Numerical calculation of the main factors on cold
cracking
Numerische Berechnung der Einfluûfaktoren auf die Kaltrissbildung
Prof. Dr. mont. habil. Hermann MuÈller zu seinem 65. Geburtstag gewidmet.
Low alloy high-strength steels are nowadays very common in
industrial application offering a number of favourable characteris-
tics. However, cold cracking is an increasing problem concerning
the weldability of these materials. For the prediction of cold crack-
ing susceptibility many different tests exist. The most important
ones are the Tekken-(Y-groove restraint test), the controlled-ther-
mal-severity test (CTS) and the implant test. But in spite of the
same or similar welding conditions, one gets different minimum
preheat temperatures dependent on the used test procedure. There-
fore, a better evaluation of these tests seems to be necessary.Based
on the commercial FEA-tool SYSWELD three main factors influ-
encing cold cracking were investigated for MAG-welded Tekken
specimens: the distribution of microstructure, the stress-strain state
and the hydrogen concentration. The analysis was performed for
S690 low alloy high-strength steel. Also, welding experiments
were carried out to determine temperature field and microstructure.
Key words: cold cracks, finite-element-analysis, high-strength
steels, Tekken-test, SYSWELD
1 Introduction
One of the most important considerations in the welding of
steels is the prevention of cold cracking. The content of dif-
fusible hydrogen generated under the welding arc accumu-
lates in the heat affected zone (HAZ) with hardened micro-
structure [1].
For the prediction of cold cracking susceptibility many dif-
ferent tests exist in industrial practice. The most important
ones are the Tekken-(Y-groove restraint test), the con-
trolled-thermal- severity (CTS) and the implant test. In spite
of similar welding conditions, different minimum preheat
temperatures result from the specific characteristics of each
test. Possible reasons are varying geometries of cold cracking
specimens and clamping conditions. Thus a better estimation
of these test procedures seems to be mandatory. Within the
scope of a recent research project, the main factors influencing
cold cracking are to be investigated numerically for each test.
These factors are the microstructure, the stress-strain distribu-
Table 1. Chemical composition and mechanical properties of S690 steel [2]
Tabelle 1. Chemische Zusammensetzung und mechanische Eigenschaften des Stahls S690 [2]
material C Si Mn S Al
S 690 0.17 0.54 0.84 0.011 0.031
Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 34, 145±151 (2003)
F 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
M. Stadtaus, V. Michailov and H. Wohlfahrt
Niedriglegierte hochfeste StaÈhle sind heutzutage in industriellen
Anwendungen sehr gebraÈuchlich, da sie eine Reihe guÈnstiger Ei-
genschaften aufweisen. Die Schweiûbarkeit betreffend stellen
aber Kaltrisse ein zunehmendes Problem dar. Zur Bestimmung
der Kaltriûsicherheit existieren eine groûe Anzahl von Kaltriûtests,
von denen der Tekken-, der CTS- und der Implantversuch die
groÈûte Bedeutung besitzen. Diese ergeben aber aufgrund der spe-
zifischen Besonderheiten jedes Tests trotz gleicher Schweiûbedin-
gungen deutliche Unterschiede in den ermittelten Mindestvor-
waÈrmtemperaturen. Eine bessere Bewertung dieser Tests scheint
daher erforderlich.Auf der Grundlage des kommerziellen FEM-
Programms SYSWELD sind die Haupteinfluûfaktoren auf die Kal-
triûbildung fuÈr MAG-geschweiûte Tekken-Proben untersucht wor-
den: die Verteilungen der GefuÈgebestandteile, der Spannungen bzw.
Dehnungen und des Wasserstoffs. Die Berechnungen erfolgten am
niedriglegierten hochfesten Feinkornbaustahl S690. Des weiteren
sind Schweiûversuche zur Ermittlung des Temperaturfeldes und
des GefuÈges durchgefuÈhrt worden.
Schlagworte: Kaltrisse, Finite-Element-Methode, hochfeste
StaÈhle, Tekken-Versuch, SYSWELD
tion and the hydrogen concentration. The present paper deals
with MAG-welded Tekken specimens.
2 Material and experiments
In the present work, the metal-active-gas welding (MAG)
of S690 low alloy high-strength steel is investigated. The che-
mical composition of this steel and some typical mechanical
properties are shown in Table 1.
The test procedure used, the Tekken test, serves to examine
the cold cracking susceptibility of base materials and welding
consumables used for arc welding. This test provides a qua-
litative assessment (cracks or no cracks) and determination of
minimum preheat temperature, minimum heat input or max-
imum diffusible hydrogen content for crack free weldments
[3]. The schematic setup of the test is shown in Fig. 1 in ac-
cordance to [3]. The test welding was applied as a single pass
root weld.
Welding parameters can be found in Table 2.
Cr Mo Rp0.2 Rm A5
[MPa] [MPa] [%]
0.89 0.4 770 854 14.7
0933-5137/03/0101-0145$17.50 ‡ .50/0 145
Table 2. Parameters for MAG-welding
Tabelle 2. Schweiûparameter der MAG-Schweiûung

