Welding Defects Related terms: Alloys, Welded Joint, Laser Beam Welding, Weld Metal, Solidification, Slag, Crack, Welding, Inclusion, Magnesium Alloys View all Topics > wt, Download as PDF JX Set Welding and Bonding Technologies F. Yusof, M.F. Jamaluddin, in Comprehensive Materials Processing, 2014 6.07.1 Introduction Welding defects can be defined as weld surface irregularities, discontinuities, imperfections, or inconsistencies that occur in welded parts. Defects in weld joints could result in the rejection of parts and assemblies, costly repairs, significant reduction of performance under working conditions and, in extreme cases, catastrophic failures with loss of property and life. These defects originate from various sources. In most cases, the defects occur as a result of improper weld design and Unsuitable welding processes and choice of incompatible materials. In addition, a lack of knowledge of the process, poor workmanship, and inadequate training of the welder can also contribute to these defects. Furthermore, there are always certain flaws in the welding due to the inherent weakness in welding technology and the characteristics of metals (1). Critical welding quality assessment can control the welding defects to within acceptable levels. Nondestructive evaluation or nondestructive testing (NDT) methods can be used to indirectly quantify the weld quality without destroying the material or component. It is important to evaluate the weld quality, as welded joints are often the locations of crack initiation due to inherent metallurgical geometrical defects, as well as heterogeneity in mechanical properties and the presence of residual stresses. Various NDT methods have been developed, each having advantages and limitations in terms of applications, detectable defects, required skills, and costs. A combination of different NDT tests can be used to provide assurance that the component is fit for use. In practice, itis practically impossible to obtain a perfect weld and, in most circumstances, itis not necessary to provide the adequate service functions required. Thus, for many industries, the specifications and tolerances for welds have been established to determine what is acceptable and fit for service. These are specified as codes or standards, and permit a variety of flaw types, sizes, and frequencies. Since some codes are more strict than others, the same weld might be acceptable under one code but not under another code. This chapter will describe the welding defects, their causes, and detection methods. Examples of common types of, defects in various industries will also be presented. Developments in laser microwelding technologyM. Naeem, in Handbook of Laser Welding Technologies, 2013 7.4.1 Weld defects Welding defects such as porosity, lack of fusion, spatter, burn through, oxidation and different forms of cracking can ‘occur during laser microwelding either due to material-related problems as outlined in Section 7.3.3 or during the welding process. Weld cracking There are a number of cracking mechanisms associated with the welding of metallic alloys. One of the most notorious is hydrogen cracking, also referred to as cold cracking. Hydrogen cracking is often a major concern when welding carbon steels and high strength low alloy steels. However, when welding aluminium alloys, hydrogen cracking cannot occur. Hot cracking is the cause of almost all cracking in aluminium weldments. Hot cracking is @ high-temperature cracking, mechanism and is mainly 2 function of how metal alloy systems solidify. This cracking mechanism is also known as hot, shortness, hot Assuring, solidification cracking and liquation cracking. The cracking mechanisms that can occur during laser welding can generally be resolved by process parameter optimisation and fixturing The combination of fixturing and weld configuration often introduces geometry defects that provide location of high stress concentration that can start a crack. Figure 7.30 shows examples of microweld with excessive cracking and porosity, however, by just changing the temporal pulse shape of the pulsed laser, itis possible to produce defect-free cracks in the same materials. Undercutting Undercutting or weld blowout of the microweld is attributed to two main processing parameters. The first mechanism is due to high laser power which results in the expulsion and loss of liquid material from the weld pool (Fig. 7.31). The loss of the material comes from splattering and evaporation.** However, the loss of the material through splattering is just down to high laser power. A more valid criterion would be the laser power divided by the welding speed, as this governs the heat input and the rapid flow of the energy through the keyhole.