scope:

The approach to the significance of weld discontinuities taken by foreign code writing bodies was surveyed and contrasted as appropriate to the U.S. efforts. The British and Japanese are progressing most rapidly in terms of incorporating fracture mechanics based weld acceptance standards in documents relating to a fitness-for-service approach. The U.S. efforts are well established in ASME Section I11 Appendix G and ASME Section IX and considerable effort is in progress for the basic portion of ASME Section I11 and API Codes. Extracts of the British and Japanese approaches are presented. A comparison between ASME and selected French and German codes is documented with regard to various inspection methods. The literature available from Japan is given special citing and the reader is referred to WRC Bulletin 263, November, 1980 "An Annoted Bibliography on the Significance Origin and Nature of Discontinuities in Welds, 1975-1980" for additional information.