The Welding Engineer's Guide to Fracture and Fatigue provides an essential introduction to fracture and fatigue and the assessment of these failure modes, through to the level of knowledge that would be expected of a qualified welding engineer. Part one covers the basic principles of weld fracture and fatigue. It begins with a review of the design of engineered structures, provides descriptions of typical welding defects and how these defects behave in structures undergoing static and cyclical loading, and explains the range of failure modes. Part two then explains how to detect and assess defects using fitness for service assessment procedures. Throughout, the book assumes no prior knowledge and explains concepts from first principles.

Table of Contents:
Dedication Woodhead Publishing Series in Welding and Other Joining Technologies Preface Part One: Principles of weld fracture and fatigue 1: Designing engineered structures 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The first engineered structures 1.3 Successful structures 1.4 Materials and fabrication methods 1.5 Industrialisation: benefits and consequences 1.6 Conclusions 2: Structures under load 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Sources of loading 2.3 Types of loading 2.4 Loads experienced during construction 2.5 Design approach 2.6 Axial and bending stresses 2.7 Conclusions 3: Welding problems and defects 3.1 Introduction 3.2 ‘Workmanship’ defects 3.3 Weldability 3.4 Fabrication cracking in welds 3.5 Other types of weld defect 3.6 Welding residual stresses 3.7 Distortion 3.8 Conclusions 4: Design for static loading 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Load–extension curves 4.3 Stress–strain curves 4.4 Static limit state design 4.5 Conclusions 5: Brittle fracture and the behaviour of cracks in structures 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Nature of brittle fracture 5.3 The three factors for brittle fracture 5.4 Ductile-to-brittle transition 5.5 Welding and fabrication codes 5.6 Principles of fracture mechanics 5.7 Fracture toughness parameters 5.8 Conclusions 6: Structures under cyclic load 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Engineering perspective of fatigue 6.3 Metallurgical perspective of fatigue 6.4 Practical implications for a growing fatigue crack 6.5 Conclusions 7: Fatigue of welded joints 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Fatigue performance of welded joints 7.3 Special features of welded joints 7.4 Fatigue design of welded joints 7.5 Stress histories of real structures: variable amplitude loading 7.6 Fatigue of welded aluminium 7.7 Conclusions 8: Failure modes and analysis in metals 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Ductile failure 8.3 Brittle fracture 8.4 Fatigue failure 8.5 Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of fracture surfaces 8.6 Interpreting fracture faces 8.7 Corrosion 8.8 Engineering failure investigations 8.9 Conclusions Part Two: Testing, analysis and assessment of weld fracture and fatigue 9: Mechanical testing of welds 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Weld procedure qualification 9.3 Bend testing 9.4 Tensile testing 9.5 Charpy testing 9.6 Fracture toughness testing 9.7 Fatigue testing 9.8 Creep testing 9.9 Corrosion testing 9.10 Macrographic sections 9.11 Hardness testing 9.12 Conclusions 10: Detecting weld defects 10.1 Introduction 10.2 ‘Perfect’ welds and detection of weld defects 10.3 Visual inspection 10.4 Dye penetrant inspection 10.5 Magnetic particle inspection (MPI) 10.6 Eddy-current testing 10.7 Radiography 10.8 Ultrasonic testing (UT) 10.9 Probability of detection 10.10 Flaw-sizing error 10.11 Choosing suitable non-destructive testing (NDT) methods 10.12 Conclusions 11: Weld defect assessment 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Fitness-for-service assessment 11.3 When to carry out an engineering critical assessment (ECA) 11.4 Standards for assessment methods 11.5 Input data for ECA 11.6 Failure assessment diagrams (FAD) 11.7 Proximity to failure and safety factors 11.8 Refining the assessment 11.9 Conclusions 12: Weld fatigue assessment 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Using fracture mechanics to describe fatigue crack growth 12.3 The power law (Paris equation) 12.4 Assessing weld flaws under fatigue loading 12.5 Advanced fatigue crack growth assessment 12.6 Conclusions 13: Improving the fracture performance and fatigue life of welded joints 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Fatigue improvement measures to be taken before welding 13.3 Fatigue improvement techniques for welds 13.4 Other fatigue considerations 13.5 Improving fracture performance 13.6 Using this book: repair of fatigue cracks 13.7 Conclusions Index