Prevention of Solidification Cracking
in Very Low Carbon Steel Welds
An increase in weld metal C and Ni is effective
in preventing cracking caused by S-phase solidification
BY S. OHSHITA, N. YURIOKA, N. MORI AND T. KIMURA
ABSTRACT. Contrary to the common
belief that weld solidification cracking
occurs in a higher carbon content region,
it was found that solidification cracking is
more likely to occur as the carbon con-
tent in the weld metal decreases. Under
the pipe girth-welding conditions with
SMAW (cellulosic electrode) and G M A W
(100% C0 2 ), the occurrence of this type
of cracking is influenced by the following
factors:
1. Carbon and nickel content of the
weld metal (cracking is prevented with an
increase in their amount).
2. Morphology of the solidified den-
dritic structure of the weld metal.
3. Travel speed (cracking never occurs
at the speed less than the critical level).
4. Joint restraint (the higher it is, the
more likely cracking occurs).
The main cause of this type of solidifi-
cation cracking is presumably 5-phase
solidification. It stems from the experi-
mental facts that:
1. Higher carbon and nickel contents
are beneficial to prevent cracking, and
2. Weld shrinkage, which is one of
factors of cracking, is raised by b-y trans-
formation of 5-phase solidified weld met-
al.
Based on the experimental results,
engineering charts were developed for
finding suitable welding conditions and
welding materials to avoid low-carbon
solidification cracking in weld metal.
Introduction
There is an increasing demand for
steels having both a higher toughness at
low temperatures and excellent weldabil-
ity—especially steels intended for pipe-
lines and offshore structures in cold cli-
mates and for pressure vessels in low
temperature service. To meet this
demand, steel companies have con-
ducted extensive metallurgical research
programs as part of efforts to develop
new steelmaking processes.
As verified by a recent report (Ref. 1),
the fracture toughness property of crack
tip opening displacement (CTOD) at the
weld heat-affected zone (HAZ) is
improved by reducing the steel's carbon
equivalent and especially the carbon con-
tent.
Low-alloy high strength steel with a
lower carbon content is known to furnish
higher resistance to cold cracking. Struc-
tural steel, which is weldable without
preheat and reported to be crack-free, is
generally of a low alloy type with a
carbon content less than 0.07% or there-
abouts (Ref. 2). From a standpoint of
improving weldability, reducing the car-
bon content of steel is an inevitable
trend.
For steel structures exposed in corro-
sive environments, the control of weld
heat-affected zone hardness to less than
a certain level is required. This require-
ment is imposed to avoid the occurrence
of stress-corrosion cracking during ser-
vice. However, it is not an easy task to
reduce HAZ hardness, especially when
welding with a very low heat-input as
experienced in vertical-down or over-
head welding. In such welding, a post-
weld cooling rate becomes so high that
HAZ microstructures are fully martensitic.
As the following formula by Beckert, et
al. (Ref. 3), indicates, the HAZ hardness of
Based on a paper presented at the 63rd A WS
Annual Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, dur-
ing April 26-30, 1982, under the title, "Solidifi-
cation Cracking in Welding Very-Low Carbon
Steel"
S. OHSHITA is Research Engineer, N. YURIOKA
is Senior Researcher, and N. MORI is Chief
Researcher, Products R&D Laboratories, Nip-
pon Steel Corporation; and 77 KIMURA is with
the Kimitsu Works, Nippon Steel Corporation,
Japan.
WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT 1129-s
a martensitic structure is determined to
be a function of carbon content alone:
HV(Vickers hardness) =
939 [%C] + 284 (1)
Therefore, the carbon content in steel
should be lowered to meet the HAZ
hardness requirement, if postweld heat
treatment is not employed.
The carbon content in newly devel-
oped steel tends to be reduced in order
to satisfy the strong demand for high
toughness, high resistance to cold crack-
ing, and lower HAZ hardness concurrent-
ly. However, the authors recently found
that low-carbon steels are somewhat sus-
ceptible to solidification cracking when
they are welded with filler metals of
very-low carbon.
The objectives of the study described
in this paper were to find the main causes
of low-carbon solidification cracking and
to develop engineering charts which can
be used to determine suitable welding
conditions in the welding of low-carbon
steel.
Experimental Procedure
Materials
Piping with large diameters as well as
flat plates was used in the weld cracking
tests. The plate thicknesses ranged
between 15.2 and 25.0 mm. Wall thick-
nesses of the piping ranged between
15.9 and 19.1 mm, and outer diameters
were 609 mm (24 in.) and 1219 mm (48
in.). The chemical compositions of the
steel plates and pipes are shown in Table
1. These are mainly API-5LX-X60 and X-70
grade of line-pipe steels except for steels
FH and FJ which are ordinary structural
steels.
The carbon contents of these steels
ranged between 0.011 and 0.192%. A
very low carbon level less than 0.04%
 was provided by low-carbon bainitic
steels PA, PB, FA and FB in Table 1. The
low-carbon bainitic steel possesses excel-
lent weldability even in very low heat
input and high hydrogen cellulosic elec-
trode welding; also, it furnishes sufficient-
ly high toughness in its HAZ (Ref. 4). The
3.5% Ni steel, FJ, which is for a low
temperature use, was selected to exam-
ine an effect of Ni on the weld solidifica-
tion cracking.
Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW)
and gas metal arc welding (GMAW) were
employed. In SMAW, cellulosic elec-
trodes ranging from AWS E6010 to E9010
Restraint weld
Fig. 1 — Test A root-of-weld specimen
grades were used. In GMAW, 100% C 0 2
was used as shielding gas, and electrode
diameters were 0.9 mm (0.035 in.). The
chemical compositions of the welding
materials examined by the all-weld metal
tests are shown in Table 2.
The cellulosic electrodes and the
G M A W electrodes from GA to GD in
Table 2 were commercially available. The
remaining G M A W electrodes with car-
bon contents higher than 0.17% were
produced from laboratory-melted ingots.
Electrode HH was of 2.4% Ni type.
Test Piece and Pipe
As summarized in Table 3, tests A and
B employed SMAW and tests C, D, E and
F employed GMAW. A single root weld
pass (stringer bead) was made for tests A
to E. In tests A and D, a hot pass was also
made following root bead deposition,
and only a hot pass was deposited in test
F. Test A used flat plate specimens with
restraint welds as shown in Fig. 1. A 60
deg V-groove was used in test A; the
groove had a 1.5 mm (0.06 in.) root face
and 1.5 mm (0.06 in.) root opening as
shown in Fig. 2. This groove shape is
normally used in vertical-down welding
with cellulosic electrodes.
Test B was a girth-weld test on pipes.
The groove shape was the same as that
used in test A. Two pipes with pipe
length of 1.0 m (39.4 in.) were tack-
welded, followed by downhill root weld-
ing by three welders for pipes with 1.22
m (4 ft) outer diameter and by t w o
welders with 0.61 m (2 ft) diameter pipe.
The restraint against joint shrinkage in test
B was somewhat less than that of test A
with restraint welds.
]
1.5—1|— (mm unit)
Fig. 2 — Groove shape for test A specimen

