Fracture toughness properties of welded low alloy and austenitic stainless steel plates with austenitic comsumable

In this study, 17Mn4 (P295GH) pressure vessels steel and AISI304 stainless steel are welded with ER309L austenitic consumable. GTAW, Gas Tungsten Ark Welding was selected as a method of welding. Hardness and tensile tests were done on welded plates. J - Integral fracture toughness values are calculated according to the ASTM E1737-96 with Single-Edge bend specimen, to investigate fracture toughness characteristics on weld region. In order to detect the regions where plastic deformation did not take place, uni-axial tensile test was performed on welded tensile specimen after attaching strain gages.In numerical part of the study, finite element (FE) analyses were conducted by fixing 2-D models precracked on different locations. In these models, stress triaxiality and plastic deformation characteristics around crack tip were determined for each crack locations after stress ? strain analyses. J ? Integral values were calculated for all crack locations with finite element method. The limitation on the extension of plastic deformation at HAZ and diffusion line causes extra increase in stress triaxiality at crack tip.