CHAPTER 9 METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION AND

FRACTOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
9.1 Microstructure Examination

Microstructures of unwelded, welded and weld repaired plates were evaluated by

means of optical and scanning electronic microscopy (HITACHI S-2250N). Sections
for metallographic examination were cut transverse to the weld bead. Samples were
prepared using standard procedure as detailed in section 5.2 Chapter 5. Microstructures
of parent, as-welded plates are shown in Figure 9.1. The unwelded sample exhibits an
elongated fine grain structure resulting from the appreciable amount of cold working
(stain-hardening) employed in the manufacturing process. Welded specimens have a
partially recrystallised structure with fine and equiaxed grains as a consequence of heatinput during the weld process. The microstructures of weld repaired specimens are
shown in Figures 9.2. Compared with the unwelded and as-welded samples, the weld
repaired microstructure exhibits abnormally coarse grains and weld porosities, which
may be attributed to the large amount of heat input during the weld repair processes. In
addition, more voids and porosity were found located along grain boundaries of the
weld repaired plates. These welding defects tend to connect each other and
subsequently form large cracks as shown in Figure 9.3, when subjected to external
fatigue loads. This explains the high fatigue crack growth rates and the low fatigue
lives of the weld repaired specimens.

500 m

(a)

500 m

(b)

Figure 9.1 Microstructure in (a) unwelded (b) as - weld specimens

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500 m

Figure 9.2 Abnormal coarse grains in weld repaired plates

Figure 9.3 Fatigue cracks growth along grain boundary and weld porosity in weld
repaired samples

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9.2 Fractographic Analysis

Samples for SEM analysis were cut from the regions of crack initiation and stable crack
growth area (near root of V notch) of the fatigue specimens after failure. Fracture
surfaces of the unwelded and as-welded plates are presented in Figures 9.4(a) and
9.4(b) respectively, while those of the single and double-side weld repaired specimens
are shown in Figures 9.4(c) and 9.4(d) respectively. The fractures in the unwelded and
as-welded plates appear to be uniform and flat, which indicate the crack initiation and
stable propagation phases with lower crack growth rates. However, the cross sections of
the weld repaired plates exhibit fairly rough surface and coarse grain representing
unstable crack growth phase with higher fatigue crack growth rate. It appears that in
this case the maximum stress approached the material yield strength because of
distinctive softening effects of the weld repair process on the 5083-H321 aluminium
plates. In addition, from Figures 9.4 (c) and 9.4(d) it can be seen that in the weld
repaired specimens, the coarse grains were pulled out during cyclic fatigue loading,
which is most likely caused by the grain boundary separation due to the voids and
porosities in the second HAZ region. This highlights the significant role played by weld
defects in accelerating the fatigue crack growth.

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(a) unwelded plate

(c) single sided weld repaired specimen

(b) welded plate

(d) double sided weld repaired

specimen
Figure 9.4 Fracture surfaces of failed specimens (a) unwelded (b) welded (c) weld
repaired (single sided) (d) weld repaired (double sided)

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Figure 9.5 Lack of penetration in weld repaired weldment

Figure 9.5 illustrates the welding defect, lack of penetration, occurred in a weld
repaired specimen. It is evident that these welding defects would also have contributed
to the higher crack growth rate and hence a further reduction in the fatigue life of weld
repaired specimens.

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CHAPTER 10 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