Table 1 - -Chemical Compositions of Steels

Thick., Chemical composi ions. %

Symbol Steel Shape mm C Si Mn P S Cu Ni Cr Mo V Nb Ti B
PA BNT (1) Pipe 15.9 .020 .16 1.83 .023 .003 - — - - — .043 .017 .0013
PB BNT (2) do. 15.9 .034 .16 1.61 .016 .003 .29 .17 - - - .046 .016 .0010
PC Cr-V-Nb (1) do. 15.9 .039 .21 1.06 .016 .001 - - .48 — .069 .037 .013 -
PD Cr-V-Nb (2) do. 15.9 .065 .25 1.08 .009 .001 - — .42 — .069 .037 .017 -
PE V-Nb do. 15.9 .072 .24 1.57 .018 .003 - .22 - — .071 .044 .018 —
PF Ti do. 15.9 .090 .29 1.57 .015 .005 - .17 - - — - .077 -
PC Mn-V-Nb do. 19.1 .192 .27 1.31 .016 .013 - - — - .045 .041 - -
FA BNT (1) Plate 22.0 .011 .15 1.87 .022 .007 - - - - - .042 .020 .0010
FB BNT (2) do. 15.9 .034 .16 1.61 .016 .003 .29 .17 — - - .046 .016 .0010
FC AF(1) do. 18.3 .021 .30 1.61 .014 .002 - .20 - .20 .072 .038 .013 -
FD AF(2) do. 18.3 .048 .28 1.57 .017 .001 - .18 - .18 .073 .040 .011 —
FE V-Nb (1) do. 15.2 .072 .24 1.57 .018 .003 - .22 - — .071 .044 .018 -
FF V-Nb (2) do. 16.5 .098 .33 1.49 .017 .004 - .27 - - .074 .048 - -
FG Ti do. 15.7 .090 .29 1.57 .015 .005 - .17 - - — - .077 -
FH Si-Mn-V do. 20.0 .166 .33 1.39 .025 .011 - - — — .028 — - -
FI Mn-V-Nb do. 19.1 .192 .27 1.31 .016 .013 - - - - .045 .041 — -
FI 3.5Ni do. 25.0 .030 .60 .50 .008 .004 - 3.52 — .10 - - - -

