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Aluminium Design and Construction John Dwight

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area of softening. With 7xxx-type material, it would also increase the<br />

severity of the softening.<br />

What matters is the temperature T ° of the adjacent parent metal when<br />

any new weld metal is about to be deposited, known as the initial or<br />

interpass temperature. The following effects tend to increase T ° :<br />

1. The metal is still hot from the welding of a nearby joint.<br />

2. Insufficient cooling time has been allowed since the laying of previous<br />

passes in the same joint.<br />

3. Preheat is used.<br />

4. The ambient temperature is high, as in the tropics.<br />

In order to limit the adverse effects of overheating, an aluminium fabricator<br />

is required to exercise thermal control, namely to ensure that T ° never<br />

exceeds a specified maximum value. British St<strong>and</strong>ard BS.8118 recognizes<br />

two levels of thermal control, normal <strong>and</strong> strict, as follows:<br />

All fabrication should satisfy normal control <strong>and</strong> this is what a designer<br />

would usually specify. With 6xxx or 5xxx-series material, there is often<br />

little advantage in going to strict control, since this affects the area of<br />

softening rather than the severity. There is a stronger case for strict<br />

control with 7xxx, as it also reduces the severity.<br />

When in any doubt, design calculations should be based on normal<br />

control. The assumption of strict control can be justified only in the<br />

following cases:<br />

1. a MIG-welded joint for which strict control is specified, with the<br />

maximum permitted value of T ° stated to the fabricator;<br />

2. an isolated joint containing one single-pass MIG weld laid without<br />

preheat.<br />

It is obviously advantageous to be able to use the more favourable HAZ<br />

parameters corresponding to strict control, when possible, <strong>and</strong> it is necessary<br />

to be specific as to which joints can count as case (2). In our treatment<br />

we assume welds to be single-pass up to a size (w) of 8 mm (Section<br />

6.5.5). The definition of an isolated weld is discussed in Section 6.5.10.<br />

6.3 PATTERNS OF SOFTENING<br />

6.3.1 Heat-treated material<br />

Figure 6.2 shows patterns of softening at a single-pass MIG weld, as might<br />

be obtained with 6082-T6 <strong>and</strong> 7020-T6 material. Such plots are determined<br />

Copyright 1999 by Taylor & Francis Group. All Rights Reserved.

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