Use Case: Minimizing the risk of cold cracks during welding

Cold cracks frequently occur during the welding of high-strength steels, which can significantly compromise component safety. These cracks typically form locally in the weld zone due to the interaction of microstructure, residual stresses, and hydrogen ingress.

From an application perspective, the challenge lies in quantitatively predicting the risk of cold cracks in complex components in order to design joining processes reliably and avoid costly rework or failures. From a materials science perspective, this requires a precise understanding of the interactions between the welding process, microstructure formation, local residual stresses, and hydrogen diffusion, which can be modeled in a numerical simulation and validated using experimentally determined crack criteria. In the simulation, temperature fields, residual stresses, and hydrogen distributions in the weld zone are calculated. From this data, the probability of cold cracking can be derived using quantitative criteria.

Our research and development services for predicting and preventing cold cracks during welding

• Determination of crack criteria through experiments on materials samples with varying hydrogen content,
• Measurement and mapping of materials characteristics such as hardness and residual stresses during welding processes
• Development and validation of numerical models for temperature-time profiles and phase transformations, residual stresses, and hydrogen diffusion during welding,
• Identification of factors influencing hydrogen absorption and distribution in the weld metal,
• Derivation of recommendations for process optimization and design measures to prevent cold cracks.

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