Residual stress in a T-butt joint weld : cylinder versus plane plate geometry

The welding process introduces residual stress originating from the heating, melting and cooling of the material. From the point of view of fatigue and stress corrosion cracking, the weld residual stress perpendicular to the weld axis is of particular interest. When qualifying weld parameters for welds in large cylinders having a ratio of radius to plate thickness larger than say approximately 100; reference to plane plates are often made for the sake of simplicity. However, the weld residual stress perpendicular to the weld axis is severely underestimated in the plane plate compared with the cylindrical structure. This observation is especially pronounced in connection with preheating. The source of the differences is probably due to the radial constraint of the cylinder, compared with that of a plane plate. A plane test specimen will underestimate the weld residual stress perpendicular to the weld axis in a cylinder, even if the radius of the cylinder is very large. However, a test specimen for an 8 m diameter cylinder with a plate thickness of 35 mm needs only to have a segment width of approximately 1.3 m to reflect the stress in the real structure. The weld residual stress perpendicular to the weld axis in the vicinity of the weld toe is governed by the depositing of the weld bead adjacent to the weld toe, neglecting the accumulated strain from the previous deposited weld beads in the multi-pass joint weld. Introducing tensile straining perpendicular to the weld axis during the entire welding procedure reduces the weld-induced residual stress after completed welding. The plastic zone of the weld area will be subjected to compressive strain after completed welding, which in turn will reduce the weld residual stress. This can be achieved by cooling the weld area, which in this case is not recommended since the material is sensitive to hydrogen cracking, or by pre-stretching or modifying the locations for preheating, all aimed to impose a tensile axial straining around the weld area during the entire welding process.Godkänd; 2004; 20070131 (ysko