}® The other type of undercutting defect is observed when the gap is too big in overlap or butt joint welding (Fig. 7.32). This defect can be prevented by reducing the gap with ‘good fixturing/clamping. Weld spatter and porosity Weld spatter is defined as the molten metal droplets that are thrown out of the fusion zone (Fig, 7.33). The formation of the spatter can be controlled by reducing the peak power and reducing the weld temperature. However, changing the peak power settings could also lead to a reduction in the weld penetration Rapid closing of the keyhole, thus preventing full penetration through the plate, can lead to the formation of porosity (Fig. 7.34). With the rapid cooling usually present with laser welding, pores are left in the weld when the rapidly solidifying pool traps pores before they can float to the surface. However, with pulsed Nd:YAG welding, itis possible to tailor the pulse shape to allow the pores sufficient time to rise to the top. A long cooling segment of the pulse shape is normally utilised to reduce porosity." In the majority of cases, some sort of shielding gas is used during laser microwelding, The function of the shielding gas, is to protect the weld surface from oxidation and atmospheric contamination. A range of shielding gases can be used ( cause porosity during laser welding, The gas is entrapped by the turbulent welding pool and keyhole. ., Nz, Ar, He and CO;, etc.) This will depend on the material being welded. The presence of a shielding gas can also Microwelding of dissimilar materials can introduce a number defects caused by the difference in the mechanical and physical properties. One of the most serious involves the formation of intermetallic compounds in the fusion zone which can lead to microcracking, Figure 7.35 shows a microweld between copper and aluminium showing microcracks in the fusion zone. Fatigue strength for infinite life of welded joints in structuralsteel Dieter Radaj Dr-Ing habil, in Design and Analysis of Fatigue Resistant Welded Structures, 1990 2.1.9 Influence of welding defects Welding defects are primarily geometrical imperfections in the welded joint caused by manufacture: cracks, pores, solid inclusions, incomplete fusion and unsatisfactory penetration, undercuts, misaligned edges as well as further shape imperfections (classification, designation and explanation as per DIN 8524 or IIW Doc 340-64%2), The minimum requirements for the quality of manufacture are subdivided into four groups of requirements for butt welds and three groups of requirements for fillet welds (definition corresponding to DIN 8563, see section 7.5). This definition is supplemented by manufacturing standards which are specific to the technical fields involved. However, the groups of requirements cannot be correlated with the notch classes of fatigue strength because defects take effect in very different ways. The degree of fulfilment of the requirements (‘manufacturing quality’ is established by inspection methods. In addition to checking the external shape with the naked eye, supplemented by positional measurements, the less obvious smaller defects inside and on the surface of welded joints are found by special non-destructive testing methods: dye penetrant tests, magnetic particle tests, radiographic and ultrasonic tests, and acoustic emission tests, see Ref6. Numerous investigations have been carried out on the fatigue strength of welded joints with defects. In investigations of this type itis difficult to produce defects in a reproducible form as regards their type, magnitude and position. There is also disagreement as to whether effects of defects should be investigated in unmachined welds or welds which have been ground flush. The results which are capable of generalisation are summarised below and attention is drawn to Ref.2, 40 and 41 with regard to individual investigations and their interpretation. The reduction of fatigue strength by small welding defects produced by normal welding practice is already included in the reduction factors stated in the section above determining their lower limit values. Cracks Cracks are planar separations in the material with a correspondingly sharp crack tip. They tend to occur transverse or parallel to the weld, but are occasionally star shaped without a preferred direction (Fig. 32). The end crater is particularly at risk of cracking as a result of the localised accumulation of microdefects combined with high residual stress. Macrocracks are recognisable with the naked eye, microcracks only with magnifying equipment. Cracks occur after welding and thermal or mechanical post-treatment for various reasons, which are expressed by their designations. Hot cracks, including solidification and liquation cracks, ae initiated at high temperatures where solid and liquid phases occur together. Cold cracks, including hydrogen-induced, hardening, ageing and precipitation cracks, ‘occur at low temperatures after the material's ductility is exhausted. Lamellar tears occur in rolled out layers of segregation when there is loading present in the direction of the plate thickness. Cracks markedly reduce fatigue strength, particularly under transverse