Relation between impact and fracture toughness of A-387 Gr. B welded joint

The influence of temperature on impact and fracture toughness values in different regions of a welded joint is analysed for low-alloyed Cr-Mo steel A-387 Gr. B, designed for high temperature applications. Standard Charpy specimens were tested on instrumented pendulum to separate total impact energy into energy for initiation and propagation energy for base metal (BM), weld metal (WM) and heat-affected-zone (HAZ). Standard three point bending (3BP) specimens with crack tip located at different regions of a joint (BM, WM, HAZ), were used for fracture toughness testing. Experiments were performed both at the room temperature and at design working temperature, 540 degrees C, which is the focus of this paper, to evaluate temperature effect on both notch and crack resistance for all different regions in a welded joint. Moreover, the relation between crack initiation energy and fracture toughness is established, purely on empirical base