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.

Three-roller continuous setting round process for longitudinally submerged arc welding pipes

In order to solve the problems of excess ovality and cross-section distortion of longitudinally submerged arc welding pipes after forming,a new three-roller continuous setting round process was proposed.This process can be divided into three stages:loading stage,roll bending stage and unloading stage.Based on the discretization idea,the mechanical model of the primary statically indeterminate problem of the longitudinally submerged arc welding pipes at the roll bending stage was established,and the deformation response was obtained.The simulation and theoretical results show that there are three positive bending regions and three reverse bending regions along the circumference of the pipe.The loading force of each roller shows growth,stability and downward trend with time.The error between the theoretical fitting curve and the simulated data point is very small,and the simulation results verify the reliability of the theoretical calculation.The experimental results show that the residual ovality decreases with the increase of the reduction,and the reduction of the turning point is the optimum reduction.In addition,the residual ovality of the pipe is less than 0.7%without cross-section distortion,which verifies the feasibility of this process.

Effect of the heat input on microstructure and properties of submerged arc welded joint of 08Cr19MnNi3Cu2N stainless steel

SAW308L submerged arc welding wire and SJ601A submerged arc welding flux were selected to weld the 12 mm 08Cr19MnNi3Cu2N low nickel and high nitrogen austenitic stainless steel plates with three different welding heat input,and microstructure,tensile properties,microhardness and corrosion properties of the welded joints were studied.The results show that no defects are found in the three groups of welded joints,and the welded joints have better performance.The tensile strength of 08Cr19MnNi3Cu2N stainless steel welded joints with different heat input is slightly lower than that of the base metal,and fracture occurs in the weld zone,and the hardness of the weld zone is lower than that of the base metal.The weld microstructure of stainless steel welded joints with different heat input is composed of austenite+δferrite,and ferrite is uniformly distributed in austenite.With the increase of the welding heat input,the ferrite content in the weld zone decrease gradually,the grain size in the thermal affected zone increase gradually,and the impact toughness reduce.

Arc characteristics of submerged arc welding with stainless steel wire

The arc characteristics of submerged arc welding （SAW） with stainless steel wire were studied by using Analysator Hannover （AH）. The tests were carded out under the same preset arc voltage combined with different welding currents. By comparing the probability density distribution （PDD） curves of arc voltage and welding current, the changes were analyzed, the metal transfer mode in SAW was deduced, and the characteristics of a stable arc were summarized. The analysis results show that, with an increase of welding parameters, the short-circuiting peak in the PDD curves of arc voltage decreases gradually until it disappears, and the dominant metal transfer mode changes from flux-wall guided transfer to projected transfer and then to streaming transfer. Moreover, when the PDD curves of arc voltage are both unimodal and generally symmetrical, the greater the peak probability and the smaller the peak span, the more stable the arc becomes.

Influence of Tacking Sequence on Residual Stress and Distortion of Single Sided Fillet Submerged Arc Welded Joint

Submerged arc welding （SAW） is advantageous for joining high thickness materials in large structure due to high material deposition rate. The non-uniform heating and cooling generates the thermal stresses and subsequently the residual stresses and distortion. The longitudinal and transverse residual stresses and angular distortion are generally measured in large panel structure of submerged arc welded fillet joints. Hence, the objective of this present work is to quantify the amount of residual stress and distortion in and around the weld joint due to positioning of stiffeners tack. The tacking sequence influences the level of residual stress and proper controlling of tacking sequences is required to minimize the stress. In present study, an elasto-plastic material behavior is considered to develop the thermo mechanical model which predicts the residual stress and angular distortion with varying tacking sequences. The simulated result reveals that the tacking sequence heavily influences the residual stress and deformation pattern of the single sided fillet joint. The finite element based numerical model is calibrated by comparing the experimental data from published literature. Henceforth, the angular distortions are measured from an in-house developed experimental set-up. A fair agreement between the predicted and experimental results indicates the robustness of the developed numerical model. However, the most significant conclusion from present study states that tack weld position should be placed opposite to the fillet weld side to minimize the residual stress.

