Residual Stress Measurement, Finite Element Mapping and Flaw Simulation for a Girth Welded Pipe

Author(s):  
Xavier Ficquet ◽  
Karim Serasli ◽  
Ed J. Kingston

Optimising the structural integrity of an oil and gas pipeline is hugely important for its productivity and hence profitability. The structural integrity of a pipeline is influenced by factors such as: stress (i.e. applied and residual), material properties, environment, and the size and orientation of contained flaws. For example, whilst in operation, the integrity of a pipeline can be extended by reducing its applied stresses e.g. the flow and pressure of the oil and gas running within. Prior to operation however the integrity of the pipeline can easily be extended by reducing the residual stresses generated during installation or even “negatively pre-loading” the pipeline using residual stresses to help cancel out some of the applied stresses. Therefore understanding the distribution of residual stresses within a pipeline can be of great benefit to Oil and Gas engineers. In this paper, complementary residual stress measurement techniques are used to obtain near surface and through-thickness residual stress distributions in a fully circumferential butt welded pipe. The deep hole drilling (DHD) method was used to obtain the axial and hoop residual stresses along radial lines through the pipe wall. Near surface measurements on the outer surface of the pipe were obtained using the incremental centre-hole drilling (ICHD) method. The measurements were made only at limited points in and adjacent to the circumferential weld. In order to estimate the complete residual stress field present in the pipe, a mapping procedure utilising a finite element (FE) method was implemented. This entailed introducing the measured residual stresses into a FE model of the pipe as an initial condition and allowing redistribution. Naturally, the stresses at the measurement locations should remain at their initial values. Consequently, the method was developed to allow redistribution while retaining the measured values. The paper provides these estimates of the full residual stress state present in the pipe based on this mapping procedure. The FE model was then used to simulate the influence of various sizes of flaw on the mapped residual stresses field. An assessment of the acceptability of areas of loss of the wall thickness in internally pressurised pressure vessels was then performed.

Author(s):  
R. J. Dennis ◽  
N. A. Leggatt ◽  
E. A. Kutarski

The ‘Contour Method’ is a relatively new relaxation method for residual stress measurement and may be seen as an evolution of established methods such as hole drilling. The general procedure when applying the Contour Method is cutting, measurement and calculation of residual stress normal to the cut plane using Bueckner’s principle of elastic superposition. That is the residual stresses are determined from the measured profile of a cut surface. While the Contour Method is simple in concept there are certain underlying issues relating to the cutting process that may lead to uncertainties in the measured results. Principally the issues are that of constraint and plasticity during the cutting process and the influence that they have on the measured residual stresses. Both of these aspects have been investigated in previous work by simulating the entire contour measurement method process using finite element techniques for ‘simple’ flat plate welded specimens. Here that work is further investigated and extended by application to a 316 Stainless Steel welded pipe structure containing a part-circumferential repair. This more complex structure and residual stress field is of significantly greater engineering interest. The key objective of this work is to ascertain the feasibility of and further our understanding of the performance of the Contour Method. Furthermore this work has the potential to provide a method to support the optimisation of the contour measurement process when applied to more complex engineering components.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Hossain ◽  
MD Salim Miah ◽  
B Fakhim

Marine structures are susceptible to failure mechanism due to presence of both external and internal loads. A submarine is manufactured with several circular hull sections welded together and forming an entire hull. A hull section consists of several bowed metal sheets welded together and strengthened by T-section rings which are welded at repeated spaces. T-section rings are fabricated using numerous web and flange plates and curved correctly by plastically bending before welding. Fatigue life of a submarine hull is dependent on load produced from hull contraction due to surrounding hydrostatic pressure, as well as residual stress present without any applied load. Numerical simulation can be used to calculate stresses generated from hydrostatic pressure. However, predicting residual stresses resulting from bending and welding processes can be more involved. Moreover, the predicted stresses need to be validated by measurement. Incremental centre-hole drilling (iCHD) is broadly applied technique to measure residual stress. The iCHD technique however is limited to near surface measurement which can contribute to misleading structural integrity assessment. On the other hand an over-conservative estimate of stress due to welding process can lead to reduced life estimate. It is thus imperative to analyse residual stresses accurately and deep into metal parts in order to move away from decade old conservative estimates. This paper reviews various techniques available for analysing residual stress field and considers multiple techniques with an aim to provide an optimum solution.


Author(s):  
Vinod Chauhan ◽  
Zhili Feng

Welding residual stresses are an important consideration in the fracture mechanics based fitness-for-purpose (FFP) assessment of steel structures. Reliable predictions of structural integrity can only be made provided that welding residual stresses are adequately accounted for. In the majority of cases, their magnitude is not known and can vary widely. In the absence of detailed information, it is common practice to assume that the welding residual stress is tensile, uniform through the thickness and of yield strength magnitude. However, this assumption will often lead to conservative fracture assessments which may lead to the conclusion that a weld repair is necessary when in practice the structure is safe to continue operation. In this paper, an integrated thermal-metallurgical-mechanical finite element (FE) model is described which simulates the formation of residual stresses at pipeline girth welds. The simulation takes into account detailed variations of the microstructure in the weld and heat affected zone (HAZ) in order to predict residual stress levels. Results of the FE analysis were validated with measurements of the microhardness and surface residual stresses using the air abrasive center hole drilling method. Sensitivity of residual stress levels to steel strength level, pipe wall thickness and pipe misalignment is discussed. The effects of hydrotesting and the alleviation of welding residual stresses are also described.


