Use of Liquid Metal Embrittlement for Development of a Weld Spliting Technique for Sectioning Austenitic Stainless Steel Plates

Abstract

It is well known that fusion welding process cannot be used for welding austenitic stainless steel with copper and if by any chance, copper comes into contact with stainless steel during welding operation and stresses of sufficient magnitude are present in the material, it results in the cracking of stainless steel. The reason for this cracking is attributed to the phenomenon of Liquid Metal Embrittlement (LME) which refers to the degradation in mechanical properties of some metal/alloys when they are stressed in contact with certain liquid metal environments.