I [A] U [V] vs [m/min] process gas wire type wire-Æ wire feed
[mm] [m/min]

278 34 0.5854 M21 [4], 18 vol.-% CO2, Thyssen, 1.2 8.9

82 vol.-% Ar MT-NiMoCr 90 [5]

During welding, temperature-time curves were recorded mine the fusion zone. The experiments were carried out by
using thermocouples. The positions of the thermocouples the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing in Ber-
are shown in Fig. 2. Microsections of the weld and the lin, Germany. The results are necessary to validate the thermo-
heat-affected-zone (HAZ) have been investigated to deter- metallurgical calculations.

Fig. 1. Schematic configuration of Y-groove

test (a: one pass test welding, b: anchor weld,
t thickness of the plate ˆ 18 mm, g: root
gap ˆ 2.2 mm) [3]
Abb. 1. Schematischer Aufbau des Tekken
Versuches (a: einlagige PruÈfnaht, b: Anker-
naht, t Plattendicke ˆ 18 mm, g: Wurzel-
spalt ˆ 2.2 mm) [3]

Fig. 2. Positions of thermocouples (1 ± 5) on

top and bottom side of the test specimen
Abb. 2. Lage der Thermoelemente (1 ± 5) an
der Ober- und Unterseite der PruÈfplatte

146 M. Stadtaus, V. Michailov and H. Wohlfahrt Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 34, 145±151 (2003)
3 Numerical model
It has been well recognised that hydrogen assisted cracking
occurs in the HAZ or in the weld metal if the following four
conditions are present:
l maximum temperature lower than about 250 8C
l a microstructure susceptible to hydrogen
l stress intensity of sufficient magnitude
l critical concentration of diffusible hydrogen at a crack tip
The commercial software SYSWELD allows the calcula-
tion not only of the temperature field, phase transformations
and stresses, but also the calculation of the hydrogen distribu-
tion during and after welding. To take the important effects
into account, three calculation steps have to be performed:
l coupled thermal- metallurgical calculation
l mechanical calculation under consideration of temperature
field and phase transformations
l calculation of the hydrogen distribution under considera-
tion of temperature field, phase transformations, stresses
and strains
The first two steps were carried out using a full three-di-
mensional model with more than 30 000 solid elements
(Fig. 3, left). First calculations showed, that this model was
not practicable for a hydrogen analysis due to the high numer-
ical effort, if stresses and strains are taken into account. There-
fore, the problem dimension for the hydrogen analysis was
reduced to a two-dimensional cross section model (Fig. 3,
right).
However, to increase the accuracy in 2D-analysis, the
boundary conditions, gained in the 3D-mechanical calcula-
tion, were mapped on the cross section-model.
The material properties needed for the thermal model are
density q, heat conductivity k and specific heat capacity cp.
These temperature-dependent properties were taken from
[6]. The calculation of microstructural transformations is
based on a CCT-diagram, which was taken from [2]. A de-
tailed description of the metallurgical model is given in [7].
The mechanical material properties dependent on tempera-
ture and phases can be found in [8]. The Young's Modulus E is
assumed to be only temperature dependent whereas yield
strength ry and the thermal strains ep are also a function of
the phases.
3.1 Model for hydrogen diffusion
The model for hydrogen diffusion is based on [9, 10]. Equa-
tion (1) is the hydrogen diffusion equation in the general case
published in [9]:
@nk X
m
pl X
m
pl nl X
m
ˆ nk ‡ ‡ D…Dlk pl nl †
@t lˆt
skl lˆt
slk lˆ1
X
m
Dkl nk ‰Dpl ‡ 2r ln wl rpl Š …
lˆ1
X l
2 r…Dlk pl nl r ln wk †
with n ˆ concentration, t ˆ time, p ˆ volume, D ˆ diffusion
coefficient. In [9] is assumed ± analogically to [11, 12] ± that
there is no uniform initial hydrogen distribution in the mate-
rial. [9] introduces so called sites which are divided in m
classes. Class 1 contains the normal microstructure with an
uniform hydrogen distribution and reversible traps. The other
Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 34, 145±151 (2003)
Fig. 3. 3D- and 2D-model
Abb. 3. 3D- und 2D-Modell
classes consist of irreversible traps and obstacles. wl und wk
describe the probabilities of site l or site k to capture hydrogen.
skl und slk are transfer times of a hydrogen atom from a point r
(site k) to another point r 0 (site l) respecivley from r 0 to r.
In equation (1) two kinds of terms exist: those involving the
concentration nl, which describe local exchanges between
sites tending to establish thermodynamic equilibrium and
those involving derivatives of nl, which describe diffusion
phenomena.
[9] introduces the solubility S. Assuming site k has the so-
lubility Sk at an arbitrary external hydrogen pressure p0 means,
that Sk is proportional to the capture probability wk . The sim-
plified notation Dkl ˆ Dk and Dlk ˆ Dl leads to the following
equation:
D k Sl
ˆ …2†
D l Sk
It is obvious that for practical purposes equation (1) con-
tains too many parameters and that one must look for simpli-
fied assumptions to reduce their number. Equations (1) can be
furthermore simplified by using dependencies of the probabil-
ities and the diffusion coefficients as well as the solubilities. A
very detailed explanation of the theory can be found in [9].
Using mathematical operations (1) can be reduced to the fol-
lowing equation (3), which was used for the hydrogen diffu-
sion calculation in this paper:
" #
m 
@nk nk X m
pl nl X pl nl
ˆ ‡ ‡ Q ‡ r
D l Sl r …3†
@t sk lˆ1 sl lˆ1
Sl
To consider hydrogen traps and sources, equation (3) con-
tains the additional term Q. Furthermore, equation (2) shows,
that the product Dl Sl does not depend on l. It is now defined as
the permeablity P:
D l Sl ˆ P …4†
1† This model can take into account the following phenomena:
The influence of trapping phenomena. The traps are areas
of the material of different types (interstitial atoms, grain
boundaries, dislocations, inclusions, etc.) which ªretainº
more hydrogen than the rest of the material. In practice
we consider that the material contains three types of sites:
ordinary sites, reversible traps and irreversible traps.
l The influence on thermal and metallurgical history on the
diffusion.
l The influences of non-uniformities of solubility.
Numerical calculation 147
 4 Results and discussion
4.1 Thermo-metallurgical calculation

