Defect Tolerance of Steel Weldments

Welding has come to stay as an important fabrication technique since the past six decades, after its economy and productivity have been established. In the early days of fabrication by welding, statements like 'Welding promotes brittle failure' were often made to focus the attention towards the influence of weld defects. It is recorded in numerous documents of the international Institute of Welding that brittle as well as fatigue failures originated from weld defects, which acted as fracture initiation sites. Over the years, detailed investigations were carried out to understand the fracture behaviour of welded joints, particularly as to the significance of weld defects.