Underwater Stress Relief and Fatigue Improvement by Ultrasonic Peening

Author(s):  
Jacob Kleiman ◽  
Yuri Kudryavtsev ◽  
Alexander Lugovskoy

A new ultrasonic peening instrument was developed for underwater treatment of welds and welded structures. The Ultrasonic Peening (UP) established itself as a promising process for fatigue life improvement of welded elements and structures. The beneficial effect of UP is obtained through relieving of harmful tensile residual stresses and introducing of compressive residual stresses into surface layers of materials, and through decreasing of stress concentration in weld toe zones and enhancement of mechanical properties of the surface layers of the materials. In the design of the underwater UP instrument specially selected anti-corrosion materials are used. The underwater UP instrument can be used for treatment of welds at depths up to 30 meters or, if required, with certain modifications, even deeper. Acoustic pump principle is used in the originally developed system for water cooling of the transducer. The developed UP system allows for improvement treatments at four different power levels and is using replaceable working heads that come in various configurations with variable numbers of pins, depending on the application.

Author(s):  
Yuri Kudryavtsev ◽  
Jacob Kleiman

The ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is relatively new and promising process for fatigue life improvement of welded elements and structures. In most industrial applications this process is known as ultrasonic peening (UP). The beneficial effect of UP is achieved mainly by relieving of tensile residual stresses and introducing of compressive residual stresses into surface layers of a material. The secondary factors in fatigue improvement by UP are decreasing of stress concentration in weld toe zones and enhancement of mechanical properties of the surface layers of the material. Fatigue testing of welded specimens showed that UP is the most efficient improvement treatment as compared with traditional techniques such as grinding, TIG-dressing, heat treatment, hammer peening and application of LTT electrodes. The developed computerized complex for UP was successfully applied for increasing the fatigue life and corrosion resistance of welded elements, elimination of distortions caused by welding and other technological processes, residual stress relieving, increasing of the hardness of the surface of materials. The UP could be effectively applied for fatigue life improvement during manufacturing, rehabilitation and repair of welded elements and structures. The areas/industries where the UP process was applied successfully include: Shipbuilding, Railway and Highway Bridges, Construction Equipment, Mining, Automotive, Aerospace. The results of fatigue testing of welded elements in as-welded condition and after application of UP are considered in this paper. It is shown that UP is the most effective and economic technique for increasing of fatigue strength of welded elements in materials of different strength. These results also show a strong tendency of increasing of fatigue strength of welded elements after application of UP with the increase in mechanical properties of the material used.


2008 ◽  
Vol 580-582 ◽  
pp. 97-100
Author(s):  
Seung Ho Han ◽  
Jeong Woo Han ◽  
Yong Yun Nam

Mechanical post treatments for welded structures have been applied in various industrial fields and, in most cases, have been found to cause substantial increase in their fatigue strength. These methods, generally, consist of the modification of weld toe geometry and the introduction of compressive residual stresses. In hammer peening, the weld profile is modified due to removal or reduction of minute crack-like flaws; compressive residual stresses are also induced by repeated hammering of the weld toe region with blunt-nosed chisel. In this study, a hammer peening procedure, using commercial pneumatic chipping hammer, was developed; a quantitative measure of fatigue strength improvement was performed. The fatigue life of hammer-peened specimen was prolonged by approximately 10 times in S=240MPa, and was doubled for the as-welded specimen.


Author(s):  
Jacob Kleiman ◽  
Yuri Kudryavtsev ◽  
Alexander Lugovskoy

The Ultrasonic Peening (UP) is one of new and promising processes for fatigue life improvement of welded elements and structures. During the different stages of its development the UP process was also known as ultrasonic treatment (UT), ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT), ultrasonic impact peening (UIP). The beneficial effect of UP is achieved mainly by relieving of harmful tensile residual stresses and introducing of compressive residual stresses into surface layers of material, decreasing of stress concentration in weld toe zones and enhancement of mechanical properties of the surface layers of the material. The results of fatigue testing of welded elements made of regular and high strength steels in as-welded condition and after application of UP will be presented. The yield strength of considered materials varied from 250–350 MPa to 700–1000 MPa. It is shown that UP is the most effective and economic technique for increasing of fatigue strength of welded elements in materials of different strength. These results also show a strong tendency of increased fatigue strength of welded elements after application of UP with the increase in mechanical properties of the material used. It allows using to a greater degree the advantages of the HSS in welded elements, subjected to fatigue loading.