The validation of the transient temperature field was done

with micrographs and thermocouples. Fig. 4 (top) shows a
comparison between a micrograph and the maximum tem-
perature, which was reached during welding. At the bottom
of Fig. 4a comparison between measured and calculated tem-
perature cycles can be seen. There is good agreement of the
thermal model with the experimental results.
The results of the metallurgical calculation are summarized
in Fig. 5. One can see that the ferritic phase in the weld region
is completely transformed into martensite and bainite. Mar-
tensite content ranges from 60% to 90%, the bainite content
analogically from 40% to 10%. Especially the martensite con-
tent is important, because this phase is most susceptible to
hydrogen.

4.2 Mechanical calculation

In order to consider hydrostatic stress and equivalent strain

in the hydrogen analysis, it is necessary that a mechanical cal-
culation is carried out in advance. A validation of the mechan-
ical model was done using the optical grating method. It is cap-
able of a three-dimensional surface distortion measurement
with high accuracy. A detailed description of this method
can be found in [14]. Fig. 6 shows the calculated (top) and mea-
sured distortion field in y-direction (bottom) of the bottom side
of the Tekken specimen. There is a satisfactory agreement be-
tween FE-calculation and measurement. The black bar in Fig. 6
is the root gap of the Tekken-specimen, where no distortion
measurement is possible with the optical grating method.
Fig. 4. Validation of the temperature calculation with micrograph
(top) and thermocouples (bottom)
Abb. 4. Validierung der Temperaturfeldberechnung mit Schliffbild
(oben) und Thermoelementen (unten)

l The influence of stresses, plastic strains and plastic strain

rates.
The properties to be entered for a material are [13]:
l Permeability: it can depend on the temperature, the hydro-
static stress and the plastic strain rate. It is provided for each
metallurgical phase. It does not depend on the sites (type of
trap)
l Solubility: it can depend on the temperature, the hydrostatic
stress and the plastic strain. It is provided for each metal-
lurgical phase and each site.
To get information about the influence of these dependen-
cies requires a lot of experimental work. In this work known
data from literature were taken. Some simplifications and as-
sumptions were made concerning the hydrogen diffusion cal-
culation:
l no hydrogen content in the base material
l 5 ppm hydrogen in the weld metal
l the permability depends on temperature and phases only
l neglection of irreversible trapping phenomena
l consideration of the influence of temperature, phases, hy-
drostatic stress and equivalent strain on the solubility

