Filtern
Dokumenttyp
- Vortrag (10) (entfernen)
Referierte Publikation
- nein (10)
Schlagworte
- Stress relief cracking (10) (entfernen)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
Eingeladener Vortrag
- nein (10)
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 dominant role concerning so-called stress relief cracking (SRC) typically during post weld heat treatment (PWHT). Besides specific metallurgical factors (like secondary hardening due to reprecipitation), 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-remelted 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 comparable 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.
Over the past years economic and environmental considerations have led to a markedly increased demand for efficiency and flexibility in petrochemical plants. The operational temperatures and pressures required today can only be achieved by using new creep-resistant grades of steel. The modified 13CrMoV9-10 vanadium steel shows a good resistance against creep and compressed hydrogen and has been in use for the construction of petrochemical reactors since the mid-1990s. Nevertheless, processing of this type of steel requires extreme care during the welding procedure. This is due to its low toughness and high strength in the welded state when not post weld heat treated combined with increased susceptibility to cracking during stress relaxation. Previous research into crack formation in creep-resistant steels has largely focused on thermal and metallurgical factors; however, little knowledge has been gathered regarding the influence of the welding procedure on crack formation during post weld heat treatment considering real-life manufacturing conditions. The influence of heat control on the mechanical properties has been investigated by simulating the welding and subsequent post weld heat treatment operations during the construction of petrochemical reactors using a special 3-D testing facility on the laboratory scale.
This work is subdivided in two parts. In part I of this study the stresses resulting from preheating, welding, dehydrogenation heat treatment and the final post weld heat treatment were analyzed during experiments under varied heat control. In all experiments stress relief cracks formed during post weld heat treatment could be observed. The total crack lengths correlated with the welding induced stresses.
Part II of this work is dedicated to the characterization of the cracks and the microstructure. The application of a special acoustic emission analysis indicated that the cracks formed in a temperature range between 300 °C and 500 °C during the post weld heat treatment. In comparison to small scale specimens welded without additional shrinkage restraint, the toughness of the restrained welds was significantly decreased. SEM and TEM analyses of all samples revealed accelerated aging due to early precipitation of special carbides during post weld heat treatment under component relevant restraint.
Over the past years economic and environmental considerations have led to a markedly increased demand for efficiency and flexibility in petrochemical plants. The operational temperatures and pressures required today can only be achieved by using new creep-resistant grades of steel. The modified 13CrMoV9-10 vanadium steel shows a good resistance against creep and compressed hydrogen and has been in use for the construction of petrochemical reactors since the mid-1990s. Nevertheless, processing of this type of steel requires extreme care during the welding procedure. This is due to its low toughness and high strength in the welded state when not post weld heat treated combined with increased susceptibility to cracking during stress relaxation. Previous research into crack formation in creep-resistant steels has largely focused on thermal and metallurgical factors; however, little knowledge has been gathered regarding the influence of the welding procedure on crack formation during post weld heat treatment considering real-life manufacturing conditions. The influence of heat control on the mechanical properties has been investigated by simulating the welding and subsequent post weld heat treatment operations during the construction of petrochemical reactors using a special 3-D testing facility on the laboratory scale.
This work is subdivided in two parts. In part I of this study the stresses resulting from preheating, welding, dehydrogenation heat treatment and the final post weld heat treatment were analyzed during experiments under varied heat control. In all experiments stress relief cracks formed during post weld heat treatment could be observed. The total crack lengths correlated with the welding induced stresses.
Part II of this work is dedicated to the characterization of the cracks and the microstructure. The application of a special acoustic emission analysis indicated that the cracks formed in a temperature range between 300 °C and 500 °C during the post weld heat treatment. In comparison to small scale specimens welded without additional shrinkage restraint, the toughness of the restrained welds was significantly decreased. SEM and TEM analyses of all samples revealed accelerated aging due to early precipitation of special carbides during post weld heat treatment under component relevant restraint.
Over the past years economic and environmental considerations have led to a markedly increased demand for efficiency and flexibility in petrochemical plants. The operational temperatures and pressures required today can only be achieved by using new creep-resistant grades of steel. The modified 13CrMoV9-10 vanadium steel shows a good resistance against creep and compressed hydrogen and has been in use for the construction of petrochemical reactors since the mid-1990s. Nevertheless, processing of this type of steel requires extreme care during the welding procedure. This is due to its low toughness and high strength in the welded state when not post weld heat treated combined with increased susceptibility to cracking during stress relaxation. Previous research into crack formation in creep-resistant steels has largely focused on thermal and metallurgical factors; however, little knowledge has been gathered regarding the influence of the welding procedure on crack formation during post weld heat treatment considering real-life manufacturing conditions.
