Investigation of the impact toughness of self- shielded flux- cored wire girth welds for X80 pipelines

Self-shielded flux-cored wire is a convenient and efficient consumable for pipeline field girth welding because of its self-protection characteristic and high deposition rate, especially for remote construction sites in rugged terrain. From the perspective of pipeline safety, the impact toughness of the girth welds is an important factor in pipeline integrity ,which determines the crack arrest behavior in the girth welds. Therefore, improving the girth weld impact toughness is of primary importance in the field of pipeline girth welding. Three self-shielded flux-cored wires comprising different chemical composition systems have been applied to large diameter X80 UOE （U-ing-O- ing-Expanding） pipeline semi-automatic girth welding,and the impact toughness of the welds has been evaluated by girth weld chemical composition analysis and microstructural analysis using scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and energy dispersive spectrometry （EDS） to investigate pipeline girth weld impact toughness and find ways to improve it. This helps in determining the main factors that influence girth weld impact toughness. Pipeline girth weld impact toughness is mainly determined by the final microstructure produced in the solid-state phase transition. In the as-weld state,acicular ferrite （AF） and fine bainite （FB） are a benefit to the impact toughness. For multilayer semiautomatic self-shielded flux-cored wire welding, the normalizing and tempering function of the latter beads to the initial beads plays an important role in the transition of girth weld microstructure, which affects the impact toughness. The original AF and FB and the corresponding heat treatment microstructure of the fine and uniform block ferrite and pearlite result in very good impact toughness. The following two mechanisms are found to promote the production of AF and FB in the girth weld. First, elements promoting the broadening of the austenitic region, such as Ni, C, Cu, and Mn, induce low temperature phase transitions and restrain the opposing function of Al, which is a benefit to the production of AF and FB. Second, dispersed high-melting-point inclusions, especially Al2O3 ,induce the nucleated production of AF. The advantageous function of inclusions is determined by their shape, distribution, and dimension. Dispersed spherical inclusions of small dimension are a benefit to the production of AF, and result in good impact toughness.

Low temperature impact toughness of laser hybrid welded joint of high strength low alloy steel

High strength low alloy steel with 16 mm thickness was welded by using high power laser hybrid welding. Microstrueture was characterized by using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy （ SEM ） , transmission electron microscopy （TEM） and selected area electron diffraction （SAED）. Low temperature impact toughness was estimated by using Charpy V-notch impact samples selected from the upper part and the lower part at the same heterogeneous joint. Results show that the low temperature impact absorbed energies of weld metal are （202,180,165 J） of upper samples and （178,145,160 J） of lower samples, respectively. All of them increase compared to base metal. The embrittlement of HAZ does not occur. Weld metal primarily consists of refined carbide free bainite and a little granular bainite since laser hybrid welding owns the character of low heat input. Retained austenite constituent film ＂locates among the lath structure of bainitie ferrite. Refined bainitic ferrite lath and retained austenite constituent film provide better low temperature impact toughness compared to base metal.

Effects of welding wire composition and welding process on the weld metal toughness of submerged arc welded pipeline steel

The effects of alloying elements in welding wires and submerged arc welding process on the microstructures and low-temperature impact toughness of weld metals have been investigated. The results indicate that the optimal contents of alloying elements in welding wires can improve the low-temperature impact toughness of weld metals because the proeutectoid ferrite and bainite formations can be suppressed, and the fraction of acicular ferrite increases. However, the contents of alloying elements need to vary along with the welding heat input. With the increase in welding heat input, the contents of alloying elements in welding wires need to be increased accordingly. The microstructures mainly consisting of acicular ferrite can be obtained in weld metals after four-wire submerged arc welding using the wires with a low carbon content and appropriate contents of Mn, Mo, Ti-B, Cu, Ni, and RE, resulting in the high low-temperature impact toughness of weld metals.

INFLUENCE OF THE SECOND THERMAL CYCLE ON COARSE- GRAINED ZONE TOUGHNESS OF X70 STEEL

The influence of the second thermal cycle on coarse grained zone (CGHAZ) toughness of X70 steel is studied by weld thermal simulation test, scanning electron microscope and electron microprobe. The results show that the CGHAZ toughness is improved after the second thermal cycle but being heated during the intercritical HAZ (ICHAZ). The CGHAZ toughness decreases evidently after being heated during partially transformed zone, which chiefly results from the carbon segregation to the grain boundaries of primal austenite, thus forming high carbon martensite austenite (M A) constituent and bringing serious intercritically reheated coarse grain HAZ (IRCGHAZ) embrittlement.

