Residual Stresses in Butt Welding of Two Circular Pipes: An Experimental and Numerical Investigation

Author(s):  
Gurinder Singh Brar

Welding is a reliable and efficient joining process in which the coalescence of metals is achieved by fusion. Welding is carried out with a very complex thermal cycle which results in irreversible elastic-plastic deformation and residual stresses in and around fusion zone and heat affected zone (HAZ). A residual stress due to welding arises from the differential heating of the plates due to the weld heat source. Residual stresses may be an advantage or disadvantage in structural components depending on their nature and magnitude. The beneficial effect of these compressive stresses have been widely used in industry as these are believed to increase fatigue strength of the component and reduce stress corrosion cracking and brittle fracture. But due to the presence of residual stresses in and around the weld zone the strength and life of the component is also reduced. To understand the behavior of residual stresses, two 10 mm thick Fe410WC mild steel plates are butt welded using the Metal Active Gas (MAG) process. An experimental method (X-ray diffraction) and numerical analysis (finite element analysis) were then carried out to calculate the residual stress values in the welded plates. Three types of V-butt weld joint — two-pass, three-pass and four-pass were considered in this study. In multi-pass welding operation the residual stress pattern developed in the material changes with each weld pass. In X-ray diffraction method, the residual stresses were derived from the elastic strain measurements using a Young’s modulus value of 210 GPa and Poisson’s ratio of 0.3. Finite element method based, SolidWorks software was used to develop coupled thermal-mechanical three dimension finite element model. The finite element model was evaluated for the transient temperatures and residual stresses during welding. Also variations of the physical and mechanical properties of material with the temperature were taken into account. The numerical results for peak transverse residual stresses attained in the welded plates for two-pass, three-pass and four-pass welded joint were 67.7 N/mm2, 58.6 N/mm2, and 48.1 N/mm2 respectively. The peak temperature attained during welding process comes out to be 970°C for two-pass weld, 820.8°C for three-pass weld and 651.9°C for four-pass weld. It can be concluded that due to increase in the number of passes during welding process or deposition weld beads, the residual stresses and temperature distribution decrease. Also, the results obtained by finite element method agree well with those from experimental X-ray diffraction method.

Author(s):  
Gurdeep Singh ◽  
Gurinder Singh Brar

Welding is a reliable and efficient joining process in which the coalescence of metals is achieved by fusion. Welding is carried out with a very complex thermal cycle which results in irreversible elastic-plastic deformation and residual stresses in and around fusion zone and heat affected zone (HAZ). A residual stress due to welding arises from the differential heating of the plates due to the weld heat source. Residual stresses may be an advantage or disadvantage in structural components depending on their nature and magnitude. The beneficial effect of these compressive stresses have been widely used in industry as these are believed to increase fatigue strength of the component and reduce stress corrosion cracking and brittle fracture. But due to the presence of residual stresses in and around the weld zone the strength and life of the component is also reduced. To understand the behavior of residual stresses, two 10 mm thick Fe410WC mild steel plates are butt welded using the Metal Active Gas (MAG) process. An experimental method (X-ray diffraction) and numerical analysis (finite element analysis) are carried out to calculate the residual stress values in the welded plates. A three-pass V-butt weld joint is considered in this study. In multi-pass welding operation the residual stress pattern developed in the material changes with each weld pass. In X-ray diffraction method, the residual stresses were derived from the elastic strain measurements using a Young’s modulus value of 210 GPa and Poisson’s ratio of 0.3. Finite element method based, SolidWorks Simulation software is used to develop a coupled thermal-mechanical three dimension finite element model. The finite element model was evaluated for the transient temperatures and residual stresses during welding. Also variations of the physical and mechanical properties of material with the temperature were taken into account. It can also be concluded that when temperature distribution increases then the residual stress in the weldment also increase. The results obtained by finite element method agree well with those from experimental X-ray diffraction method.


2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wan ◽  
Wenchun Jiang ◽  
Yun Luo

A lot of failures have been generated in the tube-to-tubesheet joints of a shell and tube heat exchanger, which are greatly affected by the weld residual stresses. In order to ensure the structure integrity, it is very important to predict and decrease the residual stress in the joint between tube and tubesheet. In this paper, a combination of X-ray diffraction and finite element method (FEM) was used to analysis the residual stress distribution in the tube-to-tubesheet joints. The formation mechanism of residual stress before and after cosmetic welding was explicated. The effects of heat input and welding sequence on residual stresses were studied. The results show that the large tensile residual stresses which are in excess of yield strength, are generated in the tube-to-tubesheet joints. The residual stresses at the bottom surface and the edge of the tubesheet are relatively small even become compressive. The formation of the weld residual stress is mainly induced by the cosmetic welding rather than the back welding. The residual stresses increase as the heat input increases. The duplex welding method is recommended to decrease the residual stress.