Table 2—All-Weld Metal Chemical Compositions of Welding Materials

Chemical compositions, %
^~~ Welding method Symbol C Si Mn P S Ni Cr Mo
r-
Z HA .12 .14 .35 .011 .016 .04 .03 .57
LU
:> HB .18 .24 .98 .014 .008 .02 .02 —
Q. HC .24 .20 1.01 .014 .011 .24 .25 —
o HD .11 .21 .62 .019 .012 .02 .04 -
LU SMAW HE .14 .12 .88 .021 .012 .23 .02 -
>
_l
(Cellulose type — HF .14 .11 .75 .014 .007 .21 .02 .22
LU
Q 4.0 mm diameter HC .09 .14 .40 .015 .011 .02 .02 -
X electrode) HH .12 .20 .49 .013 .012 2.40 - .18
o GA .04 .53 1.01 .005 .012 - - —
oc
< GB .09 .94 1.53 .006 .004 - - —
LU
V) GC .24 .50 1.40 .008 .007 - - -
LU GD .14 .50 1.40 .009 .006 — - —
OC GMAW GE .17 .85 1.37 .004 .005 - — -
(100% c o 2 GF .23 .86 1.38 .001 .005 - - -
0.9 mm diameter GG .29 .87 1.38 .002 .004 - — —
electrode) GH .33 .87 1.41 .002 .005 — — —

130-S | M A Y 1983
 mm unit)
(mm unit)

'Copper backing
22.5'
Fig. 3 — Test C root-of-weld specimen Fig. 4 - Groove shape for test C specimen Fig. 5 — Test D root and hot weld specimen

G M A W with 100% C 0 2 shielding was
used to prepare the test C specimen
shown in Fig. 3; the groove shape with
copper backing is shown in Fig. 4. In
order to obtain a good form of root bead
in the inner side of a pipe (the back side
for a flat plate) in GMAW, a small back-
side groove with a 45 deg angle and a 2.5
mm (0.1 in.) depth was made as shown in
Fig. 4.
Test D also employed a G M A W pro-
cess; shapes of the test piece and joint
geometry are shown in Figs. 5 and 6,
respectively. Unlike other tests involving
single-groove welding, test D employed
double groove welding —that is, a root
pass was deposited in a 45 deg V-groove
in a flat welding position and then the test
specimen was turned over for hot-pass
U-groove welding, also in a flat posi-
tion.
Test E was a girth-weld test involving
the same groove shape as that of test C
and a fully automatic welding process
(Ref. 5). This mechanized process used an
inner clamper with a 500-ton oil pressure
to set two bevelled pipes in a favorite
state for root welding. Therefore, groove
restraint in test E is comparable with that
in test C. Pipes with outer diameter of
610 mm (2 ft) and wall thickness of 15.9
mm (0.63 in.) were used in test E. For test
F, a flat plate with a 60 deg V-groove was
used —Figs. 7 and 8. This test was con-
ducted to examine the occurrence of
solidification cracking in hot passes and
filler passes in the girth welding.
In order to compare the joint restraint
in the test methods listed in Table 3, the
shrinkage of joints in the direction per-
pendicular to the welding line was mea-
sured by a contact-type strain gauge. The
contact balls were inserted in the back
side of the plates and the inner side of
pipes. The gauge length was 20 mm (0.79
in.), and the amount of shrinkage was
obtained by measuring the change in the
gauge length after welding.
Welding Conditions
The welding conditions for each test
method are summarized in Table 4. The
SMAW employed cellulosic electrodes
with 4 mm (0.16 in.) diameter, and the
travel speed ranged from 4 to 9.8 mm/s
(9.4 to 23.2 ipm). The higher travel speed
was obtained in the completely vertical-
down position —that is, the 3 o'clock
Table 3—Solidification Weld Cracking Test Methods
SMAW (cellulose electrode)
A. Root weld test in V-groove in plate
(Figs. 1 and 2)
position in pipe welding. The travel speed
in G M A W with 0.9 mm (0.04 in.) elec-
trode ranged from 3.3 to 26.7 mm/s (7.9
to 63 ipm).
Results and Discussion
Morphology of Solidification Cracking
In pipe-girth welds having very low
carbon contents, cracks were detected
by radiographic testing after the comple-
tion of root welding. Figure 9 shows a
macrograph of this crack in a root weld
made using a cellulosic electrode (test A).
For all practical purposes, root solidifica-
tion cracks disappeared by subsequent
hot pass deposition (Fig. 10) which was
taken from a root-and-hot pass bead in
test A.
Figure 11 shows an example of crack-
ing initiated at a root bead by a GMAW
process with copper backing (test C). In
this case, heat flowed in t w o dimen-
sions—to the base metal (horizontal) and
to the Cu backing (vertical). Thus, den-
dritic structures of weld metal grew in
GMAW (C02)
C. Root weld test with Cu backing in
plate (Figs. 3 and 4)