loading. There are no systematic investigations available of specimens with reproducible hot and cold cracks. However, a quantitative estimate of strength on the basis of fracture mechanics is possible (see section 9.5). The reduction in strength is dependent above all on the size of crack so that quality standards for manufacturing mainly limit this parameter. Hot and cold cracks can be avoided by appropriate manufacturing measures, among others, by reducing the degree of restraint, by checking solidification and cooling speeds and by excluding hydrogen. Pores and shrinkage cavities Pores are cavities (frequently spherical) with gas residues, which cannot escape when solidification takes place rapidly. Depending on their size (diameter 0.01-1.00 mm), shape, and number, these are described as single pores, linear porosity, localised porosity, uniformly distributed porosity and wormhole pores (Fig.33). Cavities as a result of shrinkage during solidification are designated shrinkage cavities. Pores occur in welding because of too high a sulphur content in the base material and the filler metal, because of too high a moisture content in the electrode coating and because of nitrogen entering through the arc shield. Welding through primer paints can also cause pores, to a dangerous extent in fillet welds. Systematic investigations have been carried out on the effect of porosity on fatigue strength in butt and filletwelds. Some of these determined the pore proportion at the failure cross section from the darkening of the X-ray film used in radiography. For transverse welds, the investigations show a steep decrease in fatigue strength at first, followed by a flatter one with an increasing proportion of pores in the failure cross section;"? in contrast, in a longitudinal weld the influence of porosity is only minor.“ Solid inclusions Solid inclusions are foreign materials which are embedded in the weld, in the case of steels they are usually slags, in light alloys usually foreign metals (e.g. tungsten, copper), which can appear singly, in lines or in local clusters. Slag inclusions ‘occur when slag on a previous weld pass was not removed adequately. Slag inclusions can be produced in a reproducible manner for fatigue testing. The continuous slag layer of a weld pass is only removed (by grinding or milling) where no slag inclusions are to occur under the cover pass. In a different method, slag pockets are produced at the groove face as a result of moving the electrode in a particular way. Slag inclusions reduce fatigue strength. The residual compressive stresses inside multilayer welds have a favourable effect on fatigue strength with inclusions, and stress relieving heat treatment has a negative effect. Lack of fusion defects and inadequate penetration Unfused interfaces between filler metal and base metal (groove face) or between different layers of the filler material are characterised as fusion defects (Fig. 34). The most frequent cause of fusion defects is foreign matter on the surface to be welded, slag or mill scale for steel, oxide film for light alloys. In the case of steel an incorrect welding current can be the cause, in the case of light alloys it can be too large a molten pool. Fusion defects reduce fatigue strength in a similar way to cracks. Inadequate penetration means that the weld pool does not reach the weld root, therefore a root gap is left, intentionally or accidentally, Poor fit-up and use of an incorrect welding method for the type of joint are the cause of unintentional lack of penetration. Lack of fusion and penetration defects can be generated in a reproducible manner for fatigue tests, e.g. as in Fig.35. The edges of two plates with double sided, quarter circle grooves are abutted against each other at the root face. First and second weld passes are laid over the root face on both sides. One of these layers is sectionally removed together with the Uunwelded root face. Later, the remaining root face has the effect of a lack of fusion or penetration defect. The grooves are subsequently completely filled by further layers. Surface defects can also be reproduced in this way. Using a different method, a discontinuous root face is used with the initial groove. It has been shown using steel and light alloy specimens with appropriate defects that fatigue strength decreases steeply both with a reduction of the cross sectional area and with ‘an increase in size of the defect in the direction of plate thickness. Additionally there was a noticeable influence from residual stress. Lack of fusion and penetration defects behave in a similar manner to cracks. Undercuts, misalignment and other shape imperfections Undercuts are groove shaped depressions at the weld toe, at the root of the weld (on both sides) or between weld beads. The cause of undercuts is incorrect welding (e.g. use of wrong process parameters). Undercuts reduce the cross sectional area and increase the notch effect. The relative reduction is about double the magnitude of the ratio of the notch depth to plate thickness."