A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE INFLUENCE OF THICKNESS AND POST-WELD HEAT-TREATMENT FOR LARGE-SCALE WELDED-JOINTS

CTOD, Charpy, and wide plate results from welded constructional steels are collected from nine companies. The resulting large data bank is a nalyzed statistically to identify general trends in properties of weld ed constructional steels. The present paper uses the data bank to revi ew the effect of post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) on the fracture behav ior of the weldments. Analysis shows the beneficial effect of PWHT at all thicknesses. The results are subsequently used to question the nor mal practice of post-weld heat treating weldments of 50 mm and above i n thickness while leaving weldments of below 50 mm thick in the as wel ded condition. It is suggested that there is no significant difference in as welded fracture properties in weldments until thicknesses are w ell in excess of 100 mm.