Root weld test in pipe girth welding D. Root weld test in pipe girth welding
610—1219 mm O.D. X \ with Cu backing
(15.9—19.1 mm thick. I
Groove shape: Fig. 2 / ( 610 mm O.D. X 15.9 mm thick.\
Groove shape: Fig. 4 I

E. Hot pass test in V-groove in plate

(Figs. 5 and 6)
Fig. 6 — Groove shape for test D specimen

Table 4—Welding Conditions

Welding Carbon content, % Current, Travel speed,

Method Test Method Position Base Metal Weld Material A mm/min
;MAW A. Root in plate Vertic 0.01-0.19 0.11-0.24 140-190 290-560
ellulose) B. Root in pipe down 0.02-0.09 0.08-0.18 140-200 240-590
All

C. Root in plate Flat 0.01-0.16 0.04-0.33 220-300 400-1,600

3MAW D. Root and hot in plate Flat 0.01-0.09 0.04 200 and 250 400-1,600
(C0 2 ) E. Root in pipe All 0.02-0.09 0.04-0.33 200-300 300-1,500
F. Hot in plate Flat 0.02-0.16 0.-0.33 250 200-1,000

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT 1131-s

 t w o directions. Solidification cracking pieces sectioned from welds as shown in
occurred at the position where horizon- Figs. 9-13. The reason was that the
tally growing dendrites finally meet each macroscopic observation made it possi-
other (a head-on collision type of dendrit- ble to distinguish between solidification
ic growth). In test D, solidification crack- cracks and cold cracks. The result of the
ing never occurred in root-pass beads. solidification cracking tests, under the
Q. Furthermore, this type of cracking rarely welding conditions shown in Table 4 and
O (mm unit) occurred in hot-pass beads in test D or in the various combinations of steels and
LU
the modified hot-pass weld test (test F) as welding materials shown in the Tables 1
> Fig. 7 — Test F hot pass specimen
shown in Figs. 12 and 13, respectively. and 2 are summarized in Figs. 16 to 20.
For all cracks in tests A to F, surfaces In Figs. 16 to 20, data are plotted with
X were observed by a scanning electron respect to t w o factors — namely, travel
o 30- microscope (SEM). SEM observation speed (mm/min) and weld metal carbon
<
LU
X clearly showed that cracks initiated at the content (%). The latter factor is deter-
to final solidification sites were typical types mined by the carbon contents of base
LU
CC
J^thiok. of weld solidification cracks as shown in metal and filler metal, the base metal
the SEM micrograph appearing in dilution rate and the welding process.
Fig. 14. These relationships obtained by chemical
The present tests did not employ pre- analyses of weld metals are shown in Figs.
0. Fig. 8 — Groove shape ior test F specimen heat treatments. As a result, cold cracks 21 and 22.
o (one type of hydrogen-induced crack) The result for test A (root weld test in
_J
LU
occurred in the welding of higher carbon flat plates) is shown in Fig. 16. Where 5
> content steels and/or welding materials. denotes the amount of joint shrinkage
Figure 15 shows an example of a cold measured by the contact-type strain
X crack that occurred in the weld metal; gauge. These values ranged between
o this evidently differed from the solidifica-
oc 0.30 and 0.35 mm (0.010 and 0.014 in.) in
< tion crack in a cracking initiation site and a
LU
tf) propagating path.
LU Weld solidification cracking is initiated
o: near the solidification temperature, and
i-
z thus it occurs immediately after welding.
LU
O n the other hand, the cold crack is
initiated when minutes or hours elapse
o after the completion of welding and a
_J
LU weld cools near the ambient tempera-
> ture. Therefore, the initiation of cold
Fig. 9-Macrograph of root bead with a solid- cracking does not influence, absolutely,
X ification crack in test A the occurrence of the solidification crack-
o ing.
oc
<
LU
Effect of Travel Speed and Weld Metal
Carbon Content
. • » • • " »
a? - j j ^ ^ . •.;..; • ~*. :~:;m • The occurrence of solidification crack-
z . :.:; X ...
:- lit ^**{Wm ing was determined not only radiograph-
LU
* ,.• ' . ? ically, but macroscopically by observing
s : -: '
CL 7 \ jgajj]
o
_J
:':7a;
LU