2013 ◽  
Vol 758 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Fabiano Rezende ◽  
Luís Felipe Guimarães de Souza ◽  
Pedro Manuel Calas Lopes Pacheco

Welding is a complex process where localized and intensive heat is imposed to a piece promoting mechanical and metallurgical changes. Phenomenological aspects of welding process involve couplings among different physical processes and its description is unusually complex. Basically, three couplings are essential: thermal, phase transformation and mechanical phenomena. Welding processes can generate residual stress due to the thermal gradient imposed to the workpiece in association to geometric restrictions. The presence of tensile residual stresses can be especially dangerous to mechanical components submitted to fatigue loadings. The present work regards on study the residual stress in welded superduplex stainless steel pipes using experimental and a numerical analysis. A parametric nonlinear elastoplastic model based on finite element method is used for the evaluation of residual stress in superduplex steel welding. The developed model takes into account the coupling between mechanical and thermal fields and the temperature dependency of the thermomechanical properties. Thermocouples are used to measure the temperature evolution during welding stages. Instrumented hole drilling technique is used for the evaluation of the residual stress after welding process. Experimental data is used to calibrate the numerical model. The methodology is applied to evaluate the behavior of two-pass girth welding (TIG for root pass and SMAW for finishing) in 4 inch diameter seamless tubes of superduplex stainless steel UNS32750. The result shows a good agreement between numerical experimental results. The proposed methodology can be used in complex geometries as a powerful tool to study and adjust welding parameters to minimize the residual stresses on welded mechanical components.


1993 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Nishimura

New equations for calculating residual stress distribution are derived from the theory of elasticity for tubes. The initial distribution of the stresses including the shearing stress is computed from longitudinal distributions of residual stresses measured by the X-ray methods at the surface after removal of successive concentric layers of material. For example, the residual stresses of a steel tube quenched in water were measured by the X-ray diffraction method. The new method was also applied to a short tube with hypothetical residual stress distribution. An alternative finite element analysis was made for a verification. The residual stresses computed by finite element modeling agreed well with the hypothetical residual stresses measured. This shows that good results can be expected from the new method. The equations can also be used for bars by simple modification.


Author(s):  
Christopher M. Gill ◽  
Philip J. Withers ◽  
Alex Evans ◽  
Neil Fox ◽  
Koichi Akita

A layer of compressive residual stress extending from the surface of a component can help to extend fatigue life, but it must remain stable during applied service loading. Metal shot and glass bead peening are traditionally used; introducing a shallow (100–300μm) layer of compressive residual stress and a highly cold worked surface. Laser peening and deep rolling are capable of introducing much deeper compressive residual stresses combined with lower levels of cold work. In this paper we report on the level of shakedown of residual stress brought about by constant strain amplitude fatigue. Glass and metal shot peened, laser peened and deep rolled Ti-6Al-4V samples have been studied. The residual stress profiles as a function of depth have been measured using neutron diffraction, laboratory x-ray diffraction and a hybrid hole-drilling/laboratory x-ray diffraction method. The magnitude and depth of cold work determined for each of the treatment methods. The extent of subsequent residual stress shakedown under different strain amplitudes and load ratios, in deep rolled, glass bead and metal shot peened samples is also assessed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 89-91 ◽  
pp. 545-550
Author(s):  
Shunichi Takahashi ◽  
Takanori Kato ◽  
Hiroshi Suzuki ◽  
Toshihiko Sasaki

X-ray stress measurement is useful for determining, in a non-destructive manner, the surface stresses of engineered parts. However, the railway wheels cannot measure because this it is very large. So it should be measured using a scaled-down model. The problem is, however, how the stress release should be considered. In this analysis, the finite element method (FEM) was applied to estimate the initial stress state using stresses released after cutting a sample obtained by the X-ray method. Railway wheels were studied in this experiment. In the early 1990s, several railroads in the northeast of the U.S.A. experienced extensive cracking in the wheels of the commuter trains. Residual stresses in the hoop direction play an important role in mechanism fatigue damage. This paper will discuss about residual stress in the hoop direction in manufactured wheels. The results of FEM analysis and the X-ray diffraction method confirms that these methods can be used to evaluate the residual stress of the hoop direction. There is very good quantitative agreement between the simulated and measured stress distributions. It can be suggested that guessing guess stress release and the redistribution by the FEM analysis is possible. The residual hoop stress of the unused wheel presumed by this research has the residual stress of high compression in the wheel at the center of the rim up to 40mm depth. It is very safe because the residual stress state is compressive even when a crack occurs, and obstructs the crack’s progress. If a crack occurs by any chance, the stress state can obstruct the crack’s progress.


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