Tensile and Impact Properties of Shielded Metal Arc Welded AISI 409M Ferritic Stainless Steel Joints

The present study is concerned with the effect of filler metals such as austenitic stainless steel, ferritic stainless steel and duplex stainless steel on tensile and impact properties of the ferritic stainless steel conforming to AISI 409M grade. Rolled plates of 4 mm thickness were used as the base material for preparing single pass butt welded joints. Tensile and impact properties, microhardness, microstructure and fracture surface morphology of the joints fabricated by austenitic stainless steel, ferritic stainless steel and duplex stainless steel filler metals were evaluated and the results were reported. From this investigation, it is found that the joints fabricated by duplex stainless steel filler metal showed higher tensile strength and hardness compared to the joints fabricated by austenitic and ferritic stainless steel filler metals. Joints fabricated by austenitic stainless steel filler metal exhibited higher ductility and impact toughness compared with the joints fabricated by ferritic stainless steel and duplex stainless steel filler metals.

Impact property analysis of weld metal and heat-affected zone for low-alloy carbon steel multi-pass welded joint

Welded joint impact performances of low-alloy carbon steel plates welded by full-automatic gas metal arc welding （GMAW） were evaluated. To clarity the effect of impact temperature on impact properties of weld metal （WM） and heat- affected zone （ HAZ）, Charpy V impact tests at different temperatures and fracture surface analysis were carried out. The Charpy V impact energy decreases with the decreasing test temperature both for the WM and HAZ, while the proportion of crystal zone on WM and HAZ impact fracture surface increases with the decreasing test temperature. Research results indicate that the welding defects （void and slag） make the impact energy of WM more scattered and lower than that of HAZ.

强度匹配对WELDOX960钢焊接接头组织与性能的影响

WELDOX960作为新一代低合金高强钢,广泛应用于工程机械等重载领域。本文采用混合气体保护焊对WELDOX960钢进行多层多道焊接。打底焊是多层多道焊接中最重要的工艺过程,对接头性能有着重要影响。分别用ER50-6焊丝及Tunion GM120焊丝打底制备了二组焊接试样,对焊接接头的拉伸及冲击性能进行了测试,对接头的显微组织及冲击断口形貌进行了观察分析。结果表明,两种打底焊接头抗拉强度均能满足使用要求,ER50-6焊丝打底的焊接接头韧性明显高于Tunion GM120焊丝打底的接头,断口形貌呈现韧窝特征。

BWELDY960Q钢振动焊接焊缝组织与低温冲击韧性

采用MAG焊接工艺方法焊接低合金高强度钢BWELDY960Q的过程中施加机械振动,研究振动焊接对焊缝组织及焊缝低温冲击韧性的影响.结果表明,在焊接过程中施加机械振动,可以促进焊缝中AF的形成,使得AF的数量增加.振动焊接还可以改善焊缝的低温冲击韧性,与无振动焊缝低温冲击韧性相比较,焊缝冲击吸收功的上平台值提高7.88%,韧脆转变温度也略有降低.随着温度不断地降低,焊缝低温冲击断口的表面从凹凸不平变得比较平整,断口纤维区比例不断地缩小,放射区比例有所增加,断口的微观形貌由韧窝花样变成准解理河流花样.

Microstructure,Tensile and Impact Toughness Properties of Friction Stir Welded Mild Steel

Microstructure, tensile and impact toughness properties and fracture location of friction stir welded AISI 1018 mild steel were revealed. The AISI 1018 mild steel plates with thickness of 5 mm were friction stir welded by tungsten based alloy tool with tool rotational speed of 1 000 r/min and welding speed of 50 ram/rain. Tensile strength of stir zone is higher （8%） compared to that of the base metal. This may be due to the formation of finer grains in the weld nugget region under the stirring action of the rotating tool. The ductility and impact toughness of the joints are decreased compared to those of the base metal owing to the inclusion of tungsten particles in the weld region.