10.1 Conclusions

Due to increasing requirements of improved fuel efficiency, higher speeds, lower

weights and enhanced durability, the 5083 series weldable aluminium alloy has become
a popular material for the fabrication of high speed ferry-boats, freight and naval
vessels. However the higher speeds and service loads and the lower margins of safety
employed in the design has made the incidence of fatigue cracking a problem of critical
importance in these structures, especially in areas where sheets of the alloy are joined
together by welding. The purpose of the present study was to facilitate a damage
tolerance analysis of such welded structures by determining the propagation behaviour
of cracks in the weldments of the 5083 aluminium alloy and investigating the fatigue
behaviour of the material for cracks in welds which are repaired by a secondary weld
process.
The stress intensity factors for weld toe crack were determined by extrapolation of
crack opening displacements in the crack tip stress field using 3-D finite elements
modelling which incorporated the influence of the weld reinforcement. The 3D SIF
solutions, which are about 18 % higher than those obtained by conventional solutions,
were applied for fatigue crack growth evaluation of the 5083-H321 as-welded plates.
Static tests including tension and hardness tests were carried out on unwelded, welded
and weld repaired plates in order to assess the deterioration in static and mechanical
properties of the material in the heat affected zone. The results indicated that the weld
process introduces considerable plasticity and reduction in the strength of the material.
The weld repair process can reduce the ultimate strength down to a third of its original
value in the parent material. The reason for this significant reduction in strength is the
softening of the material due to the weld process, which removes the beneficial effects
introduced by strain hardening in the parent material. The weld repair process also
introduces a significant number of additional weld defects of larger size, causing a
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much more severe degradation in strength. The hardness tests also indicated that the
weld repair process extends the HAZ area significantly.
Crack growth measurements were conducted on a number of unwelded, as welded and
weld repaired specimens of the 5083 aluminium alloy on an Instron fatigue test
machine. Initially the propagation rates were plotted against the nominal stress intensity
factors (ignoring the effects of crack closure and residual stresses), which exhibited
apparently significant differences in the propagation rates of the welded plates
compared to those of the unwelded plates.
In order to determine the actual crack growth behaviour, effective stress intensity
factors, taking into account the effects of crack closure and weld residual stresses, were
evaluated by crack opening displacement measurements. The COD measurements
indicated that the crack closure is more pronounced and significant in the as-welded
and weld repaired specimens than in the parent material, especially in the early phase of
crack growth (a/w < 0.25). This is obviously due to the large magnitude of the residual
stresses (WRS) introduced by the weld process. Comparison of fatigue crack growth
rates using the effective stress intensity factors solutions (which account for the crack
closure and residual stress effects) indicate that the as-welded plates have similar
fatigue crack growth rates as those of the unwelded material. The weld repaired plates
exhibited somewhat higher crack growth rates than the parent and the as welded
material. More importantly, the total fatigue lives of the weld repaired plates were
significantly lower, only about a third of the average life of the parent material. This is
attributed to the much larger defects generated by the second weld process employed to
repair the cracks in the HAZ of the initial weld. The message is clear: repair of cracks
in weldments by a second weld does not extend the life of the joint to any great extent.
Comparison of crack growth measurements on specimens with cracks running in the
same direction and those with cracks opposite to the direction of the weld indicate that
the direction of the initial weld is of negligible influence.
Comparison of fatigue crack growth measurements in specimens whose weldment
cracks were repaired with single sided welds (SSWR) to those repaired with double
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sided welds show that the difference between the two is within an order of magnitude
with the crack growth in the latter being worse than that of the SSWR specimens.
The values of the Paris coefficient and exponent for crack propagation rates in the
unwelded, welded and weld repaired plates were obtained by linear regression of the
log-log plots of da/dN and DK/DKeff in each case. It is seen that with increasing
welding, the magnitude of the Paris coefficient increases and that of the exponent
decreases slightly. It appears that these variations in the material constants are possibly
due to the changes in the microstructure of the heat affected zone brought about by the
weld process.
Microstructures of unwelded, welded and weld repaired plates were evaluated by
means of optical and scanning electronic microscopy. The unwelded sample exhibited
elongated fine grain structure resulting from the appreciable amount of cold working
employed in the manufacturing process while welded specimens presented partially
recrystallised structure with fine and equiaxed grains as a consequence of the heat-input
during the weld process. The microstructure of the weld repaired specimens exhibit
abnormally coarse grains and weld porosity, which may be attributed to the large
amount of heat input during the weld repair processes. In addition, more voids and
porosity were found located along grain boundaries of the weld repaired plates. This
explains the higher fatigue crack growth rates and the significantly lower fatigue lives
of the weld repaired specimens.

10.2 Limitations of the Present Work

It should be noted that the results presented in this study have been obtained from a
limited amount of research conducted on a limited number of specimens with a limited
amount of time and resources at hand. It would have been desirable to test many more
specimens at many different load levels and stress ratios to obtain a statistically
acceptable distribution of the crack growth rates. No attempt has been made in this
study to quantify the distribution of the number and size of flaws introduced by the
weld process, both in the first pass as well as in the subsequent repair processes. The

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resources available in the school did not facilitate the measurement of the distribution
of residual stresses in the as welded and weld repaired specimens which would have
been very useful in providing more accurate predictions of the effective stress intensity
factors from the finite element models.

10.3 Recommendations and Further Work

Based on the limited evidence of the data obtained in this study, the following
recommendations can be made.
The weld process does not appear to have any significant influence on fatigue crack
growth rate in terms of the effective stress intensity factor changes, when welding
defects are properly controlled; hence it would be reasonable to conclude that the use of
welding processes for joining components made of 5083-H321 aluminium alloy is
acceptable. However local loads in the vicinity of the weldment should be kept as low
as possible as there appears to be a significant reduction in static strength due to the
weld process. Retaining the weld reinforcement at the joint could be one option to
reduce local loads but stress concentration at the reinforcement root should be carefully
controlled in order to avoid possible fatigue crack initiation.
It would appear that weld repair processes are generally not suitable for small crack
repairs because the weld repaired joints exhibit relatively higher crack growth rates at
the initial stages of crack propagation. However, for a relatively large crack, the TIG
weld repair process may be considered to extend fatigue life. In this case,
reinforcements on the secondary weld should be kept intact to reduce stress levels in
the weldment to compensate for the heavy loss in strength due to the weld repair
process. It may also be beneficial to introduce compressive stresses on the surface of
the weldment by shot peening or some other method to avoid early fatigue crack
initiation at critical places and to increase the weld surfaces mechanical strength.
The author would like to recommend that the trends indicated by this somewhat limited
study on the effect of welding and weld repairs on fatigue behaviour of 5083

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aluminium alloy be confirmed and further extended by undertaking future studies that
involve:

a larger distribution of specimens to be tested at a wider range of load levels and

stress ratios, so as to obtain statistically acceptable data for each type of
specimens at each load condition,

microscopic examination of the weld cross sections to determine the statistical

distribution of the flaws introduced by the welding and weld repair processes,

experimental determination of the residual stress distribution in the heat affected

zones, which can be incorporated in the finite element analysis to obtain
effective stress intensity factors that take the WRS into account, and

further examination of the mechanisms by which the weld and repair process
influences the magnitudes of the crack growth parameters.

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