Fig. 5. Microstructure after cooling to ambient temperature

Abb. 5. Berechnete GefuÈgeanteile nach vollstaÈndiger AbkuÈhlung

148 M. Stadtaus, V. Michailov and H. Wohlfahrt Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 34, 145±151 (2003)
 Fig. 6. Comparison between calculated and
measured distortion fields in y-direction (bot-
tom view of Tekken specimen)
Abb. 6. Vergleich des berechneten und ge-
messenen Verschiebungsfeldes in y-Richtung
(Blechunterseite der Tekken-Probe)

Fig. 7. Calculated distribution of equivalent

strain (top) and stress in MPa (bottom) per-
pendicular to the welding direction in a cross
section
Abb. 7. Berechnete Verteilung von aÈquiva-
lenter Dehnung (oben) und Spannung in
MPa (unten) senkrecht zur Schweiûrichtung
im Querschnitt

Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 34, 145±151 (2003) Numerical calculation 149

 With respect to hydrogen diffusion, the stress-strain state in c-phase: (7) Pc ˆ 7:276
e… 5740=Tabs †
the weld and HAZ is important. In Fig. 7 the calculated ppm
mm2 s 1 for T < 1500 8C
equivalent strain (left) and the stress perpendicular to the
(8) Pc ˆ 0:2856
welding direction (right) are shown (element solution). There
ppm
mm2 s 1
for T > 1500 8C
is a maximum of eeqv and ryy in the left corner of the root,
Solubility:
where a crack is likely to occur in Tekken specimens. The re-
a-phases: (9) Sa ˆ 0:0723
e…… 222:4‡C1
eeqv
Tabs‡C2
rm †=Tabs †
sults are in good qualitative agreement with those of [1].
ppm for T < 100 8C
(10) Sa ˆ 42:44
e…… 2613‡C1
eeqv
Tabs‡C2
rm †=Tabs †
4.3 Hydrogen diffusion calculation ppm for T > 100 8C
c-phase: (11) Sc ˆ 42:7
e… 2713=Tabs †
ppm
The material properties, which were used for the calcula-
tion of the hydrogen distribution are taken from [15, 16] Tabs is the absolute temperature. C1 and C2 are constant
and are as follows: factors with the values of 3.91 for C1 and 0.24 for C2. These
Permeability: were taken from [15] and [16]. The results of the hydrogen
a-phases: (5) Pa ˆ 6:82
e… 4601:6=Tabs † calculation are summarized in Fig. 8. The top of Fig. 8 shows
ppm
mm2 s 1 for T < 1500 8C the time-dependent solution of element 430, which is located
in the left corner of the root.
(6) Pa ˆ 0:51
In a first approach only the thermal dependence of the so-
ppm
mm2 s 1
for T > 1500 8C
lubility was taken into account (C1 ˆ C2 ˆ 0). A second cal-

Fig. 8. Hydrogen concentration in the left

corner of the root as a function of time
(top) and after 5000 s taking ino account tem-
perature, hydrostatic stress and equivalent
strain (bottom)
Abb. 8. Wasserstoffkonzentration in der lin-
ken Ecke der Nahtwurzel als Funktion der
Zeit (oben) und nach 5000 s unter BeruÈcksich-
tigung von Temperatur, hydrostatischer Span-
nung und aÈquivalenter Dehnung (unten)

150 M. Stadtaus, V. Michailov and H. Wohlfahrt Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 34, 145±151 (2003)
culation was carried out, considering temperature, hydrostatic
stress and equivalent strain in accordance to equations (9) and
(10). A significant influence of the stress-strain state on the
hydrogen distribution can be observed. Due to the higher so-
lubility, a local maximum of hydrogen concentration occurs in
the area, where high stresses and strains arise (Fig. 8, bottom).
Thus, the mechanical analysis is an important step in the cal-
culation of hydrogen diffusion, which can't be neglected.
5 Summary
In the present paper, three main factors on cold cracking
were investigated with a commercial finite element analysis
tool: the distribution of phases, the stress-strain state and the
hydrogen concentration. The numerical models for the tem-
perature- and the mechanical-analysis were validated using
thermocouples, micrographs and the optical grating method.
The calculations show, that a critical combination of the main
factors on cold cracking is likely to occur in the root of the test
welding. The consideration of stresses and strains in the hy-
drogen diffusion calculation is necessary. Neglecting the
stress-strain state leads to a lower hydrogen concentration
in the root of the weld.
6 Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Deutsche Forschungs-
gemeinschaft (DFG) for funding the investigations under con-
tract Wo 344/39-1.
Mat.-wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 34, 145±151 (2003)
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Address: Prof. Dr. H. Wohlfahrt, Institut f. Schweiûtechnik, TW
Braunschweig, Langer Kamp 8, 38106 Braunschweig
Received in final form: 12/11/02 [T 621]
Numerical calculation 151