Research on submerged arc welding wire for X100 pipeline steel

According to the study of the microstructure and properties of X100 pipeline steel, the welding consumable-wire based on Mn-Ni-Mo-B-Ti alloy system was successfully designed and developed. The yield strength of the deposited metal of the developed welding wire was 695 MPa, the tensile strength was 810 MPa, and Charpy impact energy was 92 J at negative 20 ℃ when matching with BSG-SJ101H1 sintered flux. The results of the weldability test for X100 pipeline steel which adopting this developed wire showed that the tensile strength of the weld was 827 MPa, 185 J of Charpy impact energy（ -10 ℃ ） , 97% of section of shear and the weld had good strength and toughness matching when the welding speed got to 1.7 m/min. The microstructure and fracture appearance of the weld were analyzed by using metallographic microscope, scanning electron microscope （SEM） and laser confocal microscope, the results indicated that the microstructure was mainly granular bainite in the weld metal, and the fracture was dimple with 200 - 300 μm depth presenting a typical ductile fracture characteristics. The test of welding wire with different content of Ni and Cr element indicated that Ni was better than Cr in improving the strength and toughness of weld metal.

Effect of Submerged Arc Welding Flux Component on Softening Temperature

Based on simplex algorithm of optimal design, the multicomponent mixture regression model was used to investigate physical properties of submerged arc welding flux. The effect of complex interaction of seven components in agglomerated flux on softening temperature was analyzed. The results indicate that the interaction of MgO-TiO2-CaCOa-AI20a increases the softening temperature of flux, but the additions of CaF2 and ZrO2 can decrease the softening temperature.

Effect of electrochemical reactions droplet metal in direct current on oxygen contamination of submerged arc welding

Agglomerated fluxes with different basicity index designed in laboratory were used to study electrochemical reactions between slag and metal in submerged arc welding under both power polarities. The droplet metal oxygen and nitrogen contents were measured using oxygen-nitrogen instrument in order to analyze indirectly metallurgy electrochemical reactions taking place in cathode and anode of welding arc. The results show that just in the period of droplet growth at the tip of consumable electrode the electrochemical oxygen contamination is produced in the case of direct current electrode positive polarity whereas electrochemical oxygen lost in electrode negative polarity. Furthermore, the results indicate that the basicity index of molten slag has great influence upon electrochemical reaction. With basicity index increasing, the effect of oxygen transferring resulted from electrochemistry becomes more evident for reacting dynamics depended on ion characteristics of molten slag. The effect of basicity index on metal-slag electrochemical reaction is contrary to traditional thermo-chemical reaction and therefore it is necessary to be considered as a metallurgy factor.

Prediction of cooling time t8/5 in twin wire submerged arc welding of intermediate thickness plate

Twin wire submerged arc welding （SAW） is widely used in oil or gas line pipe fabrication because of its high productivity. To investigate the strength and toughness of the heat-affected zone （HAZ） in twin wire SAW, the cooling time t8/5 of the coarse grained zone must be studied. The authors presented a method of predicting the cooling time in twin wire SAW of intermediate thickness plate. Based on Rosenthal analytical solutions, an energy factor was introduced to describe the energy contribution of the two wires, equations of thermal cycle and cooling time in twin wire SAW of both thick, and thin, plates were developed. Weighting factors determined by actual thickness and critical thickness were adopted to represent the thermal cycle and cooling time of intermediate thickness plate through linear interpolation with thick, and thin, plate solutions. The predicted cooling time for an intermediate thickness plate was verified experimentally, and the predicted results agreed therewith.

Ferrite features in simulated transition zone of EH36 shipbuilding steel submerged arc welded by CaF_(2)-SiO_(2)-MnO fluxes

Ferrite features in the simulated transition zone welded with CaF_(2)-SiO_(2)-MnO fluxes containing various MnO contents have been investigated.Confocal laser scanning microscopy has been applied to simulate the thermal cycling of the transition zone and the phase transformations during cooling have been in-situ observed.It has been found that the appearance temperature for ferrite side plate decreases with increasing Mn content in the weld metals caused by MnO content increasing.Meanwhile,growth rates for both ferrite side plate and acicular ferrite are significantly enhanced with a higher Mn content of weld metal.Furthermore,from the statistical fractions of salient microstructures,for all samples,the acicular ferrite,grain boundary ferrite,and polygonal ferrite take over more than 90%.It has also been demonstrated that with the increase in Mn content,the ferrite side plate fraction increases slightly from 5%to 10%and the acicular ferrite fraction shows a tendency of first increasing and then decreasing,which experiences the maximum with the flux containing 30 wt.%MnO.This phenomenon is believed to be controlled by the O and Mn contents in weld metals synergistically.

