Inexpensive Fracture Toughness Testing of Welded Steel

Abstract

In a prior project, TNO has presented a low-cost way of finding fracture toughness of base materials for cleavage fracture. That method features a small-scale CTOD specimen, combined with simplified sensors, less fatigue pre-cracking, faster testing, and no need for a temperature chamber. This method has been extended to welds by considering the effect of pop-ins. This paper summarizes the prior method and the justifications for it before extending it to welded structures by introducing adjustments for pop-ins for small-scale specimens.