Author(s):  
J.-S. Park ◽  
J.-M. Kim ◽  
G.-H. Sohn ◽  
Y.-H. Kim

This study is concerned with the mechanics analysis of residual stress improvement by the heat sink method applied to a dissimilar metal weld (DMW) for the use in nuclear power plants. The DMW joint considered here is composed of ferritic low-alloy steel nozzle, austenitic stainless steel safe-end, and nickel-base alloy A52 weld metal. To prepare the DMW joint with a narrow-gap, the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process is utilized, and the heat sink method is employed to control thermal gradients developed in the critical region of work pieces during welding. Weld residual stresses are computed by the non-linear thermal elasto-plastic analysis using the axisymmetric finite element (FE) model, for which temperature-dependent thermal and mechanical properties of the materials are considered. A full-scale mock-up test is conducted to validate analytical solution for the DMW joint, and residual stresses are measured by using the hole-drilling method. Results of the FE modeling and mock-up test for the DMW joint are compared and effects of the heat sink method are discussed. It is found that a significant amount of residual compressive stresses can be developed on the inner surface of the DMW joint by using the heat sink method, which can effectively reduce the susceptibility of the welded materials to stress corrosion or fatigue cracking.


2011 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 279-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.M. Goudar ◽  
Ed J. Kingston ◽  
Mike C. Smith ◽  
Sayeed Hossain

Frequent failures of the pressuriser heater tubes used in Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs) have been found. Axial cracks initiating from the tube outer diameter have been detected in some tubes as well as the resulting electrical problems. Replacement of the heater tubes requires an undesirably prolonged plant shutdown. In order to better understand these failures a series of residual stress measurements were carried out to obtain the near surface and through-thickness residual stress profiles in a stainless steel pressuriser heater tube. Three different residual stress measurement techniques were employed namely, Deep-Hole Drilling (DHD), Incremental Centre Hole Drilling (ICHD) and Sachs’ Boring (SB) to measure the through thickness residual stress distribution in the heater tubes. Results showed that the hoop stresses measured using all three techniques were predominantly tensile at all locations, while the axial stresses were found to be tensile at the surface and both tensile and compressive as they reduce to small magnitudes within the tube. The magnitude of the in-plane shear stresses was small at all measurement depths at all locations. The various measurement methods were found to complement each other well. All the measurements revealed a characteristic profile for the through-thickness residual stress distribution.


2016 ◽  
Vol 827 ◽  
pp. 117-120
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Vaclavik ◽  
Stanislav Holy ◽  
Jiří Jankovec ◽  
Petr Jaros ◽  
Otakar Weinberg

The method for residual stress measurement using through the hole drilling and investigation of the residual stresses relief with the help of incremental layers removing is presented. Drilling the rosette-hole from the opposite side – the inverse layers removing – have to be used for evaluation of residual stress near the back side of the object wall in cases when this surface is inaccessible for any hole-drilling instrument. The strain gauge rosette is installed on the opposite side of the drilled wall and a new mechanical task of incremental layers removal must be solved. The calibration constants for residual stress evaluation of HBM RY21 type rosette for this case were derived using numerical modeling by FEA and its experimental verification.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeong-Seok Lim ◽  
Sang-Hyuk Kim ◽  
Kwang-Jin Lee

This study was performed to investigate both the residual stress distribution and the effect of the residual stress formed at the welding region on the mechanical properties of the friction stir welded joints with 409L stainless steel sheets. Residual stress measurement with hole-drilling method; mechanical property evaluation including tensile test, Charpy impact test, and fatigue test; and microstructure observation were conducted. It has got no residual stresses to speak of at the center region of the stir zone because the stored stresses are released in the process of the dynamic recrystallization, while a small quantity of compressive residual stresses is formed at the surface region of the stir zone because of strong compression reaction by the tool shoulder. A considerable amount of compressive residual stresses is formed at the thermomechanical affected zone because of the synergy between the thermal expansion due to the heat conduction from the stir zone and mechanical compression by the tool. The formation of residual stresses shows a similar tendency between the advancing side and the retreating side. Both the mitigation of residual stress in the stir zone and the formation of compressive residual stress in the thermomechanical affected zone contribute to the improvement of the mechanical properties of the friction stir welded joints.


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Cheng ◽  
I. Finnie ◽  
M. Gremaud ◽  
M. B. Prime

In previous work it has been shown that near surface residual stresses may be deduced from surface strains produced by making a cut of progressively increasing depth. The process of electric discharge wire machining (EDWM), by providing very narrow cuts, greatly improves the ability of the method to resolve a stress gradient near the surface. However, the EDWM process may also introduce residual stresses. In the present work a model for estimating the influence of EDWM is presented, and a procedure for eliminating its effect on residual stress measurement is developed. Experimental results validate the theoretical approach.


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.


1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Cheng ◽  
I. Finnie ◽  
O¨. Vardar

The use of thin cuts for residual stress measurement is referred to as the crack compliance method. A computational model is presented for the determination of normal and shear residual stresses near the surface by introducing shallow cuts. The optimum regions for strain measurement are obtained. This method is shown to be considerably more sensitive than the conventional hole drilling method and is capable of measuring residual stresses which vary with depth below the surface.


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