International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Clarified have been the formulations of fracture mechanics (FM) included in the present applied standards for welded structures (Eurocode 3, ЕN 13445, EN 13480). Considered have been the main criteria of fracture mechanics for analytical assessment of structural integrity against brittle fracture of the elastic-plastic materials, while special space has been devoted to the concepts of the “FAD” and the “Master-curve”. The opportunity has been shown to use the conventional toughness criterion, shock toughness as per Charpy-V, by means of correlation relationships with the FM criteria.

A categorization has been proposed of the welded joints depending on the type and character of loading and the needed safe- ty requirement of the structure of which they are an integral part. Four “production requirement grades”: “PRGs”, have been intro- duced. They allow the objective grading of welding requirements put forward towards the preparation of each and every welded joint for which the loading and operation conditions are familiar.