Author(s):  
Yuriy Kudryavtsev ◽  
Jacob Kleiman

The ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is relatively new and promising process for fatigue life improvement of welded elements and structures. In most industrial applications this process is known as ultrasonic peening (UP). The beneficial effect of UIT/UP is achieved mainly by relieving of harmful tensile residual stresses and introducing of compressive residual stresses into surface layers of a material, decreasing of stress concentration in weld toe zones and enhancement of mechanical properties of the surface layers of the material. The UP technique is based on the combined effect of high frequency impacts of special strikers and ultrasonic oscillations in treated material. Fatigue testing of welded specimens showed that UP is the most efficient improvement treatment as compared with traditional techniques such as grinding, TIG-dressing, heat treatment, hammer peening and application of LTT electrodes. The developed computerized complex for UP was successfully applied for increasing the fatigue life and corrosion resistance of welded elements, elimination of distortions caused by welding and other technological processes, residual stress relieving, increasing of the hardness of the surface of materials. The UP could be effectively applied for fatigue life improvement during manufacturing, rehabilitation and repair of welded elements and structures. The areas/industries where the UP process was applied successfully include: Shipbuilding, Railway and Highway Bridges, Construction Equipment, Mining, Automotive, Aerospace. The results of fatigue testing of welded elements in as-welded condition and after application of UP are considered in this paper. It is shown that UP is the most effective and economic technique for increasing of fatigue strength of welded elements in materials of different strength. These results also show a strong tendency of increasing of fatigue strength of welded elements after application of UP with the increase in mechanical properties of the material used.


Author(s):  
B. L. Josefson ◽  
J. Alm ◽  
J. M. J. McDill

The fatigue life of welded joints can be improved by modifying the weld toe geometry or by inducing beneficial compressive residual stresses in the weld. However, in the second case, the induced compressive residual stresses may relax when the welded joint is subjected to cyclic loading containing high tensile or compressive stress peaks. The stability of induced compressive stresses is investigated for a longitudinal gusset made of a S355 steel. Two methods are considered; either carrying out a high frequency mechanical impact (HFMI) treatment after welding or alternatively using low transformation temperature (LTT) electrodes during welding. The specimen is then subjected to a cyclic loading case with one cycle with a tensile peak (with magnitude reaching the local yield stress level) followed by cycles with constant amplitude. A sequential finite element analysis (FEA) is performed thereby preserving the history of the elasto-plastic behavior. Both the welding process and the HFMI treatment are simulated using simplified approaches, i.e., the welding process is simulated by applying a simplified thermal cycle while the HFMI treatment is simulated by a quasi-static contact analysis. It is shown that using the simplified approaches to modelling both the welding process and HFMI treatment gives results that correlate qualitatively well with the experimental and FEA data available in the literature. Thus, for comparison purposes, simplified models may be sufficient. Both the use of the HFMI treatment and LTT electrodes give approximately the same compressive stress at the weld toe but the extent of the compressive stress zone is deeper for HFMI case. During cyclic loading it is shown that the beneficial effect of both methods will be substantially reduced if the test specimen is subjected to unexpected peak loads. For the chosen load sequence, with the same maximum local stress at the weld toe, the differences in stress curves of the HFMI-treated specimen and that with LTT electrodes remain. While the LTT electrode gives the lowest (compressive) stress right at the well toe, it is shown that the overall effect of the HFMI treatment is more beneficial.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 179-190
Author(s):  
Yuir Kudryavtsev

The ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is relatively new and promising process for fatigue life improvement of welded elements and structures. In most industrial applications this process is known as ultrasonic peening (UP). The beneficial effect of UIT/UP is achieved mainly by relieving of tensile residual stresses and introducing of compressive residual stresses into surface layers of a material. The secondary factors in fatigue improvement by UIT/UP are decreasing of stress concentration in weld toe zones and enhancement of mechanical properties of the surface layers of the material. Fatigue testing of welded specimens showed that UIT/UP is the most efficient improvement treatment as compared with traditional techniques such as grinding, TIG-dressing, heat treatment, hammer peening and application of LTT electrodes. The developed computerized complex for UIT/UP was successfully applied for increasing the fatigue life and corrosion resistance of welded elements, elimination of distortions caused by welding and other technological processes, residual stress relieving, increasing of the hardness of the surface of materials. The results of fatigue testing of large-scale welded specimens in as-welded condition and after application of UIT/UP are considered in this paper. It is shown that UIT/UP is the most effective and economic technique for increasing of fatigue strength of welded elements in materials of different strength. These results also show a strong tendency of increasing of fatigue strength of welded elements after application of UP with the increase in mechanical properties of the material used.


2007 ◽  
Vol 348-349 ◽  
pp. 429-432
Author(s):  
Imke Weich ◽  
Thomas Ummenhofer

Research has been initiated on the effects of high frequency peening methods on the fatigue strength. These methods combine an improvement of weld toe profile with an initiation of compressive residual stresses and surface hardening. The effects of two techniques, High Frequency Impact Treatment (HiFIT) and Ultrasonic Impact Treatemnt (UIT) are compared. Laser measurements of the weld seam prove that both methods increase the overall weld toe radii. Further, residual stress measurements verify the introduction of compressive residual stresses at least up to a depth of 1 mm. The values meet the yield strength combined with an increase of the surface hardness. These material mechanical effects cause an increased crack resistance. Crack detection methods prove that the material mechanical effects yield to a retarded crack initiation. Experimental results show that these effects lead to a significant increase of the fatigue strength and reduced slopes of the SN-curves.


Author(s):  
Xavier Ficquet ◽  
Malcolm Hedmar ◽  
Ed J. Kingston

Plastic deformation from peening induces a compressive residual stress on the treated surface which provides resistance to metal fatigue. Hence, peening is often used to extend the fatigue lives of welded components by reducing the effective tensile residual stress. This paper describes the influence of ultrasonic peening on the residual stress. For this study a four point plastically bent beam specimen, similar to the reeling process, was used. The specimen was made from 50D steel a material often used in offshore structural components. The residual stresses in the specimen were measured before ultrasonic peening with 5 different measurement techniques. After the ultrasonic peening treatment the residual stress was measured using the Incremental centre hole drilling and the ring core techniques. Measurements were carried within the homogeneously bent section location as well as outside. In order to see the variation of the results influenced by the gauge volume, strain gauges of three different sizes were used to provide results within 0.5mm, 1mm and 2mm depth. The measurements show that the ultrasonic peening surface treatment carried out induced high compressive residual stresses up to 2mm deep inside the specimen. Finally a compendium of residual stress profiles using different peening processes and materials is presented and discussed.


Author(s):  
S.A. Zaides ◽  
Quang Le Hong

To restore the shape of low-stiff cylindrical parts such as shafts and axles, straightening by transverse bending with the subsequent processing of workpieces by the method of surface plastic deformation based on the transverse burnishing with smooth plates is proposed. The experimental and calculated results are presented to determine the effect of absolute compression on the main characteristics of the quality of the surface layer of parts such as surface roughness and residual stresses. The analysis of experimental data for the evaluation of the parts after straightening by transverse burnishing showed the following positive changes: a sharp decrease in the initial roughness, the formation of equilibrium residual compressive stresses in the surface layers and ensuring stabilization of the accuracy of the processed part in size and shape. Depending on the magnitude of the absolute reduction, the surface quality increases by 2–3 classes, and rather large compressive residual stresses are formed (up to 375 MPa). The results of the work justify recommending the proposed method of straightening by transverse burnishing with smooth plates for implementation into the technology of machine part restoration.


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