> M M M ^
X
o 3 ram
ce Fig. 13—Macrograph of modified hot-pass
<
LU bead in test F
c/>
LU Fig. 10—Macrograph of root-and-hot pass
ce bead in test A

a.
O
_i
LU
>
LU

a
o
<
LU
00
LU
CC

Fig. 11 —Macrograph of root bead with Fig. 12—Macrograph of root-and-hot pass Fig. 14 —Scanning electron micrograph of sur-
solidification crack in test C bead in test D face of a solidification crack

132-s I M A Y 1983

y ^ 7. -y*v^z*2kJL~ -';'.
A- -
4-
3 nim
%. 15—Macrograph of root bead with a cold
crack in test A
test A. Figure 16 reveals that the solidifi-
cation cracking occurred as the carbon
content in a weld metal became less than
0.07% and the travel speed exceeded 5.5
mm/s (13 ipm). Also, the use of 3.5% Ni
steel (steel FJ in Table 1) or 2.5% Ni
electrode (electrode HH in Table 2) great-
ly reduced likelihood of solidification
cracking. Since the base metal dilution
rate was about 58% in test A (see Appen-
dix), nickel contents in weld metal were
1.97% for the 3.5% Ni steel and 1.06% for
the 2.5% Ni electrode.
The same tendency was observed for
the pipe girth-welding with cellulosic
electrodes —Fig. 17. However, the critical
carbon content decreased to 0.06% in
this case. The decrease in the critical
carbon content can be attributed to the
lower restraint intensity of a joint in the
pipe girth-welding, where the measured
shrinkage ranged between 0.35 and 0.50
mm (0.014 and 0.02 in.). As seen in Figs.
16 and 17, solidification cracking is not
initiated when travel speed is under 5.5
mm/s (13 ipm). It follows that the crack-
ing is not expected in the welding with
low-hydrogen electrodes since they are
generally used with travel speeds less
than 4.2 mm/s (9.8 ipm).
Since the SMAW process in present
study employed high-hydrogen type
electrodes, cold cracks were observed in
a higher carbon region in Figs. 16 and 17.
In this case, cold cracking occurred in
either HAZ of base metal or weld metal
as shown in Fig. 15, depending on which
contained a higher carbon, base metal or
weld metal.
G M A W results are shown in Fig. 18 for
test C (root weld pass in flat base metal)
and in Fig. 19 for test E (root weld pass in
girth welding). As in the case of SMAW,
solidification cracking was likely to occur
as the carbon content decreased and
travel speed increased. The critical car-
bon content was 0.10% for the flat base
metal tests and 0.08% for the pipe girth-
welding. This difference can be also
attributed to the difference in the amount
of joint shrinkage.
Unlike SMAW, no cold cracking was
observed in G M A W welds in a whole
carbon range because of a very low
amount of hydrogen generated in this
process. However, weld metal hardness
significantly increased with an increase in
a carbon content as expected from equa-
tion (1).
Effect of Dendrite Growth Direction and
Restraint
In the root weld pass tests utilizing the
grooves of Figs. 2 and 4, solidification
cracking was more likely to occur than in
other tests. As seen in Figs. 9 and 11,
cracking was initiated along the lines
where the primary dendrites growing
from both of the groove edges collided
head-on at the last stage of solidification
in the root pass welds. O n the other
hand, cracking never occurred in the root
pass welds in test D, and the critical line
for solidification cracking goes to a lower
carbon side in the hot-pass welds (test F)
as shown in Fig. 20. This type of cracking
is, thus, hardly expected to occur in the
weld passes including hot and filler passes
subsequent to the root pass in the all
welding processes.
In these cases, solidified dendrites
grew up parallel at the final solidification
stage as seen in Figs. 10, 12 and 13. A
climb-up (to the pipe-wall thickness direc-
tion) growth of primary dendrites is con-
sidered to change direction of the weld
shrinkage upwards so that transverse
shrinkage can be partly relieved. In con-
clusion, the morphology of the solidified
dendritic structure is one of the main
factors to cracking. It should be thus
noted that the cracking zone shown in
Fig. 19 probably varies depending on a
type of GMAW process employed, since
dendrite growth in weld metal is greatly
affected by a backing method and oth-
ers.
Although shrinkage of weld metal,

