Predictive, metallurgy informed crack criteria was developed within the WELDMECS project. These crack criteria were developed in a format appropriate for implementation to finite element software. It will be useful for general thermo-mechanical simulations estimating the risk for various crack formations. The primary target in current topic description (JTI-CS-2012-3-SAGE-02-029) is to utilise the crack criteria for both welding and heat treatment simulations. Since cracking during welding or heat treatment is a many-faceted problem, care has been taken to strongly incorporate fundamental metallurgical understanding and testing into the models. The model will be based on actual failure mechanisms, metallurgical changes and their relations to the material response and prevailing thermo-mechanical conditions.

Up to date simulations have focused on geometric tolerances and/or prediction of residual stresses. Only simpler, limited defect criteria have been used in this context. The project was expected to further the modelling of manufacturing processes in the area of predicting crack formations.