbily around over the base metal.

Pm = Parent metal; Wm = Weld metal; Pm/Wm = Junction of weld & base metal Continued...

Pm = Parent metal; Wm = Weld metal; Pm/Wm = Junction of weld & base metal Weld decay & stress corrosion cracks Oxidation Craters Underfill Undercut Pm Precipitation of chromium carbide in austenitic stainless steels & severely degrading the corrosion resistance property in HAZ; which may also be associated with the stress corrosion cracks. Inadequacy in gas shield or gas purge from the root side causes a heavy black scale or an extremely rough crinkled appearance.

Wm Wm Wm

An unfilled concave crater causes a point of stress raiser. Inadequate weld metal filling and causing weakness. concentration.

Wm/Pm Groove made by the arc force & left unfilled, causes severe stress

Overlap
Lack of fusion Lack of penetration Solid particle inclusion Gas inclusion

Wm/Pm Accumulation of weld, without fusion, causes an extremely voilent

point of sstress raiser.

Wm, Lack of union between the two weld beads or weld & base metal Wm/Pm causes stress concentration. Pm Wm Wm

Inadequacy of through thickness fusion depth. Trapped slag particle, tungsten or oxide (Al2O3) in weld.
Gas voids contained within the weld causes: Blow hole, Gas pore, Piping, Worm holes, Linear, Clustered or Scattered porasity.

- due to segregation

Lamellar Tearing:

 Dilution Heat input

The dilution:
Dilution% = Pm / Wm X 100
Wm Fm

Wm = Fm + Pm Pm = Melted Parent metal

Pm

Fm = Melted Filler metal

, ,

The heat input:

Kj / mm = I.V./ S.1000

I = Current across the arc. V = Voltage across the arc.

S = The rate of arc motion mm/Sec.

Too low or high heat input both may equally be proved detrimental.

::

Solidification cracks due to the bead factor:

W

That is

W/P
P

W = Bead Width P = Bead Depth

W/P>1

W/P<1

Cracks is detected in a radiograph, only when it produces a

change in thickness that is parallel to the x-ray beam. It appears often zig-jagged with faint irregular line. Cracks can also appear sometime as "tail" to an inclusion or porosity.

Carbon equivalent
Lesser than 0.40% Greater than 0.40% Up to 0.55%

Recommended procedure
Any electrode may be used, no problem up to the combined thickness of 50mm. Preheat 100 to 200 0C or switch over to the basic electrode. Preheat 200 to 350 0C or switch over to the basic electrode with reduced temp.

Abov 0.55%

Use only the basic electrode & also preheat 200 350 0C or switch over to stainless steel electrode of high ferrite.

C eq% = C% +

(Cu+Ni)% Mn% (Cr + Mo + V)% + + 15 6 5

A Saiferian formula for preheat to prevent cold cracks;

0C

= 350

[C]e - 0.25

[C]e= [C]c + [C]t

(Mn + Cr)% [C]c = C% + + 9 [C]t = [C]c X 0.005 t

Ni% + 18

7Mo% 90

t = Thickness in mm
Preheat Temp. for C & C-Mn Steel only:
0F

= 1,000 (C% - 0.11) + 18 t"

Where C% is only up to 0.65% max.

Undercut is an erosion of the base metal next to the toe of the weld
face. It appears in radiograph as a dark irregular line on outer edge of the weld.

Root undercut is an erosion of the base metal next to the root of the
weld. It appears in radiographic images as a dark irregular line offset from the centerline of the weldment. Undercutting is not as straight edged as LOP because it does not follow the straight edge

Root concavity or suck back is a condition where the weld metal

has contracted as it cools down & has been drawn up into the root of the weld. On a film it appears similar to the lack of root penetration but the line has irregular wide edges and placed in the middle.

Cold lap is a condition where the weld metal does not fuse with the
base metal or the previous weld bead (interpass cold lap). The arc does not melt the base metal and causes the molten puddle to flow into the base metl without the proper bonding.