I I 1 1 I I I

1 r •
- o -
SMAW Root in plate SMAW Root in pipe
A
S=0.30~0.35mm • d- =0.35~0.50mm
•
500-
500 •
- • -
o t•
c •• §
E • o 0
• * \ o o o - > -
S 88 CD
400 4 0 0- -
T\*>o o0° ° o oJF 0
"O
- -
<D
CB D « / 06o o o _
o
o
CD
Q_ A I
Q.
CO
S
• Jo °0 O O °

0„0_
CQo CO

<x>
>
- fj o
o 8
>
re
o.
- *E ° o
oI c o
300 i 300 - / o o —
o ' o o o o O 0
0
o
o no crack. - o o o
• crack. _ o no crack. 1
• no crack (3.5Ni Steel) • crack.
A no crack (2.5Ni Electrode)
200 200 1 1 i i i i
0.10 0.20
0 0.10 0.20
Carbon Content in Weld Metal {%)
— Carbon Content in Weld Metal {%)
Fig. 16 - Critical conditions for solidification cracking in SMA W root Fig. 17-Critical conditions for solidification cracking in SMAW root
beads in plate — test A beads in pipe — test B

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT 1133-s

 1 1 1 i i r 1 — I 1

OOi 0
GMAW
1500 Root in pipe
1500
5=0.21-0.35mm
- • • o «oo o

1
-
• • C*
1 CD O O C D O O O -
o o o

c
E
1000 - • • O |oO O O CD O O —
~E 1000 o o o
E
"O
<D
<D
- 1 o •o
Q. CD
CD • o<
oo
CO - • • l o o o o o o O.
CO
~~D
> - •5 / O O oo
re - /
>
- • 0 / o o ooo

500 - • .a^CD O O — 500 o

- o o
GMAW Root in plate
o o no crack.
S=0.15~0.22mm "
_ o no crack. _ • crack.
• crack.

1 i i i

0.10 0.20 0.10 0.20

Carbon Content in Weld Metal {%) -*• Carbon Content in Weld Metal (%)
Fig. 18 — Critical conditions for solidification cracking in GMA W root beads Fig. 19 - Critical conditions for solidification cracking in GMA W root
in plate — test C beads in pipe — test E

itself, is a major factor, external restraint

i i i i • 1 ! ! i 1
opposing the weld shrinkage is also
important. In SMA and GMA welding,
1500 which usually employ relatively low heat-
GMAW
input, a root opening tends to close (Ref.
Hot in plate 6). This rotational distortion allows weld
metal to shrink freely. If joint restraint
exists, free shrinkage is suppressed to
some extent and the initiation of solidifi-
cation cracking is facilitated.
c The joint shrinkage b in the 20 mm
'E (0.79 in.) gauge length was measured in
E each test to investigate an effect of joint
E 1000 <2» CO o o o o- restraint on solidification cracking. The
results showed that higher restraint sup-
•• oo - pressed joint shrinkage and facilitated the
CD
CD occurrence of cracking. However, b is
Q_ oo»o ooo o o o o - not influenced by restraint alone. It is also
CD

"55 • OCD
I OO
a function of the welding heat-input and
the thickness of weld metal (Ref. 7). In
> 1 present experiments, the travel speed
ca
1 o o o o o- was greatly changed and thus heat-input
• o o ooo was changed.
500 / o o Consequently, b itself cannot be an
• cm co appropriate parameter to evaluate solidi-
CCCD - fication cracking, and it should be cor-
rected by a heat-input and other meth-
o o - ods. Whatever may be the amount of
o no crack. joint shrinkage, however, the restraint
oo • crack. - intensity of a joint furnished only a minor
effect on the solidification cracking, while
the welding speed, carbon content in
weld metal and direction of dendrite
r\ 1 i i i i growth are major factors.
0 0.10 0.20
— + • Carbon Content in Weld Metal <°- ) Effect of Alloying Element

Fig. 20-Critical conditions for solidification cracking In GMAW hot-pass welds in plate-test F It had been the common belief that

134-s | M A Y 1983
 0.30 1 1 1 1 [ 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.30 I I I I I I I I I I I I