An insight into microstructural heterogeneities formation between weld subregions of laser welded copper to stainless steel joints

The effect of laser beam welding(LBW) process on the microstructure-mechanical property relationship of a dissimilar weld between the copper(Cu) and stainless steel(SS) was investigated.Backscattered electron(BSE) based scanning electron microscopy(SEM) imaging was used to characterize the highly heterogeneous microstructural features across the LBW(Cu-SS) weld.The BSE analysis thoroughly evidenced the complex microstructures produced at dissimilar weld interfaces and fusion zone along with the compositional information.Widely different grain growths from coarse columnar grains to equiaxed ultrafine grains were also evident along the Cu-weld interface.A highresolution electron backscattered diffraction(EBSD) analysis confirmed the existence of the grain refinement mechanism at the Cu-weld interface.Both tensile and impact properties of the dissimilar weld were found to be closely aligned with the property of Cu base metal.Microhardness gradients were spatially evident in the non-homogeneous material composition zones such as fusion zone and the Cu-weld interface regions.The heterogeneous nucleation spots across the weld sub-regions were clearly identified and interlinked with their microhardness measurements for a holistic understanding of structure-property relationships of the local weld sub-regions.The findings were effectively correlated to achieve an insight into the local microstructural gradients across the weld.

Improving weld quality of 09MnNiDR steel by using arc-excited ultrasonic

An experimental setup to excite ultrasonic by modulating electrical arc was applied in the submerged arc welding （SAW） process of 09 MnNiDR steel to study its effect on quality of the welds. Arc-excited ultrasonic energy refines grains of the welds and more acicular ferrite （ AF） appears in the fusion zone. It also enhances impact toughness of the joints at -70 ℃ significantly. With the ultrasonic of 50 kHz, the toughness is improved by 47% in the fusion zone and by 82% in the heataffected zone （HAZ）. The fractography of welds shows that the fracture is changed from cleavage fracture to gliding fracture while applying ultrasonic vibration.

Effect of welding processes on mechanical and microstructural characteristics of high strength low alloy naval grade steel joints

Naval grade high strength low alloy(HSLA) steels can be easily welded by all types of fusion welding processes. However, fusion welding of these steels leads to the problems such as cold cracking, residual stress, distortion and fatigue damage. These problems can be eliminated by solid state welding process such as friction stir welding(FSW). In this investigation, a comparative evaluation of mechanical(tensile, impact,hardness) properties and microstructural features of shielded metal arc(SMA), gas metal arc(GMA) and friction stir welded(FSW) naval grade HSLA steel joints was carried out. It was found that the use of FSW process eliminated the problems related to fusion welding processes and also resulted in the superior mechanical properties compared to GMA and SMA welded joints.

Prediction of M–A Constituents and Impact Toughness in Stir Zone of X80 Pipeline Steel Friction Stir Welds

This study explored a strategy for predicting the proportion of martensite–austenite(M–A)constituents and impact toughness of stir zone(SZ)on X80 pipeline steel joints welded by friction stir welding(FSW).It is found that the welding forces,including the traverse force(F_(x)),the lateral force(F_(y))and the plunge force(F_(z)),are the key variables related to the change of welding parameters and influence remarkably the characteristics of M–A constituents and impact toughness of SZ.The impact toughness of SZ is commonly lower than that of the base material due to the formation of lath bainite and coarsening of austenite.The characteristics of M–A constituents in SZ are sensitive to the variation of welding parameters and respond well to the change of welding forces.The proportion of small island M–A constituents increases with the decrease in rotational speed and the increase in Fz.The increase in the amount of island M–A constituents is beneficial to improve the impact toughness of SZ.Based on the above findings,a machine learning(ML)model for predicting the M–A constituents and impact toughness is constructed using the force features as the input data set.The force data-driven ML model can predict the M–A constituents and impact toughness precisely and exhibits higher accuracy than ML built with welding parameters.It is believed that the high accuracy is achieved because the force features include more details of FSW process,such as the heat generation,material flow,plastic deformation,and so on,which govern the microstructural evolution of SZ during FSW.

Correlation between microstructure and impact toughness of weld heat-affected zone in 5 wt.% manganese steels

The microstructure in welding heat-affected zones of 5 wt.% manganese steels was studied, and its effect on impact toughness was analyzed. The simulated coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) had the lowest impact toughness of ~39 J at — 40℃ because of coarse-grained structure and least volume fraction of retained austenite (RA) of 1.2 vol.%. The impact toughness of simulated intercritical heat-affected zone (ICHAZ) and fine-grained heat-affected zone (FGHAZ) were ~165 and ~45 J, respectively, at — 40℃. The effective grain size of simulated FGHAZ was smaller than that of the simulated ICHAZ. Furthermore, microstructural investigation revealed that the simulated FGHAZ and ICHAZ had similarity in volume fraction and stability of RA. However, tempered martensite was present in ICHAZ and absent in FGHAZ. It is proposed that the presence of tempered martensite contributed to good impact toughness in simulated ICHAZ.

