The Cracking Induced by Oxidation-Hydriding in Welding Joints of Zircaloy-4 Plates

The welding joints of Zircaloy 4 plates obtained by diffusion welding at 800°C under pressure in vacuum were cracked during autoclave tests at 400°C superheated steam after exposure longer than 150 days. The section of specimens was examined by optical microscopy and the composition at the tips of cracking was analyzed by electron microprobe. The result shows that the combination of oxidation and hydriding induced cracking is responsible for this failure of the welding joints.

New Developed Welding Electrode for Improving the Fatigue Strength of Welded Joints

A new welding electrode, low transformation temperature electrode (LTTE), was introduced in this paper. It was described in design principle, mechanics, chemical compositions of their deposited metal and manufacturing methods. It was proved that the best transformation starting temperature from austenite to martensite of the deposited metal of LTTE was at about 191℃ and it was obtained by adding alloying elements such as Cr, Ni, Mn and Mo. The microstructure of the weld metal of the LTTE was low carbon martensite and residual austenite. The compressive residual stress was induced around the weld of the LTTE and the -145 MPa in compression could be obtained in middle of weld metal. The fatigue tests showed that the fatigue strength of the longitudinal welded joints welded with the LTTE at 2×106 cycles was improved by 59% compared with that of the same type of welded joints welded with conventional E5015 and the fatigue life was increased by 47 times at 162 MPa. It is a very valuable method to improve the fatigue performance of welded joints.

Bending Properties and Fracture Behavior of Ti-23Al-17Nb Alloy Laser Beam Welding Joints

Ti-23Al-17Nb alloy is an important high temperature structural material used in the space and aerospace fields. Welding of this alloy is an indispensable processing method, so the microstructures and mechanical properties of these welded joints must be studied to improve the welds. Longitudinal three-point bending tests were conducted to measure the bending ductility of laser beam welded joints. The crack distribution and fracture surface were investigated to further analyze the fracture behavior. The results indicate that the bending ductility decreases as the heat input by the laser beam welding increases. The crack inducing strain reaches 4.24%, while the fracturing strain exceeds 5% when the heat input is below 316 J/cm. If the columnar crystal grain of the weld metal exhibits a uniform orientation, the bending ductility is worse. The fractography analysis shows that the cracking propagates transgranularly and the fracture surface has a cleavage mode.

Corrosion behavior of the friction-stir-welded joints of 2A14-T6 aluminum alloy

The corrosion behavior of friction-stir-welded 2A14-T6 aluminum alloy was investigated by immersion testing in immersion exfoliation corrosion（EXCO） solution. Electrochemical measurements（open circuit potential, potentiodynamic polarization curves, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy）, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed for analyzing the corrosion mechanism. The results show that, compared to the base material, the corrosion resistance of the friction-stir welds is greatly improved, and the weld nugget has the highest corrosion resistance. The pitting susceptibility originates from the edge of Al-Cu-Fe-Mn-Si phase particles as the cathode compared to the matrix due to their high self-corrosion potential. No corrosion activity is observed around the θ phase（Al2Cu） after 2 h of immersion in EXCO solution.

CO_(2) corrosion of X80 steel welded joints under micro-turbulence induced by welding reinforcement height

Corrosion failure accidents owing to flow erosion and pipeline corrosion frequently occur during transportation.The welding reinforcement height(WRH)can induce locally micro-turbulent flow field,which aggravates local corrosion of welded joints.A high wall shear stress(WsS)experimental setup was established to conduct the online electrochemical corrosion test.The influence of WRH sizes on local corrosion of welded joints was studied at different flow rates.The electrochemical signals of the local corrosion of X80 welded joints at different flow rates were monitored in real time using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and wire beam microelectrode.In addition,the corrosion products composition and properties were analyzed.The results show that the micro-turbulent flow fields induced by the WRHs can enhance ion mass transfer near the welded joints.The corrosion products on the WRH surface also present different microscopic morphologies at different flow rates.In strong flow fields,the locally enhanced wsS can peel off the dense corrosion product partially,leading to the electrochemical distribution of large cathode and small anode,which accelerates the occurrence and development processes of the local corrosion of welded joints.The scientific guidelines for the corrosion protection of long-distance oil and gas pipelines can be potentially provided.