Q
CJ O

"ro / / y
ro
CD S/
o
- o GA
'/// ' / ~
• GB
s /
* GO
0.20 o HA
.*>' 0.20 - » GD A/A
• HB / / / ° GE
x HC 9,//' " • GF / /ly
- ° HE c * GG Yss '
/A' V CD
V/JT'
o _ * HF 0 / -4-a
C
o GH
O ^'aA o ,s*o ,
* HD , ^ ' \ oc ^/.s*'
o
°o'^ x
(C)o = (C]o - o HA'/
m A"
-O
/•' /
O * 0.10 s •
<D
SW» Dilution Rate: 5 8 %
4&«/ Dilution Rate: 5 6 %
'Kv CO
S&'
^./*o ro
• /»* CD
ssy - A/*'* [C]D=0.58[C]Base+0.42[C]wire
/ / ' . a
/ / / [C]D=0.56[C]Base+0.44[C]a„(1epo "
X
/ / i , i 1 i S ~~— [C]D=0.89[C]D+0.02
0.10 0.20 0 : I I : I I I [ I 1

0 0.10 0.20
Carbon Content in Weld Metal Estimated
Carbon Content in Weld Metal Estimated
from Dilution R a t e , ( C ] D ( % )
from Dilution R a t e , ( C ] D ( % )
Fig. 21 — Relationship between measured and estimated carbon Fig. 22 — Relationship between measured and estimated carbon content in
content in SMAW root bead deposited in plate and pipe using GMA W root bead in plate and pipe deposited using groove shape shown in
groove shape shown in Fig. 2 Fig. 4

steel welds with higher carbon contents
were more susceptible to the solidifica-
tion cracking. However, the present
study showed that the solidification
cracking, on the contrary, was more
likely to occur as carbon content
decreased. The solidification cracking did
not occur in weld metals with carbon
contents as high as 0.23% which was
obtained by using electrode wires with
0.33% carbon.
In the equilibrium state, which is never
attained in welding with rapid heating
and cooling, steels solidify in a 5-phase
state when they contain carbon contents
less than 0.09%. When the steels trans-
form from b to y (austenitic) phase during
cooling, transformation shrinkage occurs.
The lateral shrinkage at the transforma-
tion from b to y is 0.0011 (Ref. 8).
Although it is a very small amount, the
transformation raises the shrinkage of
solidified metals so that steels with very
low carbon content become susceptible
to the solidification cracking.
Alloying elements such as Al, Cr, Si, Ti,
Mo, V, W and Zr are known as 5-phase
stabilizing elements in steels. C, Ni, Mn
and Cu are 7-phase stabilizing elements.
Wada (Ref. 9) proposed the carbon
equivalent which expressed the ele-
ment's contribution to 7-phase solidifica-
tion of steel welds as:
Ni Mn
CE7T = C 4- — + + The solidification cracking is facilitated
28 110
Cu Si Mo Cr
83 15
Equation (2) predicts that C and Ni are
most beneficial to prevent solidification
cracking enhanced by 5-phase solidifica-
tion. This is verified by the experiments in
the present study as shown in Fig. 16.
Prevention of Lower Carbon Solidification
Cracking
Low-alloy high-strength steels of very
low carbon content furnish improved
fracture toughness at low temperatures,
excellent weldability (resistance to cold
cracking), and lower HAZ hardness in
very low heat-input welding. However,
precautions have to be taken to avoid
lower carbon solidification cracking.
Although this cracking is likely to occur in
a root weld pass, it disappears in most
cases by subsequent weld pass deposi-
tion.
The engineering charts in Figs. 16 to 20
are useful for finding crack-free condi-
tions, depending on the welding method
to be employed. The relations between
carbon contents of weld metal, base
metal, and welding material shown in
Figs. 21 and 22 are also used to select
steel and/or welding material so that
welding can be carried out in the crack-
free region with respect to the weld
metal carbon content.
Conclusion
in the roots of welds of butt joints when
(2) filler metals of low carbon content are
21 76 employed for low-carbon steel base met-
als. Welding tests were conducted under
the combination of various steels and
filler metals with SMAW and G M A W
processes in order to find suitable condi-
tions for preventing this type of solidifica-
tion cracking. Findings are as follows:
1. Solidification cracking is prevented
when the carbon content of the weld
metal is more than the critical value,
which varies between 0.05 and 0.10%
depending on the welding conditions.
2. The occurrence of solidification
cracking is influenced by morphology of
the solidified dendritic structure of the
weld metal. A head-on collision type of
dendritic structure is very susceptible to
cracking.
3. Solidification cracking never occurs
when travel speed is less than the critical
level.
4. Cracking is more likely to occur
with higher restraint intensity of joints,
although this is not a major factor.
5. An increase in C and Ni contents is
very effective to prevent cracking.
6. c5-phase solidification is a cause of
this type of cracking.
References
1. Horiya, T., Gondo, H., and Mimura H.
1982. Effect of chemical composition on COD
characteristics of weld heat-affected zone.
Trans. Iron and Steel Institute of japan 22 (4).

