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Investigations on weldability often deal with hot cracking as one of the most prevalent failure mechanisms during weld fabrication. The modified varestraint transvarestraint hot cracking test (MVT) is well known to assess the hot cracking susceptibility of materials. The shortcoming of this approach is that the information is only from the very near surface region which inhibits access to the characteristic of the hot crack network in the bulk. Here, we report about an alternative approach to monitor the entire 3D hot crack network after welding by means of microfocus X-ray computer tomography (µCT). However, to provide sufficient high spatial resolution small samples must be sectioned from the MVT-welded joint. The sampling is accompanied by local relaxation of the residual stress distributions that are induced by welding, which can have an impact on the crack volumes prior to the sampling. The studies were carried out to investigate the hot cracking susceptibility of low transformation temperature filler materials (LTT). As high compression residual stresses up to -600 MPa in the area of the crack networks were determined by means of the contour method, stress relaxation caused by sectioning for µCT sample extraction can affect the detectability of the cracks later on. X-ray diffraction studies revealed surface residual stress relaxations up to about 400 MPa due to cutting. To investigate this effect, the specimens with hot cracks were subjected to a load test with known stress states. The results clearly show that local stress relaxations will have a strong impact on the volume images reconstructed from tomography analysis. This effect must be considered during hot crack assessment on basis of µCT data.
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.
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.