Shear punch testing of welded pipeline steel

Differing thermal histories in and around a weld can lead to differences in grain size, phase composition and morphology of precipitates; mechanical properties will vary accordingly. Hardness testing gives limited information and the machining and testing of tensile and/or impact specimens that would reveal these variations (which may occur over very small distances) is not practical. Therefore, in this investigation, shear punch testing is applied to measure the variation in mechanical properties of a welded pipeline steel (4130), both at room temperature and over a range of potential service temperatures (down to −60°C).