Formation Mechanism of Inclusion in Self-Shielded Flux Cored Arc Welds

The formation mechanism of inclusion in welds with different aluminum contents was determined based on thermodynamic equilibrium in self-shielded flux cored arc welds.Inclusions in welds were systematically studied by optical microscopy,scanning microscopy and image analyzer.The results show that the average size and the contamination rate of inclusions in low-aluminum weld are lower than those in high-aluminum weld.Highly faceted AlN inclusions with big size in the high-aluminum weld are more than those in low-aluminum weld.As a result,the low temperature impact toughness of low-aluminum weld is higher than that of high-aluminum weld.Finally,the thermodynamic analysis indicates that thermodynamic result agrees with the experimental data.

Twin-wire Submerged Arc Welding Process of a High-strength Low-alloy Steel

The measurement of thermal cycle curves of a high-strength low-alloy steel （HSLA） subjected twin-wire submerged arc welding （SAW） was introduced. The thermal simulation test was performed by using the obtained curves. The impact toughness at -50 ℃ temperature of the simulated samples was also tested. OM, SEM and TEM of the heat-affected zone （HAZ） of some simulation specimens were investigated. The results showed that the HSLA endured the twin-wire welding thermal cycle, generally, the low-temperature toughness values of each part of HAZ was lower than that of the parent materials, and the microstructure of coarse-grained zone（CGHAZ） mainly made up of granular bainite is the reason of the toughness serious deterioration. Coarse grain, grain boundary carbide extract and M-A island with large size and irregular polygon, along the grain boundary distribution, are the reasons for the toughness deterioration of CGHAZ. The research also showed that selected parameters of twin-wire SAW can meet the requirements to weld the test steel.

Evolution of γ’ Particles in Ni-Based Superalloy Weld Joint and Its Effect on Impact Toughness During Long-Term Thermal Exposure

Effects of long-term thermal exposure on γ’ particles evolution and impact toughness in the weld joint of Nimonic 263(N263)superalloy were deeply studied at 750℃.Results showed that the precipitates in the weld metal were mainly composed of fine γ’ particles,bulky MC carbides,and small M23C6 carbides.With the thermal exposure time increasing from o to 3000 h,γ’ particles in the weld metal grew up from 19.7 nm to 90.1 nm at an extremely slow rate.After being exposed for 1000 h,γ’ particles coarsened and some of them transformed into acicular η phase.At the same time,MC carbides decomposed to form η phase and γ’ particles.This dynamic transition ensured the slight reduction in impact toughness of the weld metal after the thermal exposure,which indicated the stable serving performance of N263 weld joint.

Impact toughness variations of EH36 weld metal treated by CaF_(2)–SiO_(2)–MnO submerged arc welding flux

Fused ternary CaF_(2)–SiO_(2)–MnO fluxes have been manufactured and applied to join EH36 shipbuilding steel under high heat input submerged arc welding.Five fluxes have been designed to clarify the effect of MnO content in CaF_(2)–SiO_(2)–MnO flux on the impact toughness of the weld metal,with the added amount of MnO from 10 to 50 wt.%at the expense of CaF_(2).With the increase in MnO content,the Charpy impact energy increases first and then decreases,experiencing a maximum value at 30 wt.%MnO.Microstructure of the weld metals has also been studied to account for impact toughness variations.It has been demonstrated that the highest acicular ferrite volume fraction in the weld metal is achieved at 30 wt.%MnO,which is concurrent to the maximum value of Charpy impact energy.It is believed that the Mn and O content variations in the weld metal contribute synergistically to such an interesting phenomenon.

Influence of post-weld heat treatment on microstructure and properties in heat-affected zone of KMN steel joint

The influence of temperature during post-weld heat treatment on the microstructure and properties of KMN steel joints was investigated. The results reveal that after heat treatment, the martensite transformed to tempered sorbite, causing the softening of the resultant joints. XRD test shows that the residual austenite content decreased obviously when the joint was heattreated at 550 ℃ and 580 ℃, which degraded the impact toughness of heat-affected zone （ HAZ）. When the heat treatment temperature increased further, the dispersion strengthening from the precipitation of alloying elements improved the impact toughness of HAZ. The aggregation and coarsening of carbide also contributed to the improvement of impact toughness of HAZ.

The Ductile to Brittle Transition Behavior of the Modified 9Cr-1Mo Steel and Its Laser Welds

The ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of the modified 9Cr-1Mo steel and its laser welds was studied. The increase in grain size of the weld structure ascended the DBTT of the steel significantly. The transformation of retained austenite at martensite interlath boundaries into untempered and/or twinned martensite could also contribute to increased DBTTs of the steel and its welds tempered at 540℃.