Incomplete fusion is a condition where the weld metal does not

fuse with the base metal. Appearance on radiograph is usually a darker line or lines oriented in the direction of the weld seam along the weld joining area.

Whiskers are the short lengths of electrode wire, visible on

the top or bottom surfaces of the weld or contained within the weld. On radiograph they appear as light, "wire like" indications.

Burn through (icicles) results when too much heat causes weld to
pierce through. Lumps of weld metal sag through the seam creating a thick globular condition on the root face. On a radiograph, burn through appears as dark spots surrounded by light globular areas.

Lack of penetration occurs when the weld metal fails to penetrate

through the joint. Allows a linear stress riser like discontinuity from which a crack may initiate. The appearance on a radiograph is a dark well-defined straight edges that follows the land or root face down the center of a joint.

Gas inclusion
Gas pore _ singular. Blowhole _ singular. Scattered Porasity. Cluster Porasity. Linear Porasity. Piping.
Fine Severe

Worm holes.

Porosity appears often as dark round irregular spots in clusters or

rows. Sometimes it is elongated and may have an appearance of a tail. This is the result of gas attempting to escape while the metal is still in a liquid state & is called wormhole porosity. All porosity is indeed a void will have a darker density than the surrounding.

Cluster porosity is caused when electrodes are contaminated with

moisture or hydrocarbon. It appears like regular porosity in a film but the indications will be grouped close together.

 Oxide inclusion/ Puckering

Slag inclusions are the nonmetallic solid materials trapped in weld

or between the weld and base metal. In a radiograph, dark, jagged asymmetrical shapes within the weld or along the weld joint areas are indicative of slag inclusions.

Tungsten inclusions. Tungsten is a brittle and dense material used

as an electrode in tungsten inert gas welding. If an incorrect welding procedures & skill is performed, then only the tungsten gets trapped. Radiographically, tungsten is more dense than aluminum or steel; therefore, it shows as a lighter area with a distinct outline on the radiograph

Oxide inclusions are usually visible on the surface of a weld mtal

(especially aluminum). Oxide inclusions are less dense than the surr ounding metals and, thus it appears as dark irregular shaped discon -tinuity in radiograph. This is also referred as puckering in ISO.

The radiographic image is a noticeable difference in density between the two mismatched pieces. The difference in density is caused by the difference in material thickness. The dark, straight line is caused by failure of the weld metal to fuse with the land area.

Excessive reinforcement is an area of a weld added in excess of

that specified by the drawings and codes. The appearance on a radiograph is a localized & less darker area. A visual examination will easily determine if the weld reinforcement is in excess.

Underfilling is an area where the deposited weld metal is less than

the required thickness. It is easy to determine by RT films, because the image density in the area of inadequacy will be darker than the surrounding image density.

Distortion : Distortion is an unavoidable phenom

-enon of fusion welding. Type:
Angular distortion;

Longitudinal distortion; &

Transvers distortion.

Distortion:

Remedy:

only to minimise.

Reduce the cause of shrinkage forces;

Make use of the shrinkage forces;

Balance the shrinkage forces.

&

Reduce the cause of shrinkage forces:

1. Do not weld __ if possible.

2. Reduce the number of joints.

3. Improve the joint design & fit-up. 4. Avoid excessive root gap & mismatch. 5. Avoid over welding. 6. Reduce the number of runs.

7. Use larger size electrodes.

8. Use iron powder type electrode. 9. Use semi or fully mechanized welding.

 Obviously the poor fit-up demands more metal to be filled in and thus the more shrinkage / distortion.

GA

RF RO

GA=Groove / Included angle RF = Root face RO = Root opening

Fusion faces Shoulder

Effective throat area gets reduced in proportion to the root gap and an over welding by 1.6mm to a 6 mm given fillet size, the cross section area of weld increases by a margin of 56%.

W W

Make use of shrinkage forces:

Balance the shrinkage forces: Use an appropriate welding scequence.

i.e. Back step & intermittent welding techniques.

Use external force:

i.e. Tack weld, Jigs, Fixtures & Clamps.