® Axial and angular misalignment arises as a result of inaccuracy in assembly and of welding distortion. The effect of a defect ofthis type on fatigue strength can be estimated on the basis of the changes in stress distribution caused as a result of the deviation in shape. Thus misalignment produces superimposed bending stresses and additional notch stresses. Fatigue strength is reduced considerably. A large number of other shape imperfections are listed in Fig.36 together with those mentioned above. Their effect on fatigue strength can be estimated on the basis of their notch effects. Welding metallurgy of magnesium alloys LL Liu. in Welding and loining of Maenesium Allovs. 20102.2 Weldability of magnesium alloys Welding defects always appear as a result of specific physical and chemical characteristics of an Mg alloy, mainly including oxidation and evaporation, overheated coarse grains, heat cracks, pores and thermal stress, and so on.7"¥3 1 Oxidation and evaporation: Mg alloy easily burns and evaporates in a fusion welding process with a high temperature ‘owing to its low melting and boiling temperatures, only 649 °C and 1107 °C respectively." In the heating process, Mg element is apt to react with oxygen, producing magnesium oxide with a high melting temperature. The magnesium oxide will cover the molten pool and the weld groove, resulting in a bad weld shaping, and the formation of magnesium oxide slag inclusion seriously decreases the properties of the welded joint. Moreover, an Mg element tends to react with nitrogen and produce magnesium nitride slag inclusion, affecting the ductility of the joint. To control the oxidation and evaporation of Mg alloy, a series of solutions are applied as follows: direct contact between Mg alloy and the air is avoided with gas shielding; lower heat input is preferred, including using pulse tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding method, properly swinging welding arc and choosing smaller welding heat input; and trying to elevate the boiling temperature by applying specific welding flux and alloying elements. 2. Overheated coarse grains: Due to its low melting temperature and high thermal conductivity, a heat source with a relatively higher power input is demanded, which will easily cause the overheat phenomenon and produce coarse grains, subsequently affecting the weld properties. Coarse grains are one of the main factors that affect weld properties. 3 Hot cracks: In the welding process, Mg alloy is easily deformed and thermal stress is generated, providing sufficient conditions for hot cracking, as Mg alloy has a high expansion coefficient of 2.61 x 10 ~*/ °C, twice that of steel of 1.13, x 10-5] °C and almost equal to Al of 2.32 x 10"5/ °C. Moreover, Mg is apt to react with alloying elements such as Cu, Aland Ni, and produces eutectic phases with low melting temperatures. As a result, the span between solidus and liquidus of Mg alloy is widened. Among the eutectic alloys, the eutectic temperatures of Mg-Cu, Mg-Al and Mg-Ni are 480 °C, 430 °C and 508 °C, respectively. These eutectic phases with their low melting temperatures will form liquid films along the grain boundaries, resulting in the fact that the brittle temperature range of Mg alloy is widened and hot cracking forms because of stress. 4. Pores: Pores that are common in a welded joint are one of the main problems in the Mg alloy welding process. On the one hand, hydrogen dissolves completely in the heating process and is separated out while temperature decreases, resulting in the appearance of pores. On the other hand, many inherent small pores and shrinkage exist in the cast Mg alloys, which will subsequently concentrate and grow in the welding process, producing larger pores. This kind of pores will seriously affect the joint properties, especially the dynamic load. Accordingly, pores must be prevented and controlled by protecting the joint from air pollution and by optimizing welding process specifications. 5. Welding heat stress: Definitely, great heat stress will be generated in the heating and cooling process because Mg alloy has a high expansion coefficient. This stress will make the joint become deformed and simultaneously accelerate the generation of eutectic cracks, which will directly affect the quality and service performance of the joint structure. All the defects mentioned above could occur in the Mg alloy welding process. Actually, the defects rising in the welding process of Mg alloys with different compositions do not vary greatly. Apart from welding cracks and pores, defects such as slag inclusion, incomplete penetration and overburning are usually observed too. ‘The weldability of Mg alloy varies with different grades. Generally, the weldability of wrought Mg alloy is better than that of cast Mg alloy. Table 2.2 illustrates the weldability of different Mg alloys, according to