Comparison of destructive and non-destructive fracture toughness measurements for Q235 steel butt-welded joint

As a critical component of a welded structure, the integrity of the welded joint significantly affects the safety and reliability of the structure in service. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the integrity of welded joints. However, given the harshness of standard measurements renders them unsuitable for application to small volume zones, welded structures or in-service structures. In this study, the fracture properties of a Q235 steel butt-welded joint was evaluated by boundary effect modelling (BEM) method and the ball indentation (BI) method. The results demonstrate that the fracture toughness distribution obtained by the two methods are consistent, with the highest fracture toughness in the weld metal, followed by the heat-affected zone and the base metal, and the lowest fracture toughness in the fusion zone, which is in agreement with the results of the metallographic testing. Furthermore, the relative errors of the zones obtained by the ball indentation method and the boundary effect modelling method ranging from 10.16 to 19.05%, which indicates safety margin ought to be considered for employing the BI method to determine fracture properties of in-service structures.