Evaluation of the thermomechanical conditions imposed during the Varestraint test

The Varestraint weldability test is widely used to approach the susceptibil ity of a material to hot cracking during welding. It consists in increasing the cracking of the material by bending during TIG remelting. The aim of t his study is to determine thermomechanical conditions for hot cracking and, further, to fit a hot cracking criterion for the material of concern. The possibilities of local instrumentation being limited in the are vicinity, t he experimental results are complemented by a numerical modelling of the th ermomechanical conditions of the test, which has the aim to precise a hot c racking criterion.