the crack sensitivity and type of weld effective coefficient.1* Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of austenitic stainless and farritic cteel weldmenteH. Shaikh, ... B. Raj, in Stress Corrosion Cracking, 2011 12.2 Effect of welding defects on weld metal corrosion Welding defects such as slag and other entrapments, cracks, microfissures, porosities, inclusions, lack of penetration and fusion, etc., oxide and other scales, etc., deteriorate the corrosion properties of weld metal. These defects normally cause carly pitting and crevice attacks in the weld metal [3, 4]. Sulphide inclusions are the most susceptible sites for pitting and crevice attack; however, other non-metallic inclusions are also capable of causing pit nucleation. Also, these defects act as regions of stress concentration which aid in faster initiation of SCC. Non-metallic inclusions, such as sulphides, are Undesirable from a SCC point of view. Influence of non-metallic inclusions in reducing the SCC life is directly related to the easy initiation of pitting corrosion at inclusion sites [5]. In acid solutions, and hence in occluded cells, sulphide inclusions dissolve to form HS, which has an accelerating effect on corrosion of steel [6]. H2S is reported to accelerate both the anodic and cathodie processes [5]. In many service applications, SCC initiated from pits which act as stress raisers (7, 8]. In these cases, the induction times for SCC were longer than those for pitting [7]. Apparently, the non- metallic inclusions do not participate directly in crack nucleation, but their presence is undesirable, as they give rise to pitting, Clarke and Gordon [9] reported that cracking nucleated from the crevice corrosion attack around an included particle. Non-metallic inclusions also play a role in hydrogen embrittlement (HE) of stainless steel welds. Surface inclusions facilitate entry of hydrogen into the weld and thus induce cracking [5]. Bulk inclusions may act as trap sites for hydrogen and thus assist in nucleation and development of internal crevices and cracks [5]. The shape of the sulphide inclusion influences the crack initiation time. Elongated sulphide particles may increase hydrogen entry six-fold into the metal as compared to spherical inclusions [5].The non-metallic inclusion also cause stress concentration in the material. The extent of stress concentration would depend on the shape of the inclusion [5]. Sharp edged inclusions act as more effective notches than spherical or elliptically shaped inclusions. Apart from the shape, the ratio of thermal expansion coefficients and modulus of elasticity of the inclusion to that of the matrix also contribute to a lesser extent in determining the magnitude of stress concentration [5]. Apart from sulphide inclusions, weld metals can contain other inclusions resulting from the oxidation and deoxidation reactions in the molten weld metal. They may also contain slag inclusions, which could result from slag entrapment in the solidified weld bead. The extent of slag entrapment is dictated by the flux coating on the welding consumable. Rutile coatings give ease of slag detachment and good bead shape. Qut- of position welding can also cause slag entrapment. In designing welding consumables, itis common practice to adjust weld metal composition by adding alloying elements in the flux. During welding, these elements may not get mixed well in the molten pool thus leaving regions rich in these elements which may act as nucleation sites for localised corrosion attack. For example, in offshore applications, the electrode coating contains ferro-managanese particles, which if not homogeneously mixed in the weld metal leaves areas harder than the adjoining matrix [10]. These hard areas provide sites for initiation of SCC in sour service. Certain measures during welding, such as increase in welding current, reducing travel speed or the width of weaving, may help in mitigating the problem. Porosities can lead to faster initiation of pitting attack or SCC since they act as sites for stress concentration (11. Appropriate choice of heat input could reduce the amount of porosities in the weld metal. Cracks and microfissures also contribute to reduction in localised corrosion resistance of weld metal. The weldment may undergo cracking during welding, or immediately after welding, or during service or during post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) in the solidified weld metal, HAZ of base metal or HAZ of weld metal. These cracks may act as sites for crack initiation or as crevices. In stainless steels and Ni-base alloys, microfissuring and hot cracking is a major problem. C-Mn steels and low alloy steels normally undergo cold cracking and reheat cracking. Undercuts, lack of fusion and lack of penetration are preferential sites for corrosion attacks. judicious selection of the weld joint design, welding parameters, consumables and welding process may avoid corrosion problems