scope:

The influence of weld defects on the mechanical properties of aluminum alloy weldments has been the subject of considerable recent interest. The influence of distributed porosity on the tensile and fatigue properties of 5083 (and 6061) alloy weldments has been recently investigated by the authors. In the fatigue study, defects other than the weld toe andlor distributed porosity (most notably lack-of-fusion) were often found to result in substantially lower fatigue lives than would be expected from sound, as-welded test pieces. Consequently, internal, planar, weld-defects such as lack-of-fusion (LOF) or incomplete joint penetration (lack-of-penetration-LOP) must be considered potentially serious defects from the point of view of fatigue resistance.