Analysis of Leakage Cause of L415M Spiral Submerged Arc Welding Pipe

The causes of longitudinal crack in gas pipeline during pressure were analyzed by means of mechanical property test, microstructure analysis, sem analysis and energy spectrum analysis. The results show that the leakage of L415M spiral submerged arc welded pipe is caused by the contact between the base material of steel pipe and low-melting copper alloy in the process of high temperature, resulting in the brittleness of liquid metal. Specifically, when the leakage site of the steel pipe is heated at an abnormal high temperature, copper penetration along the grain boundary causes embrittlement, strength reduction and crack along the grain boundary, finally leading to the crack and leak of the steel pipe.

Numerical investigation on the influence of the electro-resistance welding pipe manufacturing process on the local variation of the yield strength of the pipe material

In the present research work, a finite element model of the electro-resistance welding pipe forming process chain is developed using the ABAQUS/Explicit software. The forming process, which is composed of 22 tandem roll stations, has been fully modeled in the developed finite element simulation. In order to account for the Bauschinger effect on the pipe material properties as a consequence of the loading and the unloading during the process, a non-linear kinematic hardening model has been utilized in all the proposed finite element simulation models. The constants for the non-linear kinematic hardening model were estimated by means of cyclic experiments on the K55 steel pipe material. In order to properly simulate the electric arc welding (electro-resistance welding) operation, the ABAQUS welding interface has been utilized to account for the joining between the two edges of the formed pipe as well as to assess the influence of the welding-induced temperature field on the residual stresses on the pipe material. The sizing operation, which is the final station of the electro-resistance welding process, has been also accounted in the developed finite element method model and is composed of six tandem rolls. To export and import the results between two different modules, a mapping strategy has been utilized and allowed exporting the element results, in terms of stress, strain, and temperature, and importing them into the following simulation module. Finally, in order to estimate the influence of each process station on the yield strength of the material, a finite element simple tension test simulation has been implemented in ABAQUS/Static, mapping the results of each station on the tensile specimen. This mapping operation allowed to estimate the yield stress of the material after each of the three process stations, a consequence of the residual stresses present in the material, and has been carried out on eight circumferential locations around the pipe, evenly spaced with a 22.5° angle. The model has been validated by comparing the geometrical results, in terms of average pipe diameter and thickness, obtained from the finite element model with those of the relevant industrial production, showing deviations equal to 1.25% and 1.35% (forming) and 1.29% and 1.43% (sizing), respectively, proving the reliability of the proposed process chain analysis simulation. The results will show how the process-induced residual stresses arising on the pipe material make the material yield strength to vary from station to station as well as having different values along the circumferential direction of the pipe.

Numerical Investigation of Strength Mismatch Effect on Ductile Crack Growth Resistance in Welding Pipe

The effect of strength mismatch (ratio between the yield stress of weld metal and base metal, My) on the ductile crack growth resistance of welding pipe was numerically analyzed. The ductile fracture behavior of welding pipe was determined while using the single edge notched bending (SENB) and single edge notched tension (SENT) specimens, as well as axisymmetric models of circumferentially cracked pipes for comparison. Crack growth resistance curves (as denoted by crack tip opening displacement-resistance (CTOD-R curve) have been computed using the complete Gurson model. A so-called CTOD-Q-M formulation was proposed to calculate the weld mismatch constraint M. It has been shown that the fracture resistance curves significantly increase with the increase of the mismatch ratio. As for SENT and pipe, the larger My causes the lower mismatch constraint M, which leads to the higher fracture toughness and crack growth resistance curves. When compared with the standard SENB, the SENT specimen and the cracked pipe have a more similar fracture resistance behavior. The results present grounds for justification of usage of SENT specimens in fracture assessment of welding cracked pipes as an alternative to the traditional conservative SENB specimens.