A notched cross weld tensile testing method for determining true stress-strain curves for weldments

Cross weld tensile testing is widely used in the industry to qualify welds. In these conventional testing fracture load is measured and the location of fracture (weld metal, base metal or heat affected zone) is evaluated. Because the load-elongation curve depends on the location of fracture and the initial gauge length, it cannot be utilized in the failure assessment of weldments. Failure assessment of weldments requires input of true stress-strain behaviour for each material zone, In this paper, a notched cross weld tensile testing method is proposed for determining the true stress-strain curve for each material zone of a weldment. In the proposed method, cylindrical cross weld tensile specimens, with a notch located either in the weld metal, base metal or possibly heat affected zone are applied. Due to the notch, plastic deformation is forced to develop in the notched region. A load versus diameter reduction curve is recorded. It has been shown that the true strain at maximum load is independent of the notch geometry. Furthermore, the materials true stress-strain curve can be determined from the recorded load versus diameter reduction curve of a notched cross weld tensile specimen by dividing a geometry-factor G, which is approximated by a quadratic function of the specimen diameter to notch radius ratio and a linear function of the true strain at the maximum load. It is found that G is independent of the material zone length when the homogenous material length is larger or equal to the minimum diameter. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.