Fabrication of pressure vessels, piping, structures & pipelines involves large amount of welds and it is known welds cannot be totally free from imperfections. The different welding techniques have different characteristics, for instance, manual welding or SMAW is known for producing volumetric imperfection rather than planar imperfection. However, automatic welding i.e. p-GMAW is known to have more planar imperfections rather than volumetric imperfections. In general, the planar imperfections are more detrimental than volumetric imperfections.

The weld imperfections or weld flaws are accepted by the weld flaw acceptance standard. If the weld imperfections exceed the acceptance standard then that flaw shall be repaired. However, in recent years it has been proven than the unnecessary repairs, sometimes could cause degradation in the material properties and thus are not preferred.

In such situation, fracture mechanics assessment as per British Standard, BS 7910:2005 can be performed to demonstrate the integrity of the welds based on design information, material properties and other project specific details.

AGT has experienced consultants with sound knowledge of material and welding technology, fracture mechanics to perform FMA and assist the client.