Comparison study on measurement of rail weld joint between inertial reference method and multi-point chord reference method

Purpose – Straightness measurement of rail weld joint is of essential importance to railway maintenance. Dueto the lack of efficient measurement equipment, there has been limited in-depth research on rail weld joint with a5-m wavelength range, leaving a significant knowledge gap in this field.Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the authors used the well-established inertial referencemethod (IR-method), and the state-of-the-art multi-point chord reference method (MCR-method). Two methodshave been applied in different types of rail straightness measurement trollies, respectively. These instrumentswere tested in a high-speed rail section within a certain region of China. The test results were ultimatelyvalidated through using traditional straightedge and feeler gauge methods as reference data to evaluate the railweld joint straightness within the 5-m wavelength range.Findings – The research reveals that IR-method and MCR-method produce reasonably similar measurementresults for wavelengths below 1 m. However, MCR-method outperforms IR-method in terms of accuracy forwavelengths exceeding 3 m. Furthermore, it was observed that IR-method, while operating at a slower speed,carries the risk of derailing and is incapable of detecting rail weld joints and low joints within the track.Originality/value – The research compare two methods’ measurement effects in a longer wavelength rangeand demonstrate the superiority of MCR-method.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study on the corrosion of the weld zone of 3Cr steel welded joints in CO_2 environments

The welded joints of 3Cr pipeline steel were fabricated with commercial welding wire using the gas tungsten arc welding （GTAW） technique. Potentiodynamic polarization curves, linear polarization resistance （LPR）, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS）, scan- ning electron microscopy （SEM）, and energy-dispersive spectrometry （EDS） were used to investigate the corrosion resistance and the growth of a corrosion film on the weld zone （WZ）. The changes in electrochemical characteristics of the film were obtained through fitting of the EIS data. The results showed that the average corrosion rate of the WZ in CO2 environments first increased, then fluctuated, and finally de- creased gradually. The formation of the film on the WZ was divided into three stages： dynamic adsorption, incomplete-coverage layer forma- tion, and integral layer formation.

Improving the fatigue property of welded joints for AZ31 magnesium alloy by ultrasonic peening treatment

The fatigue property of AZ31 magnesium alloy and its TIG welded joints were investigated. The ultrasonic peening treatment （UPT） was used to improve the fatigue property of the TIG welded joints, which was treated at the weld toe by the UPT process. The test results show that the fatigue strength of the base metal of AZ31 magnesium alloys is 57.8 MPa, and those of the fillet joint and the transverse cross joint are respectively 20. 0 MPa and 17.2 MPa at 2 × 10^6 cycles. The fatigue strengths of two kinds of welded joints treated by the UPT are respectively 30. 3 MPa and 24. 7 MPa, which have been improved by 51.5% and 43.6%, respectively. The fatigue life of the fillet joint specimens is prolonged by about 2. 74 times and the fatigue life of the transverse cross joint specimens is prolonged by about 1.05 times when the stress range is at 40. 0 MPa.

EFFECT OF MEAN STRESS ON FATIGUE PERFORMANCE OF WELDED JOINTS TREATED BY UPT

The fatigue contrast tests of unload longitudinal direction comer joints asoriginal welded and treated by ultrasonic peening of Q235B in various stress ratio are directed. Theimprovements of fatigue performance of unload longitudinal direction corner joints resulted byultrasonic peening are studied. The effect pattern of stress ratio on fatigue performance of weldedjoints that are treated by ultrasonic peening is studied. As tests results indicate that: ① In thecondition of stress ratio .R=-l, the fatigue strength 'of specimen treated by ultrasonic peening isincreased by 165 percent of that of the original welded specimen. And the fatigue life of specimentreated by ultrasonic peening is as much as 75 approx 210 times of that of the latter. When R=0.1,the fatigue strength is increased by 87 percent and the fatigue life is extended by 21 approx 29times. When R=-0.5, the fatigue strength is increased by 123 percent and the fatigue life isextended by 42 approx 59 times. When R=0.45, the fatigue strength is increased by 51 percent and thefatigue life is extended by 3 approx 14 times. ② If the welded joints are treated by ultrasonicpeening, the fatigue strength is no longer independent on the applied mean stress. The more thestress ratio R, the less the fatigue stress range which can be sustained by the joints is. ③Whether the high value residual stress is in the joints or not, the dead load portion of the appliedload must be considered in the design of the joints which should be treated by ultrasonic peening.