In this work, the influence of heat control on the mechanical properties has been investigated by simulating the real-life manufacturing conditions prevailing during the construction of petrochemical reactors using a special 3-D testing facility. The stresses resulting from preheating, welding, dehydrogenation heat treatment and the final post weld heat treatment were measured during experiments under varied heat control. In all experiments stress relief cracks formed during post weld heat treatment could be observed. The total crack lengths correlated with the stresses due to welding. The application of a special acoustic emission analysis indicated that the cracks formed during post weld heat treatment in a temperature range between 300 °C and 500 °C. In comparison to small scale samples welded without additional shrinkage restraint, the toughness of the restrained welds was significantly decreased. SEM and TEM analyses of all samples revealed accelerated aging due to early precipitation of special carbides during post weld heat treatment under component relevant restraint.
Efficiency and flexibility are currently a major concern in the design of modern power plants and chemical processing facilities. The high requirements for economic profitability and in particular climate change neutrality are driving this development. Consequently, plant equipment and chemical reactor components are designed for higher operating pressure and temperature. Creep-resistant CrMo steels had been used as constructional materials for decades but came to operational limitations, for example the resistance against so-called high-temperature hydrogen attack in petrochemical reactors. For that purpose, 20 years ago V-modified CrMo steels had been developed for use in the petrochemical industry due to their very good creep-strength and hydrogen pressure resistance at elevated temperatures enabling long service life of the respective components. For example, the 13CrMoV9-10 steel is applicable for process temperatures of up to 482 °C and hydrogen pressures of up to 34.5 MPa.
Due to the large dimensions and wall thickness of the reactors (wall thickness up to 475 mm) and the special alloy concept, reliable weld manufacturing of the components is extremely challenging. First, low toughness and high strength of the weld joint in the as-welded condition are critical regarding weld cracking. High welding residual stresses are the result of the highly restrained shrinkage of the component welds. For this purpose, the entire component must be subjected to Post-Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) after completion of the welding operation. The aim is to increase the toughness of the weld joints as well as to reduce the welding induced residual stresses. Before and during PWHT, extreme caution is required to prevent cracking. Unfortunately, V-modified CrMo steels possess an increased susceptibility to cracking during stress relaxation the so-called stress relief cracking (SRC).
Available literature studies have largely focused on thermal and metallurgical factors. However, little attention has been paid on the influence of the welding procedure on crack formation during PWHT considering actual manufacturing conditions. For that reason, we investigated in our previous studies (part I and II), the influence of heat control on the mechanical properties by simulating actual manufacturing conditions prevailing during the construction of petrochemical reactors using a special 3D- acting testing facility. The focus of part I was put on the influence of the welding heat control on mechanical stresses and the effect on cracking during PWHT. Part II was mainly dedicated to the metallurgical causes of SRC during PWHT and the interaction with the occurring mechanical stresses. It could be shown that not only high welding-induced stresses due to increased weld heat input cause higher susceptibility for SRC formation. It was further intensified by an altered precipitation behaviour in presence of mechanical stresses that are caused by the component related restraint. The present part III shows how residual stresses, which are present in such welded components and significantly influence the crack formation, can be transferred to the laboratory scale. As a result, the effect on the residual stresses on the SRC behaviour can be evaluated on simplified small-scale specimens instead of expensive mock-ups. For this purpose, experiments with test set-ups at different scales and under different rigidity conditions were designed and carried out.
Influence of Residual Stresses on Stress Relief Cracking of Thick Walled Creep Resistant Steel Welds
(2022)
Controlling the residual stress level during welding of creep-resistant Cr-Mo-V steels is crucial to avoid so called stress relief cracking (SRC) during post weld heat treatment (PWHT) of large-scale components. In the present study, a laboratory scale test specimen (400 mm x 400 mm x 25 mm) was used to simulate thick-walled component welds made of 13CrMoV9-10. The aim was to identify the level and distribution of residual stresses to evaluate the suitability of the specimen for laboratory based SRC testing. High restraint was ensured by the specimen geometry with a narrow welding gap in the center. This gap was filled by submerged arc welding in a multi-layer technique. Two specimens were welded with identical parameters and compared in the as-welded state and after PWHT (705 °C for 10 h). Neutron diffraction was used to determine the residual stresses in the weld metal, the heat-affected zone (HAZ) and the base material at different depths longitudinal, transverse, and normal to the welding direction. The experiments were performed on the instrument E3 of the research reactor BERII of HZB Berlin, Germany. Complementarily, laboratory X-ray diffraction was applied to characterize the surface residual stresses. In the welded state, especially in the weld metal and the adjacent HAZ, the residual stress can reach the yield strength of the untreated material. The highest levels occur in the longitudinal direction. The transverse and normal directions are characterized by residual stress of lower magnitude. As expected, the residual stress is almost completely relieved after PWHT.
