Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
- 2013 (4) (entfernen)
Dokumenttyp
- Zeitschriftenartikel (2)
- Beitrag zu einem Tagungsband (1)
- Vortrag (1)
Schlagworte
Eingeladener Vortrag
- nein (1)
Modern methods like carrier gas hot extraction enable the quantification of dissolved hydrogen as well as the determination of the hydrogen trapping and diffusion behavior. This method was applied in order to compare for the first time the hydrogen diffusion and trapping behavior in electrochemically charged and welded duplex stainless steel (1.4462). Characteristic extraction temperatures (400, 650, and 900 °C) were used to quantify the amounts of diffusible hydrogen and trapped hydrogen for the base material and the weld metal, and in order to calculate the effective diffusion coefficients corresponding to the specific temperature. The comparison of the charging methods showed that electrochemically charged samples have a higher content of diffusible hydrogen than the welded samples. In addition, the effusion times increase in welded samples, which indicate a higher amount of trapped hydrogen. In electrochemically charged weld samples, a significant lower concentration of hydrogen was determined than in the base material. In addition, the effective diffusion coefficients were calculated for every microstructure and charging method. It was found that the base material has a higher effective hydrogen diffusion coefficient than that of the weld metal. This effect is due to the tortuous path of hydrogen diffusion in the weld metal.
Industry faces a growing demand for high-strength structural steels with yield strengths of up to 1,300 MPa in order to cope with increasingly higher strength requirements in engineering. Higher strength levels are achieved by a special coordinated production process and an adapted chemical composition. Nevertheless, disastrous damage cases with high-strength steels have occurred in the past. The sensitivity to mechanical property degradation by hydrogen increases dramatically with strength. This phenomenon leads to hydrogen-assisted cold cracking. T-joints with fillet welds made from one side with an included angle of 60° were examined for their cold cracking behavior. Based on the T-joint, a modified heat input, even interpass temperature, plate thickness, and length ones were examined. The diffusion behavior and the effectiveness of different post-weld heat treatments in joints were simulated. The results of post-weld heat treatments are illustrated in practical hydrogen removal heat treatment diagrams. It is noticed that the T-joint is subject to a very high risk of hydrogen-assisted cold cracking (HACC). Contrary to other joints, its most critical area for cracking is not the weld metal but the heat-affected zone surrounding area of the root pass. The simulation shows that HACC in the T-joint can only be avoided by applying a sufficient post-weld heat treatment.
Duplex stainless steels (DSS) are used in various industrial applications, e.g. in offshore construction as well as in chemical industry. But, at specific conditions, as for instance arc welding fabrication, cathodic protection or exposure to sour service environments, such materials can take up hydrogen which may cause significant property degradation particularly in terms of ductility losses which, in turn, may entail hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC). If HAC occurs in a duplex stainless steel the cracking mechanism is different from steels having only one phase, because hydrogen diffusion, stress-strain distribution and crack propagation are totally different in the austenite or ferrite phase. Whereas, the mechanism of hydrogen assisted crack initiation and propagation as well as hydrogen trapping in DSS have not been fully understood up to the present, as in most two-phase microstructures. In order to better understand the mechanisms of hydrogen assisted cracking in duplex stainless steels, knowledge of the diffusion behavior and of the stress-strain distribution in the ferritic and austenitic phase is of great interest. A numerical mesoscale model was created with a view to studying the hydrogen transport and the stresses and strains in each phase of duplex stainless steel. The material investigated in this work was DSS 1.4462, consisting of approximately equal portions of ferrite and austenite. Hydrogen diffusion in the duplex base metal was studied using the finite element program ANSYS. Stress-strain distribution as well as hydrogen assisted cracking in the ferritic and austenitic phase fractions were additionally investigated. The results of numerical simulation of the hydrogen diffusion process as well as structural analyses enable the identification of crack critical areas in the DSS microstructure. Numerical simulations qualitatively reflect the crack initiation and propagation process in ferrite. Crack critical combinations of hydrogen concentrations and local mechanical loads initiating HAC can be identified.