Dirk Schroepfer

Engineering approach to assess residual stresses in welded components

Present trends to lightweight design lead to an expanding relevance of high-strength fine-grained structural steels especially in mobile crane constructions. With growing material strength, the challenge for welding fabrication increases, since high loading capacities and safety requirements have to be accomplished. The utilisation of the high strength potential often requires complex constructions associated with high restraint conditions while welding. Increased residual stresses may occur due to superimposing reaction and restraint stresses, which have to be quantified and evaluated to ensure the safety and integrity of high-strength steel constructions. Particularly, the scope of residual stresses has to be taken into account for different effects in the HAZ, notches, weld and base metal. Commonly, conservative assumptions of residual stresses lead to distinct underestimations of the load bearing capacity particularly for welded high-strength steel constructions. This study concludes results of recent works of the researchers regarding the complex interaction among heat control, material and restraint intensity on the residual stress state in welded components. These analyses are extended by further experiments. Based on the obtained major effects, an approach for a welding residual stress assessment regarding component design according to prevailing standards for crane construction, an important application for high-strength steels, is presented.

Multi-axial Analyses of Welding Stresses in High-Strength Steel Welds

Today’s efforts for lightweight design result in a growing application of high-strength structural steels from 960 MPa. In welded structures of these steels increased demands regarding component safety and a high elastic ratio should be considered. Hence, the prevention of an evolution of high weld-induced tensile residual stresses is required. Recent studies showed that component related restraint conditions of welds are able to elevate welding induced stresses to critical values, depending on material characteristics, the welding process and parameters. This work involves multi-axial welding loads as a consequence of the superposition of local residual stresses, global reaction stresses and moments, varying the welding parameters under different restraint conditions. The global welding loads are measured via GMA-weld tests in a special testing facility and via a DIC(Digital Image Correlation)-system in a slot weld. Local transverse residual stresses were analysed by means of X-ray diffraction. The application of a less amount of weld runs due to a modified welding parameters and welds seam configurations revealed as a beneficial approach to reduce welding loads in high-strength steels.

Formation of multi-axial welding stresses due to material behaviour during fabrication of high-strength steel components

Today, an expanding application of high-strength steels in modern welded constructions can be observed. The economical use of these steel grades largely depends on the strength and reliability of the weldments. Therefore, the special microstructure and mechanical properties of these grades have to be taken into account by keener working ranges regarding the welding parameters. However, performance and safety of welded components are strongly affected by the stresses occurring during and after welding fabrication locally in the weld seam and globally in the whole component, especially if the shrinkage and distortion due to welding are restrained. Some extensive studies describe the optimization of the welding stresses and the metallurgical effects regarding an adapted welding heat control. Lower working temperatures revealed to be particularly effective to reduce the local and global welding-induced residual stresses of the complete weld significantly. However, decreased interpass temperatures cause concurrently higher stresses during welding fabrication. This work shows strategies to reduce these in-process stresses. With help of multi-axial welding stress analyses in component-related weld tests, using a special 2-MN-testing facility, differences in stress build-up are described in detail for root welds, filler layers and subsequent cooling to ambient temperature.

Load analyses of welded high-strength steel structures using image correlation and diffraction techniques

In an increasing number of modern steel applications, high-strength structural steel grades are demanded to meet specifications regarding a high load-bearing capacity and a low operating weight. Lightweight design rules enhance the safety requirements, especially for welded joints. Besides a higher cracking risk for high-strength steel welds, the formation of tensile residual stresses might lead to fracture due to overloading or premature failure if not adequately considered. In this study, a stress-strain analysis was conducted at component-related structures from S960QL using digital image correlation while preheating, welding and cooling adjacent to the weld seam. X-ray diffraction analysis of the local residual stresses in the weld seam showed a good comparability with global analyses using either a DIC system or a special testing facility, which allowed in situ measurements of welding loads. By analysing two different seam geometries, it could be shown that lower multi-axial stresses arise if a narrower weld groove is used. Comparative analyses revealed a direct correlation of the local residual stresses in the weld with transverse shrinkage restraint, whereas the residual stress level in the HAZ is significantly affected by the bending restraint of the weld construction and the occurring bending stresses, respectively.

In-Situ Determination of Critical Welding Stresses During Assembly of Thick-Walled Components made of High-Strength Steel

The performance and safety of welded high-strength low-alloyed steel (HSLA) components are substantially affected by the stresses occurring during and after welding fabrication, especially if welding shrinkage and distortion are severely restrained. The surrounding structure of the whole component affects loads in the far-field superimposing with welding stresses in the near-field of the weld. In this study a unique testing facility was used to restrain shrinkage and bending while analyse multiaxial far-field loads (max. 2 MN) during assembly of thick-walled component. A novel approach for the assessment of the in-situ-measured far-field data in combination with the actual weld geometry was elaborated. For the first time, analyses of the global bending moments of restrained welds based on the neutral axis of the actual weld load bearing section were achieved. Hence, far-field measurements offered the possibility to determine critical near-field stresses of the weld crosssections for the entire joining process. This work presents the approach for far-to-near field in-situ determination of stresses in detail for the 2-MN-testing system based on an extensive experimental work on HSLA steel welds, which demonstrates sources and consequences of these high local welding stresses. Thus, it was clarified, why the first weld beads are crucial regarding welding stresses and cold cracking, which is well known, but has never been measured so far. Accompanying analyses using X-ray diffraction (XRD) after welding show effects on local residual stress distributions. These analyses indicated viable prospects for stress reduction during assembly of thick-walled HSLA steel components.

Residual Stress Formation in Component Related Stress Relief Cracking Tests of a Welded Creep-Resistant Steel

Submerged arc welded (SAW) components of creep-resistant low-alloyed Cr-Mo-V steels are used for thick-walled heavy petrochemical reactors (wall-thickness up to 475 mm) as well as employed in construction of modern high-efficient fossil fired power plants. These large components are accompanied by significant restraints during welding fabrication, especially at positions of different thicknesses like welding of nozzles. As a result, residual stresses occur, playing a domi-nant role concerning so-called stress relief cracking (SRC) typically during post weld heat treat-ment (PWHT). Besides specific metallurgical factors (like secondary hardening due to re-precipitation), high tensile residual stresses are a considerable influence factor on SRC. For the assessment of SRC susceptibility of certain materials mostly mechanical tests are applied which are isolated from the welding process. Conclusions regarding the influence of mechanical factors are rare so far. The present research follows an approach to reproduce loads, which occur during welding of real thick-walled components scaled to laboratory conditions by using tests designed on different measures. A large-scale slit specimen giving a high restraint in 3 dimensions by high stiffness was compared to a medium-scale multi-pass welding U-profile specimen showing a high degree of restraint in longitudinal direction and a small-scale TIG-re-melted specimen. The small-scale specimens were additionally subjected to mechanical bending to induce loads that are found during fabrication on the real-scale in heavy components. Results show for all three cases compa-rable high tensile residual stresses up to yield strength with high gradients in the weld metal and the heat affected zone. Those high tensile stresses can be significant for cracking during further PWHT.