Investigation on the Toughness of Steel Weldments Subjected to Deep Cryogenic Treatment Using Notch Tensile Specimen

Toughness property evaluation of a weldment is art important step in the analysis of welded structures. Many techniques are being employed for the improvement of welded joints' performance and their properties. This paper discusses the influence of cryogenic treatment on the improvement of toughness of weldments. Deep cryogenic treatment was given to the material and its effect on the toughness was studied by a notch tensile test. To investigate its influence, notched tensile test was conducted on the cryogenically treated weldments and post weld heat-treated weldments and the results were compared. Numerical analysis using finite element method was carried out to support the experimental results. Thermo-mechanical coupled field analysis was performed using ANSYS finite element code. It was found that the cryogenic treatment improved the toughness ofthe weld metal arid the heat affected zone (HAZ). The same result was also observed in the finite element analysis even though there was about 8% error between the experimental and finite element analysis.