This paper presents a comparative study of the AC and MFDC resistance spot welding process with consideration of sheet thickness. The previous studies have confirmed that there is difference in the optimum welding current and expulsion current with AC and MFDC. The aim of this study was revealing the effect of sheet thickness on weldable current range and expulsion behavior for AC and MFDC welding processes. The optimum welding current of AC was lower (1.6 kA) than MFDC welding process in 0.8 mm sheet thickness. Early nugget growth being caused by the peak current of AC developed weld interface deformation, which resulted in suppressing the growth of corona bond and occurrence of low current expulsion. The resistance spot welding for thicker sheet (1.4 mm) required lower current of 0.6 kA for the expulsion on the MFDC welding process. The growth of contact diameter (size of corona bond) and button diameter was linear up to the expulsion current with MFDC welding process. Therefore, more attention is required when the AC and MFDC resistance spot welding process is applied for different thickness of steel sheet combination for automotive application.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an interesting technology with the potential to replace general fabrication techniques such as machining, forming and casting. AM provides two main benefits: greater freedom of part design and lower material consumption. To improve quality, many researchers have investigated the mechanical characteristics of AM products and additive parameters. In the present study, tensile and fatigue tests were conducted on stainless steel (SS) 316L manufactured using powder bed fusion (PBF) technology. These tests were carried out using two different building directions, along the Z and X axis, to investigate the effect of additive direction. In addition, the effects of hot isostatic pressing (HIP) related to fatigue properties, which can influence the volume density and porosity of the specimen, was studied. Based on the test results, changes in the mechanical characteristic and fatigue strength due to the HIP treatment were investigated.

Recently, the market of liquefied natural gas is growing in accordance with shale gas development and environmentally friendly policies. Also, LNG is in the spotlight as an alternative fuel to previously used fossil fuel and the fuel for the ship to meet emission standards which takes effected by IMO (International Maritime Organization). According to growth of LNG, LNG carriers needs are also expected to increase significantly. This study investigates low cycle fatigue (LCF) performance of 304L stainless steel weldments to investigate fatigue performance in plastic strain region. 304L stainless steel is known to have improved fatigue performance at cryogenic conditions. LCF behavior are investigated by a strain-controlled condition up to 1% strain range and conducted with three different thickness (3mm, 5mm, 10mm). Also, test were performed with three different strain ratio R such as R = -1, -0, 0.5, Finally, the fatigue design curve for 304L stainless steel weldments at room tem-perature are proposed. Considering all test conditions, it is shown that LCF performance have similar tendency regardless of thickness and strain ratio. LCF design curve of 304L stainless steel weldments are lower than 304L stainless steel base metal.

There are many Industry Code and Standard (ICS) for Structural Integrity Assessment (SIA) on welded structure with defect. The general ICSs, such as R6, BS 7910 and API 579-1/ASME FFS-1, provide equations to determine the upper bound residual stress profiles based on collections from many literatures. However, these residual stress profiles used in the SIA cause the conservative design for welded structures. In this study, the structural integrity assessment for girth weld in pipeline has been conducted based on fracture mechanics. In addition, thermo-elastic plastic FE analysis was performed for evaluating the residual stress of girth weld in pipeline. The weight function solution is used to determine the stress intensity factor using the residual stress profile obtained by the FE analysis. This approach can account for redistribution and relaxation of residual stress as the defects grow. In order to the evaluate quantitative comparison between BS 7910 and weight function solution, structural integrity assessment determining allowable crack size on cracked pipe was performed with failure assessment diagram.