associated with such faulty joints. Certain joint designs, like lap and stake joints ‘may result in crevice corrosion attack and should be avoided and instead full penetration butt joints are preferred [12]. In some applications, it is common practice to use welding inserts, which may not get properly fused in the weld metal and(eave Feyruia, WNL Higy LELUIHIE PIUNE WU LIEYILE dtl@Ln. HF GUUIIUH! KU LIEYILE LUITUDIUH PIOWIEHI, UIE LIeviLED HHS formed will act as stress raisers and cause SCC. In welding of steels, ifthe electrodes are overbaked, the amount of hydrogen, which increases bead penetration, is reduced thus leading to lack of penetration defects in the weld metal. CORROSION PREVENTION BY DESIGN Zaki Ahmad, in Principles of Corrosion Engineering and Corrosion Control, 2006 8.6.9 OVERLAY DEFECTS All types of welding defects must be minimized as they directly affect the properties. The most important defects are micro-fissures, cracking caused by slag inclusion, porosity, oxide tints and disbonding from the substrate. Material fissures caused by non-metallic elements, lke sulfur and phosphorus, increase tensile stress between the grains. The stresses of the grain fissures are eliminated by weld deposits containing 12% ferrite. Porosity, disbanding and cracking can be controlled by adoption of proper welding technique. Cracking can be minimized by minimizing the formation of intermetallic compounds, like chromium carbide in 18-8 stainless steel. In principle, the formation of any brittle ‘compound in the overlay zone must be minimized to control cracking defects. Hybrid laser-arc welding of magnesium alloys G. Song, in Welding and Joining of Magnesium Alloys, 2010 14.3.3 Welding defects Figure 14.29 shows the welding defects under unsuitable parameters. The defects are usually induced by the improper feeding speed of filler wire and the distance between filler wire and heat resource. The defects shown in Fig. 14.29(a), (b) and (d) are induced by insufficient melting of filler wire when the feeding speed of the filler wire is too high or the distance between filler wire and heat source is large. The insufficient melting of filler wire will extend to the laser beam, which not only induces spattering but also distorts the weld formation. When the filler wire is fed insufficiently, there will bea large droplet at the tip of the filler wire and the filler metal will be fed in a globular transfer mode. In this case, the weld seam is discontinuous and bumpy, as is shown in Fig. 14.29(¢). So, in a hybrid welding process with a back-feeding mode of filler wire, the feeding speed of filler wire and the distance between filler wire and laser beam should be set appropriately. EVALUATING THE STRESS CONCENTRATION DUE TO ELONGATED DEFECTS IN WELDED AREA K.M, Abd El-Ghany, ... M.R. El-Koussy, in Current Advances in Mechanical Design and Production Vil, 2000 ABSTRACT In welded pipes, a welding defect can cause a disaster. Among the commonly known welding defects, incomplete penetration and fusion, porosity and slag inclusions are the most common to affect welding strength. The acceptance and rejection criteria of discontinuities are the roles of the standard codes such as API, ASME, ASTM, AWS, etc. The standard specifications are restricted and force the inspection engineers to reject or re-weld pipes that may be “Fit for their Purpose”. In many cases, these pipes may contain welding defects and discontinuities that produce stress concentration values that may not affect the service life of the material. This paper describes the employment of three-dimensional linear static finite element analysis to find out the values of stress concentration that develop due to the presence of elongated volumetric discontinuities in the welded region. Also, it seeks for the relations among the length and the diameter of the discontinuity, the effective weld and wall sizes and the triaxial stress region induced around each discontinuity. The finite element software package I-DEAS [1] was used for thiswork, About 200 simulation cases were modeled and solved by the finite element software. The modeled cases were identical in the geometry, applied stresses, boundary conditions and meshing size and type, but they varied in weld thickness and discontinuity length and diameter. The applied stresses were biaxial to simulate the welded piping applications and uniaxial to simulate the general purpose applications. The results indicate that, 1) The average stress concentration factor when the discontinuity length is parallel to the maximum applied stress is about two, and about three in the normal direction, (von Mises stress), 2) The acceptance and rejection criteria of the codes AWS D1.1 and ASME section V (for boilers and pressure vessels) are conservative to some extent, 3) The calculated values were found closer to the criteria of API ~ 1104 and 4). The effect ofthe triaxial stresses induced around the curved surfaces of the