The minimum necessary preheat temperature is predicted based on a method describ

ed in the following paper:

N. Yurioka and T. Kasuya: "A chart method to determine necessary preheat in stee
l welding"
Welding in the World, vol. 35 (1995), p. 327-334
The validity of this method is compared with the British Standard and American W
elding Society method:
N. Yurioka: "Comparison of preheat predictive methods"
Welding in the World, vol. 48 (2004), p. 21-27
The objective of preheating is to effuse diffusible hydrogen out of welds to pre
vent hydrogen-assisted cold cracking. The occurrence of cold cracking is influen
ced by the following factors:
Chemical composition of steel;
Plate thickness or wall thickness;
Weld metal diffusible hydrogen content
Welding heat input
Welding residual stresses or weld metal yield strength
Weld joint restraint
Notch concentration factor at weld toe and weld root or groove shape
Weld pass number
Preheating method (Heating rate, heating width)
Ambient temperature
Immediate postheating
The present predictive method considers most of the factors above mentioned.
1. Chemical composition of steel
The following carbon equivalent has been long used as an index representing the
susceptibility to cold cracking. or weldability.
CE(IIW) = C + Mn/6 + (Cu + Ni)/15 + (Cr + Mo + V)/5 [wt%]
This carbon equivalent satisfactorilly evaluates weldability whose carbon conten
t is higher than 0.12%. Modern low alloy steel is mostly of a carbon reduced typ
e (C <= 0.12%). Weldability of this type of steel is more adequetly evaluated by
the following carbon equivalent.
Pcm = C + Si/30 + Mn/20 + Cu/20 + Ni/60 + Cr/20 + Mo/15 +V/10 + 5B [wt%]
Susceptibility to cold cracking is determined by hardness of welds (HAZ and weld
metal). The weld hardness is determined by an interactive effect of weld harden
ability and carbon content. The following carbon equivalent considers this effec
t and can evaluates weldability of steel with a wide range of carbon.
CEn = C + f(C) { Si/24 + Mn/6 + Cu/15 + Ni/20 + (Cr + Mo + Nb + V)/5 } [wt%]
where, f(C) = 0.5 + 0.25 tanh { 20 (C - 0.12) } [wt%]
With decreasing carbon content, f(C) decreases from 1.0 to 0.5. Therefore, CEn i
s close to CE(IIW) when C is higher than 0.15% and CEn approaches to as a carbon
content decreases. The present preheat predictive method uses CEn carbon equiva
lent. CEn is stipulated in ASTM A1005/A-00 and ASME B16.49-2000.
2. Plate thickness and wall thickness
With increasing plate thickness, 1) the welding cooling rate increases (welding
cooling time, t8/5 decreases) and thus, weld hardenability is raised; 2) the wel
ding cooling time to 100C, t100 decrease and thus, an oppotunity of effusion of d
iffusible hydrogen from weld metal decreases; 3) the welding pass (layer) increa
ses and thus the amount of hydrogen accumulated in weld metal is raised. These e
ffects raises a risk of the occurence of cold cracking.
3. Weld metal diffusible hydrogenWeld metal diffusible hydrogen
Weld metal hydrogen is one of the important factor in hydrogen-assisted cold cra
king. It is desired to use welding materials of low hydrogen types. A care must
be taken to prevent welding materials from being moistened and to clean weld gro
oves before welding.
The following is an example of the diffusible hydrogen content, H(IIW) for vario
us welding materials:
Rutile electrode : 30ml/100g
Cellulosic electrode : 60ml/100g
Low hydrogen electrode : 5 - 8ml/100g

