CAUSES OF WELDING

CRACKS AND THEIR

AVOIDANCE

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 Factors that generally contribute to Weld
Cracks are:
 High Chemical Composition
 High Rate of Cooling
 High Joint Restraint
 Incorrect Bead Geometry
 High Hydrogen Pickup
 Thick Section
 Position of Welding

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WHERE CRACKS CAN OCCUR
IN WELDING?
 Weld Surface
 Inside Weld Metal
 HAZ
 BM

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CRACKS ON SURFACE
 Theoretically due to Chemical Composition
 Joint Restraint

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UNDERBEAD CRACKS
 Cracks at HAZ
 High C and alloys e.g. C more than 0.35%
 High rate of cooling
 Hydrogen pickup – decomposition products, low
ductility, Hydrogen Embrittlement, delayed cracks,
cold cracks
 Steel – tensile strength > 100,000 psi (70 kg/mm2)

 Avoidance – control rate of cooling, lower

travel speed, preheating, use low H2 welding
procedure

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 

 
 

Adjacent plate is transformed

  to austenite when heated by
welding : hydrogen is soluble
   in this region

Difficult for hydrogen to This region remains as

diffuse any further ferrite which has no
solubility for hydrogen

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 Toe crack

Underbead crack

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 The effect of weld length on cooling rate be illustrated
by the time required to cool weld from 1600 F to 200F
( 871C to 93C) on a ¾ inch thick steel plate.
 2 ½ in - weld ……………………1.5 min (933 oF/min)
 4 in – weld ………………………5 min (280 oF/min)
 9 in – weld ……………………….33 min (42 oF/min)
 A 9 in long weld made on plate at 70F has about the
same cooling rate as a 3 in weld on a plate that has
been preheated to 300F.

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THE EFFECT OF SECTION
THICKNESS
 Thick Section
 > ½ in.
 Heat transferred by Conduction → high cooling rate,
hardening
 Need preheating even with MS esp. Root Pass

 Thin Section
 Heat transferred to the air by Radiation – slower
 Good weld throat-to-plate thickness
 Less rigid (easy to flex) – less restraint

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 fast slow

manufacturing welding

slow fast

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THE EFFECT OF JOINT
RESTRAINT
 Joint Restraint – joint not free to move when
weld shrink
 Increase Shrinkage Stress
 Cracks at WM or BM
 Avoided by: space/root gap (1 – 2 mm)

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 Soft wire
1 mm – 2 mm Ø

(a) (b) (c)

Fig.3.4.3 In a restrained joint in thick plates (a), all shrinkage stresses must
be taken up in the weld. Separating the plates with soft wires (b) allows the
plates to move slightly during cooling. The wires flatten (c) and remove
most of the stress from the weld metal.

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CRACKS ON FILLET WELD
 Last to solidify around centre of weld surface
 Concave Fillet Weld easy to crack – less
penetration, smaller throat, tensile stress high
at weld surface
 Convex Fillet Weld – opposite to concave

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 Fusion line

(a) (b)
Molten weld

(c) (d)
Solid weld

Fig.3.4.4.1 A molten fillet weld (a) starts to solidify along the sides next to
the plate (b). Solidification proceeds as shown in (c) and (d).

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 Single pass

t t

(a) Concave weld (b) Convex weld

Fig.3.4.4.2 The leg size and the surface of a concave fillet weld (a) may be
larger than that of a convex bead (b) but its throat, t may be considerably
smaller.

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CRACKS ON GROOVE WELD
 Cracks due to Notch Effect
 Notch needs to be gouged or grind
 To remove slags and oxides
 To remove fine cracks
 To avoid defect due to Lack of Root Fusion
 To obtain larger root weld on 2nd side
 Centre Line Cracks – for concave bead
 Problem due to Carbon Pickup esp. on Root
Pass

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 (a) (b)

Fig.3.4.5.1 The root pass of a double-V joint is susceptible to

cracking because of the notch effect (a). On high-quality work, the
notch effect is minimized by back-chipping (back gouging)(b).

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 Crack

Incorrect Correct

Too concave Flat or slightly convex

(a) (b)

Fig.3.4.5.2 A concave root pass (a) may crack because tensile

stresses exceed the strength of the weld metal. A slightly convex
root-pass bead (b) helps prevent cracking.

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 Crack Crack

Incorrect Incorrect Correct

Too wide and concave Wash-up too high and Flat or slightly convex,
(Also, poor slag removal) concave less than full width
(Also, good slag removal)

(a) (c)
(b)

Fig.3.4.5.3 Wide, concave passes (a and b) in a multiple-pass

weld may crack. Slightly convex beads are recommended.

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INTERNAL / INSIDE WELD
CRACKS
 Bead Geometry
 Incorrect Joint Design
 Using deep penetration process

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EFFECT OF WELD WIDTH / DEPTH
RATIO
 Incorrect ratio produces bad bead geometry
 Weld Width:Depth between 1.2:1 and 2:1
 Deep weld – centre of weld last to solidify,
shrinkage forces act on weak weld centre →
internal crack

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 width width

depth

depth

Correct
Weld Width-Weld Depth

Incorrect
Weld depth Weld width

(a)

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 60
45

Correct Incorrect

(b)

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 Width of face

Depth of fusion
Deep penetration weld

(c)

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 Arc gouge Internal
too narrow crack

Effect of small bevel and gouging shape

(d)

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 Width,W

Depth,
P

Correct Incorrect

W >> P  hat crack

(e)

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LAMELLAR CRACKS
 Use softer Filler Material
 Use Buttering method

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LAMELLAR CRACKS

Vertical Member

Lamellar tearing

(a) (b)

Fig. 6.13 Lamellar tearing (a) and a suggested

solution (b)

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