Effects of laser heat treatment on the fracture morphologies of X80 pipeline steel welded joints by stress corrosion

The surfaces of X80 pipeline steel welded joints were processed with a CO2 laser, and the effects of laser heat treatment （LHT） on H2S stress corrosion in the National Association of Corrosion Engineers （NACE） solution were analyzed by a slow strain rate test. The fracture morphologies and chemical components of corrosive products before and after LHT were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy, respectively, and the mechanism of LHT on stress corrosion cracking was discussed. Results showed that the fracture for welded joints was brittle in its original state, while it was transformed to a ductile fracture after LHT. The tendencies of hydrogen-induced corrosion were reduced, and the stress corrosion sensitivity index decreased from 35.2% to 25.3%, indicating that the stress corrosion resistance of X80 pipeline steel welded joints has been improved by LHT.

Microstructures of 2219 twin wire welded joints

With thick plates of 2219 high-strength alloy, the microstructures of welded joints with twin wire MIG welding were analyzed. Experimental results show that no hot crack was found in the weld due to discontinuous distribution of cocrystallization with low melting temperature, but porosity is serious in the first weld seam that is mainly composed of equiaxial grains with uneven sizes. As the poor position of the whole welded joint, fusion zone has big and coarse grains, uneven microstructures ; In quenching zone, there exist a lot of soaked microstructures that cocrystallizntion with low melting temperature solute into matrix, thus strengthening the metal in this zone; In excessive aging zone, much more phases that distribute evenly will be separated from the matrix; Ontside this zone, properties and microstructures of the metal are basically similar to matrix due to the relatively low temperature or unaffected heat in the zone during welding.

Changing Rule of Carbon-Enriched Zone and Diffusion Behavior of Carbon in Aging 0Cr6Mn13Ni10MoTi/1Cr5Mo Dissimilar Welded Joints

The microstructures, the changing rule of carbon-enriched zone, the diffusion behaviors of elements C and Cr, and thecarbide type of 0Cr6Mn13Ni10MoTi/1Cr5Mo dissimilar welded joints after aging at 500℃ for various times and afterlong-term service in technical practice were investigated by using the optical microscopy electron probe microanalysis,scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that in aging0Cr6Mn13Ni10MoTi/1Cr5Mo dissimilar welded joints, the main carbides are M_3C and a few carbides are M_7C_3 andM_(23)C_6. The M_3C carbide decomposition and dissolution with increasing aging time or aging temperature and theanti-diffusion of C and Cr cause the decrease and disappearance of the carbon-enriched zone. The results are differentfrom those of the A302/1Cr5Mo dissimilar welded joints in previous studies.

EFFECT OF CARBON MIGRATION ON CREEP PROPERTIES OF Cr5Mo DISSIMILAR WELDED JOINTS WITH Ni-BASED AND AUSTENITIC WELD METAL

In this paper, the effect of carbon migration on creep properties of Cr5Mo dissimilar welded joints with Ni-based (Inconel 182) and Cr23Nil3 (A302) austenitic weld metal was investigated. Carbon migration near the weld metal/ferritic steel interface of Cr5Mo dissimilar welded joints was analyzed by aging method. Local creep deformations of the dissimilar welded joints were measured by a long-term local creep deformation measuring technique. The creep rupture testing was performed for Cr5Mo dissimilar welded joints with Inconel 182 and A302 weld metal. The research results show that the maximum creep strain rate occurs in the decarburized zone located on heat affect zone (HAZ) of Cr5Mo ferritic steel. The creep rupture life of Cr5Mo dissimilar welded joints with A 302 weld metal decreases due to carbon migration and is about 50% of that welded with Inconel 182 weld metal.

Residual stress relaxation in typical weld joints and its effect on fatigue and crack growth

Many factors influence the fatigue and crack growth behavior of welded joints. Some structures often undergo fairly large static loading before they enter service or variable amplitude cyclic loading when they are in service. The combined effect of both applied stress and high initial residual stress is expected to cause the residual stresses relaxation. Only a few papers seem to deal with appropriate procedures for fatigue analysis and crack growth by considering the combined effect of variable amplitude cyclic loading with residual stresses relaxation. In this article, some typical welded connections in ship-shaped structures are investigated with 3-D elastic-plastic finite element analysis. The effect of residual stress relaxation, initial residual stress, and the applied load after variable amplitude cyclic loading is revealed, and a formula for predicting the residual stress at hot spot quantitatively is proposed. Based on the formula, an improved fatigue procedure is introduced. Moreover, crack growth of typical weld joints considering residual stresses relaxation is studied.

