The Photo Exhibition of
Welding construction and welding failures

Table of Contents

W1. Construction of large scale bridges

  • Osaka Minato Ohashi
    Completed in 1974, 980m long lattice girder bridge, Large tonnage of TS780MPa steel were used.
  • Akashi Ohashi bridge
    Completed in 1999. The world longest suspension bridge with the central span of 1991m, the total bridge length of 3991m and the main towers of 300m height..The main parts of the bridge girders were made of highly weldable Cu precipitated steel of a TS780MPa grade.

W2. Construction of Yokohma Landmark Tower

  • Beam flanges of the Yokohama landmark tower
    Shop welding of cylindrical column to beam flanges of the Yokohama landmark tower
  • Construction of lower floors of the Yokohama landmark tower
  • Under the construction of the Yokohama land tower
    296m height, the heighest in Japan

W3. Construction of offshore platform

  • Offshore oil production platform in the North Sea
    The lower derrick is made of concrete.
  • Offshore oil production platform of tension leg type in the Gulf of Mexico
    Sea depth of 1000m, legs are submerged arc welded steel pipes of 50 inch diameter.

W4. Girth welding of pipeline

  • cellulosic electrodes in Alaska pipeline
    Pipe girth welding by cellulosic electrodes
  • Siberia pipeline
    Pipe girth welding by flush butt process

W5. Welding fabrication of nuclear reactor vessel

  • Construction of nuclear power station
  • Circumferential welding of a reactor vessel by submerged arc welding

W6. Field welding of penstock

  • Pressure shuft and bifurcation pipe of hydrolic power station
  • Field welding of bifurcation pipe of penstock
    140mm thick sickle plate of HT780MPa steel

W7. Assembly welding of automobile

  • Laser welding of automobile body
  • Resistance spot welding of automobile body

F1. Brittle fracture of column-to-column weld

  • Brittel fracture of a web weld of jumbo-H shape column
    Flanges of jumbo-H shape steel of a HT490MPa grade were welded followed by SMAW welding of 80mm thick web with double V-groove.
    In the morning of the following day (17hrs after the completion of web welding), a brittle crack was suddenly initiated and propagated in the web under no external load. A through-the-thickness crack resulted.
    The metallographic observation testing showed the existence of cold cracks at root of partial penetration welds of the flange part.
    The brittle crack was estimated to be initiated from the root crack.
    The Charpy impact value was less than 20J at -20oC at the cross part of flange and web of this Jumbo H-shape steel.

    Reference : N. Yurioka and S. Ohkita: Welding of structural steel, 1999, p.136, Sanpo Publishing, Tokyo

F2. Brittle failure of gas holder during pressure testing

  • Brittle failure of a gas holder made of HT780MPa steel during hydraulic test

F3. Collapse of highway road

  • Collapse of a highway road
    at the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995
  • Failure of pressure gas welds of reinforced steel rods in a collapsed road pier