The Influence of Preheat on Distortion and Fatigue Crack Propagation Rate of FCAW Weld in A 36 Steel Structure

Welding is one of the joining processes and it has been widely used, especially for steel welded structure in off-shore, pipeline or ship construction. Advantages of the welding joint are inexpensive, process joining can be done quickly and can produce light structure compared to other joining processes. One of welding techniques mostly used for joining steel construction is flux cored arc welding (FCAW). The commonly problems arise in this welding technique are distortion and low resistance of crack propagation. The aim of this study is to minimize distortion and to increase fatigue crack growth resistance of weld joint.In this research, FCAW welding was conducted without preheat and the other was preheated around welding area with temperature of 200 °C. Each of temperature welding process was measured using data acquisition. After completing the welding process, a sequence of experiment was conducted including chemical compositions, distortion and fatigue test. Result of this research shows that preheat temperature of 200 °C can decrease distortion and improve fatigue performance.