Abstract
The cold cracking susceptibility of a variety of weld metals deposited by GMAW with several kinds of commercial solid wires for high strength-toughness steel was investigated. G-BOP test and LB-TRC test were carried out to study the effects of preheat, chemical composition and hydrogen level on the weld metal cold cracking. The results obtained are as follows. 1) 10% CPT obtained by G-BOP test was the most valuable criteria for evaluating the cold cracking susceptibility of weld metals compared with percentage of cracking at room temperature and crack free temperature, and it had good correlation with the results of LB-TRC test. 2) Cold cracking susceptibility of weld metals was high in the row of MG100A, MG100C, MG100D and MG100B. Welds deposited with MG130 and MG80 showed similar icidents of cracking with MG100C and MG100B respectively, even though their strength levels were different. 3) Diffusible hydrogen level in weld metals which has good relation with hydrogen content in wire itself was the most critical factor for controlling the cold cracking susceptibility of weld metal.