Bewertungsmethode zur Interaktion von Metallurgie und Reaktionskräften beim PWHT warmfester Stähle
(2022)
Die Präsentation fasst die Entwicklung einer Ersatzprüfmethode für sogenannte Stress-Relief-Cracks (SRC) bei dickwandigen und kriechfesten geschweißten Stahlkomponenten zusammen. Über die Kombination von gezielter mechanischer Beanspruchung unter hoher Temperaturbeanspruchung werden die Effekte des Post Weld Heat Treatments auf SRC realistisch erstmal auf Laborskala nachgebildet.
This presentation summarizes the latest research results of the influence of the post weld heat treatment (PWHT) rate and
the global mechanical stress conditions on the stress relief cracking (SRC) susceptibility of low-alloyed and creep-resistant CrMoV steel submerged arc weld joints. It was found that a certain effect of very low heating rates could be confirmed. In addition, the interlinking of SRC susceptibility increasing effects during the PWHT and the ex-post indentification in metallographic cross-section via microstructure characterization is very complex.
Influence of Residual Stresses on Stress Relief Cracking of Thick-Walled Creep-Resistant Steel Welds
(2023)
Controlling the residual stress level during welding of creep-resistant Cr-Mo-V steels is crucial to avoid so called stress relief cracking (SRC) during post weld heat treatment (PWHT) of large-scale components. In the present study, a laboratory scale test specimen (400 mm x 400 mm x 25 mm) was used to simulate thick-walled component welds made of 13CrMoV9-10. The aim was to identify the level and distribution of residual stresses to evaluate the suitability of the specimen for laboratory based SRC testing. High restraint was ensured by the specimen geometry with a narrow welding gap in the center. This gap was filled by submerged arc welding in a multi-layer technique. Two specimens were welded with identical parameters and compared in the as-welded state and after PWHT (705 °C for 10 h). Neutron diffraction was used to determine the residual stresses in the weld metal, the heat-affected zone (HAZ) and the base material at different depths longitudinal, transverse, and normal to the welding direction. The experiments were performed on the instrument E3 of the research reactor BERII of HZB Berlin, Germany. Complementarily, laboratory X-ray diffraction was applied to characterize the surface residual stresses. In the welded state, especially in the weld metal and the adjacent HAZ, the residual stress can reach the yield strength of the untreated material. The highest levels occur in the longitudinal direction. The transverse and normal directions are characterized by residual stress of lower magnitude. As expected, the residual stress is almost completely relieved after PWHT.
Contemporary steels creep-resistant steels like the 13CrMoV9-10 are used as thick plates e.g., for applications in hydrocrackers. The large plate thickness requires high efficiency welding processes like submerged arc welding (SAW) and a mandatory post weld heat treatment (PWHT). The PWHT-parameters stem from a combination of empirical knowledge and traditional experiments on free shrinking (FS) welds. In that connection, the formation of so-called stress-relief cracking (SRC) must be anticipated. The SRC susceptibility of a welded component is a complex combination and interaction of com-ponent specific, thermal, and metallurgical factors. Many of which have to date not been conclusively researched. For example, it is well known that SRCs develop during PWHT due to formation and growth of carbides on prior austenite grain boundaries, resulting in a significant hardness increase (secondary hardening) and toughness decrease. This leads to a high SRC susceptibility of the coarse grain heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) of the last weld bead during PWHT. This is intensified in case of high residual stresses from the component-specific, structurally induced stiffness. In combination with multi-layer welding this leads to a multiaxial stress distribution. Nonetheless, the combined effect of PWHT and high-residual stresses on the SRC formation is merely unknown. For that reason, this study presents the effect of different heating rates in conjunction with a certain component stiffness. For that reason, SAW joints of 13CrMoV9-10 steel were investigated under FS and defined external restraint condition.