Michael Law

High-pH inclined stress corrosion cracking in Australian and Canadian gas pipeline X65 steels

High-pH stress corrosion cracking is a form of environmental degradation of gas pipeline steels. The crack path is intergranular by nature and typically perpendicular to the maximum applied (hoop) stress (i.e. perpendicular to the pipe outer surface). Some unusual instances of cracks have been observed in Canadian and Australian X65 pipes, where cracks grow away from the perpendicular for considerable distances. This paper presents a comparative study in terms of crack morphology, mechanical properties and crystallographic texture for these Australian and Canadian pipe steels. It is shown that the crack morphologies are quite similar, the main difference being the angle at which the cracks propagate into the material. This difference could be explained by the different through-wall texture and grain aspect ratio measured in the two materials. The interdependency of crack tip plasticity, crack tip electrochemistry and anisotropy in microstructural texture seems to heavily affect the resulting inclined crack path.

Residual Stress Distributions in Bi-Metal (Ferritic to Austenitic Steel) Joints Made by Laser Welding

In this work, autogenous laser welding was used to join thin plates of low carbon ferritic and austenitic stainless steel. Due to the differences in the thermo-physical properties of base metals, this kind of welds exhibit a complex microstructure, which frequently leads to an overall loss of joint quality. Four welded samples were prepared by using different sets of processing parameters, with the aim of minimizing the induced residual stress field. Microstructural characterization and residual strain scanning (by neutron diffraction) were used to assess the joints’ features.

An Investigation of Residual Stress, Hardness, and Texture on Stress Corrosion Cracking in a Gas Pipeline

Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) may be a serious problem in gas pipelines. This work studies the hardness and residual stress profiles in two nominally identical sections of adjacent pipe with similar environment and coating, one of which was affected by detectable SCC and the other that was not. The results show changes in texture, residual stress, plastic strain, and hardness at the pipe surface which may be responsible for the altered susceptibility to SCC.

Evaluation of High Temperature Fatigue Behaviour of P22 by Miniature Specimen Testing

Miniature specimen testing to evaluate mechanical properties, presents a novel opportunity to undertake structural integrity assessments of in-service power generation components, by removing only a very small volume of material. In this study, high temperature fatigue testing of P22 steel was undertaken and a number of fatigue properties determined using a miniature specimen testing methodology. Good comparisons were observed between fatigue properties determined by miniature specimens and the more established standard-sized specimen testing reported in literature.

Fatigue Crack Growth Comparison Between Sleeved and Non Sleeved Pipeline

A section of gas pipeline containing dormant stress corrosion cracks was removed from service and pressure cycled, and the crack growth from fatigue was measured. Crack growth was able to be conservatively calculated by BS7910. Parts of the pipeline section had composite repair sleeves placed over it in order to compare fatigue crack growth of sleeved and unsleeved cracks. Sleeved cracks consistently showed less crack growth than unsleeved cracks; this is believed to be due to reduced hoop stresses in the pipe under the composite repair sleeve and reduced crack opening. A simple model of the sleeve repair was developed which was consistent with the measured strains in the pipe. The application pressure of the sleeve repair affects the amount of stress reduction in the pipe and the amount of crack growth experienced. Two possible methods of repair of SCC affected pipelines were validated by this work.

Residual Stress and Critical Crack Size before and after Post-Weld Heat-Treatment

Post-weld heat-treatment (PWHT) is performed to reduce residual stress, but is not always possible to perform. The residual stresses on a thick section weld on a gas pipeline were determined before and after PWHT to assess residual stress and critical defect sizes.

Neutron diffraction residual stress measurements of welds made with pulsed tandem gas metal arc welding (PT-GMAW)

Pulsed tandem gas metal arc welding (PT-GMAW) is being developed to increase productivity and minimise weld-induced distortion in ship-building. The PT-GMAW process was used in pulse–pulse mode to butt-weld two different strength and thickness steels; the residual stress and hardness profiles of the welds are reported and correlated.

Residual Stresses in a Welded Zircaloy Cold Neutron Source Containment Vessel

Zirconium alloys are widely used in the nuclear industry because of their relative high strength, neutron transparency, resistance to high neutron-irradiation environment and corrosion resistance. One application for Zirconium alloy Zr-2.5Nb is the vacuum confinement vessel utilised in the cold neutron source of the OPAL research reactor at ANSTO. Having a total length of more the 3 meters, it is made of two sections joined using electron beam welding. The weld and the nearby regions are critical for the performance and integrity of the component and therefore understanding of the residual stresses development within the weld is important in connection to (i) evolution of fine dual phase α/b microstructure and crystallographic texture (ii) and stress-related radiation induced phenomena, such as grain growth, creep and sub-critical crack growth by delayed hydride cracking. The stresses were measured in and around an electron beam weld produced during the development of this component of the OPAL Cold Neutron Source. The effects of a large grain size in the weld were reduced by taking advantage of rotational symmetry and rotating the sample to increase the swept volume. Due to the heat-treatment after welding, the stresses were very low, less than 10% of the yield strength of the material, in both the hoop and axial directions. As a result of phase transformation effects during the welding process the final stresses are compressive in the weld, which reduces the likelihood of fracture or of hydride formation in this region. The highest stresses are in the parent material adjacent to the weld where the toughness is expected to be higher than in the weld material.