Simulating molten pool features of shipbuilding steel subjected to submerged arc welding

Submerged arc welding process has been simulated to investigate the molten pool features of EH36 shipbuilding steel.One case only involved the surface tension model,and another one involved both the surface tension model and the interface tension model.The role of interface tension during welding is revealed,and the evolution of molten pool morphology is understood by comparing the surface temperature distribution,surface tension and interface tension distribution,and the streamline of the molten pool for the two cases.When the interface tension model is disregarded,a flow conducive to the outward expansion is formed in the surface area of the molten pool,resulting in a small weld depth-to-width ratio.After applying the interface tension model,the expanding outward flow is restrained,which leads to a deep penetration morphology with a large weld depth-to-width ratio due to the inward flow governed by the Marangoni forces.The simulation results involving the interface tension model have been verified with satisfactory predictability.

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.

Fuzzy logic control strategy for submerged arc automatic welding of digital controlling

A microcomputer control system based on 80C320 and a switching regulation of wire feeder were designed. A correction factor based double model fuzzy logic controller （FLC） was introduced to achieve welding digital and intellectualized control by means of wire feeding speed feedback. The controller has many functions such as keyboard input, light emitting diode （LED） display and real-time intellectualized control of welding process etc. The controlling performance influenced by the coefficient of correction function was discussed. It was concluded by the experiments the relation between the coefficient of correction function and welding quality, when the coefficient of correction function is great, the dynamic character of controller is better, when the coefficient of correction function is small, the sensitivity character of controller is better. Experimental results also show that digital and fuzzy logic control method enable the improvement of appearance of weld and stability of welding process to be achieved in submerged arc automatic welding.

Microstructural Evolution and Toughness in the HAZ of Submerged Arc Welded Low Welding Crack Susceptibility Steel

Microstructural characteristics of different sub-regions of heat affected zone （HAZ） of low welding crack susceptibility steel weldment were investigated by using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy equipped with electron backscattered diffraction system. And the focus was put on the correlation between microstructural characteristics and HAZ toughness of the weldment. The results reveal that the toughness of fusion line zone （FLZ） specimens is much lower than that of fine grained HAZ （FGHAZ） specimens. The coarse inclusions in the weld metal and the large martensite-austenite constituents in the coarse grained HAZ （CGHAZ） have an obvious negative effect on the crack initiation energy of FLZ. Meanwhile, the coarse granular bainite with large effective grain decreases the crack propagation energy seriously. By contrast, fine crystallographic grains in the FGHAZ play a key role in increasing toughness, especially in improving crack propagation energy.

Multi-objective Optimization of Welding Parameters in Submerged Arc Welding of API X65 Steel Plates

Submerged arc welding（SAW）is one of the main welding processes with high deposition rate and high welding quality.This welding method is extensively used in welding large-diameter gas transmission pipelines and high-pressure vessels.In welding of such structures,the selection process parameters has great influence on the weld bead geometry and consequently affects the weld quality.Based on Fuzzy logic and NSGA-II（Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II）algorithm,a new approach was proposed for weld bead geometry prediction and for process parameters optimization.First,different welding parameters including welding voltage,current and speed were set to perform SAW under different conditions on API X65 steel plates.Next,the designed Fuzzy model was used for predicting the weld bead geometry and modeling of the process.The obtained mean percentage error of penetration depth,weld bead width and height from the proposed Fuzzy model was 6.06%,6.40% and 5.82%,respectively.The process parameters were then optimized to achieve the desired values of convexity and penetration indexes simultaneously using NSGA-II algorithm.As a result,a set of optimum vectors（each vector contains current,voltage and speed within their selected experimental domains）was presented for desirable values of convexity and penetration indexes in the ranges of（0.106,0.168）and（0.354,0.561）respectively,which was more applicable in real conditions.

