Spatially Resolved Materials Property Data From a Uniaxial Cross-Weld Tensile Test

Application of electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) is described to measure the spatial variation in monotonic tensile stress-strain properties along “cross-weld” specimens machined from a stainless steel three-pass welded plate. The technique, which could also be done with digital image correlation, was applied to quantify how the material 0.2%, 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, and 20% proof stress varied with distance from the center-line of the weldment for parent and weld material associated with the first and final passes. The stress-strain curves measured by the ESPI method correlated closely with stress-strain data measured using conventional test specimens. The measured results are consistent with the hypothesis that thermo-mechanical cycles associated with the welding process work harden previously deposited (single-pass) weld metal and the surrounding parent material. The stress-strain response of the heat affected zone adjacent to the first weld pass is consistent with an accumulated (equivalent monotonic) plastic strain of 6.5% and that of the first pass weld bead was consistent with an accumulated plastic strain of approximately 4% greater than the state of the final pass weld metal.