Ultra low hydrogen electroed : 2 - 5ml/100g

TIG, Solid wire GMAW : 2ml/100g
Flux cored wire GMAW : 6 - 10ml/100g
SMAW : 2 - 8ml/100g
4. Welding heat input
With increasing heat input, the cooling rate decreases (the welding cooliing tim
e between 800 and 500C, t8/5 and welding cooling time to 100C, t100 increases) and
thus, a risk of the occurence of cold cracking is reduced. Roughly speaking, co
ld craking is a matter of concern only when heat input is not higher than 3kJ/mm
.
5. Welding residual stresses or weld metal yield strength
Welding residual stresses are one of the important factors in cold cracking. The
welding residual stresses often attain the yield strength of weld metal. Hydrog
en-assisted cold craking is more likely occur in welding of high strength steel
with using high strength welding materials.
6. Weld joint restraint
The weld joint restraint affects the cold cracking occurence in one-pass welding
. In multi-pass welding, the joint restraint influences cold cracking to much le
sser extent because a joint has been restrainted after root-pass welding. Very l
ow restraint may cause bending distrotion leading to high bending stresses in we
ld root. As a result, root cracking may be caused. The present predictive method
does not consider the effect of joint restraint.
7. Notch concentration factor at weld toe and weld root or groove shape
Cold cracking is more likely to occur at the root pass in the first side of doub
le bebel groove (K groove, X groove) because of a high notch concentaraion facto
r at the root. However, the root weld of the first side is generally gouged befo
re the start of second side welding. In welding with V groove and single-bevel g
roove, a notch concentration factor at the root is far less than that in double
bevel groove welding. Therefore, the present predictive method does not consider
the effect of a notch concentration factor.
In partical penetration welding with Y groove or single bebel groove, it is diff
icult to detect root cracking. Therefore, it is desired to employ the preheat te
mperature for repair welding.
8. The number of weld passes
In muti-pass welding, a root pass is reheated by subsequent passes so that resid
ual stresses as well as hydrogen in the root bead are reduced. As a result, root
craking is less likely to occure in multi-pass welding than in one-pass welding
.
This predictive method firstly gives the preheat temperature necessary to avoid
root craking in y-groove restraint testing in which a one-pass short bead is dep
osited with high restraint as well as high notch concentraions. This testing is
so sever that much higher preheat is required than in normal welding practices.
For nomal welding, this predictive method gives preheating temperatures much low
er than that for y-groove testing. For instance, the necessary preheating temper
ature for normal welding is 75C less than that for y-groove tesitng when YP380MPa
class steel is welded.
9. Welding residual stress
This predictive method considers the effect of welding residual stresses. The ma
ximum welding residual stress is considered to be close to the yield strength of
the weld metal. For higher strength steel, HAZ toe cracking, HAZ under bead cra
cking and weld metal transverse cracking are more likely other than root crackin
g. As mentioned above, the necesary preheat can be decreased from that obtained
by y-groove testing. However, the amount of this temperature reduction decreases
as the streel strength increases (the weld metal strength also increases and we
lding residual stress increases as well). For instance, the temperature reducito
n is 75C for YP360 steel and 0C for YP700 steel.
In this predictive method, the yield strength of weld metal has to be input. Whe
n it is unkown, the specified minimum yield strength of the steel may be input.
10. Preheating metho

The objective of preheating is to enhance the hydorgen evolution from a weld. Th

e effect of preheating increases as the width of preheating increases and the he
ating rate of preheating decrease. The preheating width over 200mm each side of
the groove is desired. The nessesary preheating temperature has to be increased
in the case of rapid preheating and narrow local preheating.
11. Ambient temperature
The occurence of cold cracking is significaltly affected by the ambient temperat
ure. The cracking is more likely at the lower tempertures. As for the determinat
ion of preheat at lower ambient temperatures, the following paper should be refe
rred to.
T. Kasuya and N. Yuiroka: "Determination of necessary preheat temperature to avo
id cold cracking under various ambient temperatrues", ISIJ International, vol. 3
5 (1995), No.10, p.1183-1189
12. Imediate post heating
Post heating immediately after welding is very effective for the hydrogen evolut
ion. When the predected necesary preheating temperature is escessively high, imm
ediate post heating shold be employed so that the necessary preheating tempertur
e could be reduced.
150 C for 95 hrs, or 200 C for 29 hrs, or 250 C for 12 hrs, or 300 C for 2 hrs.