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT 1135-s

 2. Suzuki, H. 1976. Recent Japanese high
strength steels for large welded structures.
Weld, in the World 14 (11/12):246-265.
3. Beckert, B., and Holz, R. 1973. Use of the
carbon equivalent and prediction of the weld
heat-affected zone hardness. Schweiss Tech-
nik 23 (8):344-350.
4. Nakasugi, H., Matsuda, H., and Tamehiro
H. 1980. Development of controlled-rolled
bainitic steel for large-diameter line pipe. Intl.
Conference on Steel Rolling by The Iron and
Steel Institute of Japan: 1028-1039
5. Nippon Steel develops automatic field
welder. 1980. Pipe Line Industry. 53(5):39-40.
6. Masubuchi, K. 1970. Control of distor-
tion and shrinkage in welding. WRC Bulletin
149.
7. White, |. D „ Leffatt, R. H„ and Dwight, J.
B. Weld shrinkage prediction. Welding and
Metal Fabrication 48 (11): 587-596.
8. Briggs, C. W . 1946. The Metallurgy of
Steel Casting: 167. New York: McGraw Hill.
9. Wada T. 1967. On the carbon equivalent
for 7-phase solidification and 5-phase solidifica-
tion. / japan Welding Society. 36 (3): 319.
Appendix
The chemical compositions of steels
used in the cracking tests are shown in
Table 1. Table 2 shows the all-weld metal
chemical compositions of cellulosic elec-
trodes and GMAW electrodes. Figures
21 and 22 show the relationship between
the measured contents in weld metal and
those estimated from the dilution rates in
SMAW and in GMAW, respectively. In
the root weld made with cellulosic elec-
trodes (SMAW) using the groove shape
shown in Fig. 2 the base metal dilution
rate was estimated to be 56% on an
average from chemical analysis of carbon
and other elements.
Therefore, the carbon content of a
weld metal, [ C ] D can be calculated from
that of base steel [Cjbase and that of
welding material [C]aii-depo as:
[C] D = 0.56 [C] base +
(A-1)
0.44 [CJaii-depo
This relation was satisfactorily verified
by chemical analyses of weld metals in
the cracking tests as shown in Fig. 21.
The average dilution rate was about
58% for G M A W root welds with groove
shapes shown in Fig. 4. In CO2 welding,
some carbon comes into the weld metal
from shielding gas and, therefore, the
following relationship between [ C ] D ,
[C]base metal/ and [C]fj||er metal holds
[ C ] D = 0.89 { 0.58 [C] bas e metal + , , ,a
0.42[C] f i l , e r m e t a l } + 0.02 * A ' Z>
This equation also coincides satisfactorily
with the experimental results.

WRC Bulletin 283

February, 1983
A Critical Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Growth Measurement Techniques for Elevated Temperature
Applications
by A. E. Carden

The report contains a discussion and evaluation of several crack length measurement techniques at
elevated t e m p e r a t u r e and presents results f r o m the experimental technique developed at the University
of Alabama.
Publication of this report was sponsored by the Subcommittee on Cyclic and Creep Behavior of
Components of the Pressure Vessel Research C o m m i t t e e of the Welding Research Council.
The price of WRC Bulletin 283 is $12.00 per copy, plus $5.00 for postage and handling
(foreign 4- $8.00). Orders should be sent with payment to t h e Welding Research Council, 345 East 4 7 t h
St., Room 1 3 0 1 , New York, NY 10017.

WRC Bulletin 282

November, 1982
Elastic-Plastic Buckling of Axially Compressed Ring Stiffened Cylinders—Test vs. Theory
by D. Bushnell

Concern for the safety of nuclear plants and offshore structures has stimulated efforts to
determine buckling characteristics of stiffened cylindrical steel shells.
In this paper, BOSOR 5 c o m p u t e r programs were used to predict buckling loads of f o r t y axially
compressed mild steel cylindrical shells previously tested at Chicago Bridge & Iron Co.
Publication of this report was sponsored by the Subcommittee on Shells of the Pressure Vessel
Research C o m m i t t e e of the Welding Research Council.
The price of WRC Bulletin 2 8 2 is $10.75 per copy plus $3.00 for postage and handling (foreign +
$5.00). Orders should be sent with payment to the Welding Research Council, 345 E. 4 7 t h St., Room
1301, New York, NY 10017.

136-s | M A Y 1983