scope:

The initiation of the effort to review the currently available information on the significance of weld discontinuities arose from the Significance of Welding Discontinuities Subcommittee of the Pressure Vessel Research Committee of the Welding Research Council. The first step in the review was the compilation of relevant references on the causes and effects of weld discontinuities. This review was sponsored at Southwest Research Institute and resulted in an annotated "Literature Survey on the Effect on Weld Defects". The survey led to the current report prepared under the sponsorship of the Department of the Army, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. The third and most important step in the task is yet to come; the establishment in codes and specifications of a more rational basis for allowable weld discontinuities based on material type and service conditions and the gathering of data where necessary to support the assessment of the influence of weld discontinuities on service performance