discontinuities is remarkable and should be considered while judging the discontinuities effect. Investigation on friction stir welding parameter design for lap joining of pure titanium F.C. Liu, J. Liao, in Proceedings of the Ist International Joint Symposium on Joining and Welding, 2013 3 Results and discussion The influence of the FSW parameters on welding defects under the load control for different sized tools are surnmarized in Fig. 3. The typical overheating rough surface together with tool penetration defect was shown in Fig 4a. It was observed that the overheating rough surface and tool penetration defects appeared when the FSW was conducted at low welding speed or high rotation rate (Fig. 3). The appearance of this defect is probably because that the high thermal input sharply accelerated the phase transformation of a to BS during FSW. A great deal of soft phase formed in the stir zone at high temperature, the insert depth of the tool increased rapidly under the load control. Therefore, the penetration defects were observed when the thermal input was too high. The typical groove-like defect was shown in Fig 4c. Such a defect was detected when the welding speed was high or the rotation rate was low (Fig. 3). It indicated that the groove-like defect associated with the insufficient thermal input and material flow. The sound surface appearance (which is typically shown in Fig. 4b) was observed when moderate welding, speed and rotation rate were selected (Fig. 3). The cross-sectional examination revealed that although the groove-like defect disappeared and sound surface appearance was achieved after increasing the rotation rate or decreasing the welding speed, the inner cavity defects were observed when the joints were welded at the relatively low thermal input parameters (Figs. 3 and 5). It indicated that the inner cavity defects should associated with the low thermal input and the insufficient material flow during FSW. Under the appropriate heat input, the joints without defect were obtained at the parameter combinations of 300 rpm - 100 mm/min, 250 rpm - 100 mm/min, and 250 rpm - 125 mm/min for the lap joints welded using the tool with a probe length of 1.8 mm and at parameter combinations of 250 rpm - 75 mm/min for the lap joints welded using the tool with a probe length of 2.0 mm. When using the tool with a probe length of 2.2 mm, the sound joint without defect was not achieved. These results showed that the ranges of the welding parameters for lap joining of CP Ti were narrow, and out of the ranges led to the emergence of welding defects, such as overheating rough surface, groove-like surface and inner cavitations. An increase in the probe length further narrowed the FSW parameter range for the lap joining of CP Ti. Previous investigation [8] showed that the lap width strongly influenced the failure load and the failure load was possible improved by increasing the lap width. This investigation showed that the lap width increased from about 2.6 to 4.0 mm with increasing the probe length from 1.8 to 2.2 mm when the lap join was processed a rotation rate of 300 rpm and a welding speed of 100 mm/min (Fig. 6), demonstrating that the lap zone can be widened through increasing the probe length. However, increasing the probe length raised the likelihood of welding defect. The temperature measurement during FSW indicated that the tool shoulder dominated the heat generation [10]. This is attributed to the fact that the contact area and vertical pressure between the tool shoulder and workpiece are much largerthan those between the pin and workpiece, and the tool shoulder has a higher linear velocity than the pin with smaller radius [10]. Because of the poor thermal conductivity of the CP Ti (9], there is @ great temperature gradient between the titanium in the probe root and tip parts. The varying deformation ability of the CP Ti at different temperatures resulted in inhomogeneous flow of the titanium during FSW. An increase in the length of the probe would increase the temperature gradients, and thereby increase the inhomogeneous flow of the CP Ti. This is one of the reasons why increasing the probe length raised the possibility of welding defect. Furthermore, increasing the probe length also widened the lap width. Therefore, more oxide surface film was broke and stirred into the stir zone. These broken oxides may increase the possibilty of inner cavitation formation. In order to reduce the quantity of oxides in the stir zone, the CP Ti surfaces were mechanically polished using abrasive paper before FSW. Fig. 7 shows that the inner cavitations was detected when the as-received CP Ti was friction stir welded directly at @ rotation rate of 300 rpm and a welding speed of 80 mm/min, while the defect was disappeared when the CP Ti sheet was mechanically polished before subjecting to FSW at the same parameters. Thus, surface polishing before FSW is helpful to eliminate the inner cavitations. The tensile curves