Hot cracking which is one of the major problems in welding may be prejudicial to the safety of welded structures. This phenomenon corresponds to the formation of irreversible cracks at the end of solidification, due to tensile strains associated with solidification shrinkage and thermal contraction. This work focuses on the hot cracking modeling during the welding of a Nickel based alloy. The aim is to propose a methodology which allows estimating the hot cracking risk in the Inconel 600 alloy. To achieve that purpose, self-restrained welding tests with temperature measurements have been developed in order to identify the conditions leading to the defect formation and propagation. These tests have then been modeled to establish a hot cracking criterion based on the strain applied on the alloy at the end of solidification, strain which cannot be experimentally measured. The originality of this study consists in the fact that the viscoplastic behaviour of the studied material (used for thermomechanical modeling) has been determined experimentally from room temperature up to the mushy zone using specific set-ups. Mechanical characterization tests performed in the semi-solid state at temperatures approaching 1400 °C also allowed feeding a cohesive element model leading to crack propagation modeling. This approach coupling experiments with modeling thus led to the identification of a hot cracking criterion intrinsic to Inconel 600.
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