RESEARCH OF WELDING EFFECT ON STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY AT HIGH TEMPERATURE

The invention of fusion wilding technology has brought on a revolutionary change in manufacturing industry which enables the construction of large scale high temperature plants in chemical, petrochemical and power generation industries. However, among the failure cases of high temperature components, premature failures of weldments have taken a large percentage that indicates the detrimental effect of welding on structural integrity. The accurate prediction of the high temperature behaviour of welded components is thus becoming increasingly important in order to realise an optimised design and maintenance of a plant life. In the present paper, recent research activities on high temperature behaviour of welded structures are briefly summarised. A local deformation measuring technique is proposed to determine the creep properties of weldment constituents. A damage mechanics approach is introduced to study the life reduction and ductility reduction due to the presence of a weld in high temperature structures. Finally, the high temperature creep crack growth in weldments is discussed.