of the lap joint which was friction stir welded directly using the probe with a length of 2.0 mm at a rotation rate of 250 rpm and a welding speed of 75 is shown in Fig. 8, and the picture of fractured sample is inserted in the bottom part. The tensile curves approximately experienced to be horizontal in the middle (10 mm < elongation < 30 mm) and then sharply descended at the end (elongation > 30 mm). The lap join supplied sufficient bonding strength in the lap zone, which led to the fracture happening in the base metal after a large elongation. This result demonstrated that high strength CP Ti lap joint can be obtained if proper weld parameters were used even without any surface pretreatment. A position control system was employed for the frictions stir lap welding of CP Ti in previous work [7]. Electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) examination showed that the microstructure in the stir zone is different from that in the base metal (BM). The BM can be characterized by coarse-equiaxed grains, while the microstructure at the stir zone can be depicted as fine-equiaxed grains. The fine-equxied grain structure is supposed to result from the dynamic recrystallization, because the stir zone has experienced heavy plastic deformation at relatively high temperature. Because of the grain refinement in the stir zone, the hardness of the stir zone was significantly increased. The reason the fracture location of shear tensile specimen was at the BM is probably attributed to the two aspects, ie. the hardness increase in the stir zone, which means that the strength in the stir zone is higher than that in the BM, and then enough width of lap zone which provides the sufficient bonding strength and thus prevents the fracture at the lap zone. Laser welding of magnesium alloys J. Shan, in Welding and Joi 17.5.2 Welding crack Hot cracks have been one of the main welding defects of magnesium alloys. In most magnesium alloys, an increase in 1g of Magnesium Alloys, 2010 alloying elements will generally increase the solidification temperature range. The large freezing temperature range, large solidification shrinkage, high coefficient of thermal expansion and low melting point intermetallic constituents potentially make magnesium alloys susceptible to liquation cracking in the HAZ and solidification cracking in the fusion zone.21335 Solidification cracking occurs regularly in alloys with large solidification interval, such as Mg-Zn-Zr, Mg-Al-Zn, etc. Itis reported that some Mg-Zn-Zr alloys, such as M18 and M22, have solidification ranges much larger than 100 °C. Sand cast ZE41A alloy has an equilibrium freezing range of 120 °C; thus solidification cracking was observed in the joint (Fig. 17.23) For Mg-Al-Zn alloys, solidification cracking starts to develop when the composition promotes a freezing range, which typically occurs at around ten percent Al. Generally speaking, the alloys containing up to six percent Al and up to one percent Zn possess good weldability, otherwise weld cracking becomes severe because of the occurrence of low melting point constituents (Mgi7Al2).""® Rare earth elements beneficially reduce the tendency of weldclacning any porosny 1g lesiuri Gastings Uecause Urey Harrow ihe Hee range. ror sure avuys Comantnng rate earth, such as QE22, however, cracking is still observed in the age-hardened condition. Heat-treatable magnesium alloys, such as AZ80 and ZK60, are usually produced by extrusion processes at high cooling rates, which reduce segregation and thereby decrease the tendency for iquation. Die castings of Al-bearing Mg alloys, however, often exhibit low melting point intermetallic constituents, such as Al,2Mgi7 (melting point at 642 °C), at grain boundaries which promote liquation in the HAZ. 5 Baeslack Ill et al.®? studied CO, laser welding of cast alloy WES4X indicating that the alloy may also be sensitive to HAZ liquation cracking, Near the fusion line, they observed a liquation of the intermetallic phase and additional melting into the surrounding matrix. On cooling, neodymium-and yttrium-rich liquid solidified to a lamellar eutectic structure at the grain boundaries, and fine intergranular cracks were observed in the HAZ along with some of these grain boundaries. Similarly, the HAZ liquation cracking was observed in ZE41A joints welded, as shown in Fig. 17.23.° The liquation cracking in the HAZ results from the formation of liquid films at grain boundaries adjacent to the fusion boundaries during the weld thermal cycles, and the inability ofthe liquid films to accommodate thermally induced stresses experienced during cooling.’ The cracks tend to disappear if they are refilled with the surrounding eutectic material of the low melting point.“ The liquation cracking needs to be further investigated in laser welding of magnesium alloys because alloy composition, welding processing parameters, solidification rate and weld joint geometry can all influence the tendency to crack.