Criteria for hot cracking evaluation in austenitic stainless steel welds using longitudinal varestraint and transvarestraint tests

nle longitudinal varestraint rest (LVT) and trans-varestraint test (TVT) ar e widely used for assessment of weld metal cracking susceptibility. The TVT is preferred over the LVT for study of weld metal cracking. However, few r eports exist that discuss the relative merits of the two tests for evaluati ng cracking susceptibility. This investigation was carried out to compare w eldability assessments using the two tests and the relevant criteria for we ldability evaluation. Several stainless steels solidifying in the austeniti c and ferritic solidification modes were tested The study shows that the LV T can be used for evaluation effusion zone cracking through a maximum crack ing distance criterion. This parameter correlated well with the maximum? cr ack length in the TVT, traditionally used to derive the brittleness tempera ture range (BTR). The study further indicates that the total crack length c an be related to the BTR by considering the area density of cracking. (C) 2 000 IoM Communications Ltd.