Microstructures and Plane Energy Spectra of X80 Pipeline Steel Welded Joints by Submerged Arc Automatic Welding

X80 pipeline steel was welded with submerged arc automatic welding, the microstructures, cavity sizes, fusion depths and plane scanning of chemical elements in the welded zone, fusion zone, heat affected zone and base steel were observed with OM（optical microscope） and SEM（scanning electron microscope）, respectively. The experimental results show that there is main acicular ferrite in the base steel and welded zone, the microscopic structure of fusion zone is a blocked bainite, and the heat affected zone is composed of multilateral ferrite and pearlite. M-A unit of the welded zone is the main factor to strengthen the welded zone, composed of acicular ferrites. The percentage of cavities in the welded joint is less than that in the base steel, which is beneficial to increasing its mechanical performance and corrosion resistance. The fusion depth in the fusion zone and welded zone is 101.13 μm and 115.85 μm, respectively, and the distribution of chemical elements in the welded zone is uniform, no enrichment phenomena.

Research and engineering application of the arc welding pulsed controller technology

The tenacity of heat-affected zone （HAZ） will decline and the size of grains will increase, because of the overheating on HAZ when submerged are welding （SAW） is ased to thick plate with high heat input. The shaping will worsen when SAW is used to thin plate with high current at high speed. A new SAW technology, the pulsed direct current （DC） automatic SAW, will be put forward in this paper in order to overcome the above shortcomings. And a pulsed controller with micro-controller unit （MCU） as the core, nixie tube （NT） and keyboard as the man-machine conversation interface is developed. The main functions of the pulsed controller include the output of pulsed welding current and the working with twinwire. The research has widely prospects in application with significant meanings in theory and practical engineering.

Erosion resistance of Fe-C-Cr weld surfacing layers

Fe C Cr weld surfacing layers with different compositions and microstructures can be obtained by submerged arc welding with welding wire of the low carbon steel and high alloy bonded flux. With the increase of Cr and C in the layers the microstructures are changed from hypoeutectoid steel, hypereutectoid steel to hypoeutectic iron and hypereutectic iron. When the weld surfacing layers belong to the alloyed cast irons the erosion resistance can be raised with the eutectic increase and the austenite decrease. Good erosion resistance can be obtained when the proportion of the primary carbides is within 10 %. The experimental results lay a foundation to make double metal percussive plates by surfacing wear resistant layers on the substrates of the low carbon steels.

Development of Fuzzy Logic System to Predict the SAW Weldment Shape Profiles

A fuzzy model was presented to predict the weldment shape profile of submerged arc welds （SAW） including the shape of heat affected zone （HAZ）. The SAW bead-on-plates were welded by following a full factorial design matrix. The design matrix consisted of three levels of input welding process parameters. The welds were cross-sectioned and etched, and the zones were measured. A mapping technique was used to measure the various segments of the weld zones. These mapped zones were used to build a fuzzy logic model. The membership functions of the fuzzy model were chosen for the accurate prediction of the weld zone. The fuzzy model was further tested for a set of test case data. The weld zone predicted by the fuzzy logic model was compared with the experimentally obtained shape profiles and close agreement between the two was noted. The mapping technique developed for the weld zones and the fuzzy logiemodel earl be used for on-line control of the SAW process. From the SAW fuzzy logic model an estimation of the fusion and HAZ can also be developed.

Investigation on the weldability of a Zr-Ti microalloyed X120 linepipe

Three-wire submerged arc welding was utilized to weld a newly developed Zr-Ti microalloyed X120 linepipe with heat input of 21 kJ/cm. The microstructure in the heat-affected zone （HAZ）, predominantly consisted of bainite, was examined by means of optical and scanning electron microscope. The average Vickers hardness of grain coarsening heat-affected zone （GCHAZ） is about 290 HV0. 2. The lowest Vickers hardness in HAZ is about 265 HV0. 2. No obvious softening occurred in HAZ. The average impact toughness at -30 ℃ in HAZ was 186 -191 J. The tested results indicated that HAZ of newly developed Zr-Ti microalloyed X120 linepipe steel had high strength and excellent low temperature toughness which met the requirements of API 5L standard.