Xiaobo Ren

Numerical Analysis of Residual Stresses in Hyperbaric Welding

Hyperbaric welding residual stress is one of the main concerns for deep water operation. This study presents the numerical investigation of residual stresses in hyperbaric welding by using WeldsimS code. The pressure range investigated in this study is from 3 to 35 bar, which corresponds to 30 to 350 msw (Meters of Sea Water). Experiments results indicate that the welding procedure might be significantly influenced within the pressure range studied. A 2D axisymmetric model has been considered in this study to simulate circumferential welding of a pipe. Phase transformations and transformation plasticity during the welding procedure have been taken into account. The main aim of the study is to predict the hyperbaric welding residual stresses. The temperature evolution and the micro-structure were also studied. Results show that residual stresses induced by hyperbaric welding are significant within the pressure range investigated, which should be assessed for the sake of structural integrity.Copyright

Numerical Investigation on the Influence of Residual Stresses on Ductile Crack Growth Resistance

In this paper, a numerical study was performed to assess the effect of residual stresses on ductile crack growth resistance of a typical pipeline steel. A modified boundary layer model was employed for the analysis under plane strain, Mode I loading condition. The residual stress fields were introduced into the finite element model by the eigenstrain method. The complete Gurson model has been applied to simulate the ductile fracture, which is characterized by microvoid nucleation, growth and coalescence. Results show that tensile residual stresses can significantly reduce the crack growth resistance when the crack growth is small compared with the length scale of the tensile residual stress field. With the crack growth, the effect of residual stresses on the crack growth resistance tends to diminish. It has also been found that the effect of residual stresses on crack growth resistance depends on the initial void volume fraction f0 and hardening exponent n.Copyright