Abstract
Y-slit welded joints without preheating were used to prepare the cold cracks in T23 steel. Then the effect of texture on the cold cracking was studied from the views of macrotexture and microtexture. The results showed that the propagation path of the cold cracks was strongly affected by the macrotexture of the columnar grain structure after solidification. The fracture direction was changed at almost light-etched columnar grain but within each columnar grain an average fracture direction was maintained. The crack finally took the same initial direction before meeting another light-etched columnar grain. The strain distribution obtained by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) showed that different crystallography of the columnar grain induced large strain concentration, which led to the big angle transition of the main crack. In addition, transform texture, also named as microtexture in this study, had a large effect on the exact propagation paths of the cold cracks. The cold cracks propagated along lath boundaries which were almost parallel to {011}α plane.