A NOVEL METHOD FOR EVALUATING PLANE STRESS DYNAMIC FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF 0Cr18Ni10Ti STAINLESS STEEL WELDED JOINTS

A novel method was proposed for the evaluation of Mode I dynamic fracture toughness （DFT） under plane stress and small scale yielding conditions for welded joints of stainless steel （SS）, 0Cr18Ni10Ti. In a hybrid experimental-numerical approach, the experiments were carried out on the Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus, and three dimensional （3D） transient numerical simulations were performed by a finite element （FE） computer program. Macroscopical plastic deformation was observed at the loading and supporting points, on the specimens, after the test, which could cause a large error if omitted in the numerical simulation. Therefore, elustic-viscoplustic analysis was performed on the specimen by adopting the Johnson-Cook （J-C） model to describe the rate-dependent plastic flow behavior of the material. The material heterogeneity in the mismatched welded joints, induced by the difference in the base metal （BM） and the weld metal （WM） in yield stress, has also been taken into consideration by using the J-C models separately. Good accordance was obtained between the experimental and the computational results by the present approach. The relationship between plane stress DFT and loading rate was also obtained on the order of 108 MPa.m^1/2.s^-1.

Study on the Basic Mechanical Behaviors of High Density Polyethylene Electrofusion Welded Joints at Different Temperature

The basic mechanical behaviors of high density polyethylene electrofusion welded joint at different temperatures were studied by using differently designed specimens in this paper. The results show that the strength of weld bonding plane is higher than that of the pipe and socket materials at room temperature. In order to get the shear strength of electrofusion welded joint, the effective bond lengths were reduced by cutting artificial groove through the socket. The effective bonding length of welded joint to get the shear strength is decreased with decreasing testing temperature. The shear strength and the sensibility to sharp notch of HDPE material increased with decreasing temperature.

Study of welding technology on Baosteel high-strength heavy steel Bweldy620QL6

This study aims to conduct the weldability test for a high-strength structural steel, Bweldy620QL6, developed by Baosteel. This steel was subjected to welding,and the effects of two kinds of shielding gas,a binary gas of 80% Ar ＋ 20% CO, and ternary gas of 90% Ar ＋ 8% CO, ＋ 2% O2, on the performance of the welded joints of high-strength heavy steel were compared. The results show that Bweldy620QL6 has good weldability,and the joints obtained using binary gas and ternary gas meet common requirements.

Quantitative Metal Magnetic Memory Reliability Modeling for Welded Joints

Metal magnetic memory（MMM） testing has been widely used to detect welded joints. However, load levels, environmental magnetic field, and measurement noises make the MMM data dispersive and bring difficulty to quantitative evaluation. In order to promote the development of quantitative MMM reliability assessment, a new MMM model is presented for welded joints. Steel Q235 welded specimens are tested along the longitudinal and horizontal lines by TSC-2M-8 instrument in the tensile fatigue experiments. The X-ray testing is carried out synchronously to verify the MMM results. It is found that MMM testing can detect the hidden crack earlier than X-ray testing. Moreover, the MMM gradient vector sum K_（vs） is sensitive to the damage degree, especially at early and hidden damage stages. Considering the dispersion of MMM data, the K_（vs） statistical law is investigated, which shows that K_（vs） obeys Gaussian distribution. So K_（vs） is the suitable MMM parameter to establish reliability model of welded joints. At last, the original quantitative MMM reliability model is first presented based on the improved stress strength interference theory. It is shown that the reliability degree R gradually decreases with the decreasing of the residual life ratio T, and the maximal error between prediction reliability degree R_1 and verification reliability degree R_2 is 9.15%. This presented method provides a novel tool of reliability testing and evaluating in practical engineering for welded joints.

Study of microstructures and properties for girth weldingof domestic X70 pipeline steels

With the development of domestic pipeline steels, it is necessary to develop suitable welding technology which can improve the properties of the welded pipeline. In this paper, the microstructures and mechanical properties of domestic XTO pipeline steels and welded joints are discussed. The welding consumables of BOHLER E6010 and HOBART 81N1 are matched for girth welding. The following characteristics in heat-affected zone（ HAZ） are indicated that microstructures of intercritical HAZ（ ICHAZ） is finer and more uniform, the grain sizes of fine-grain HAZ （ FGHAZ） and subcritical HAZ （ SCHAZ） are smaller than that of coarse-grain HAZ（ CGHAZ）. The hardness, tensile strength and toughness of welded joints come up to the standard. The micrographs of impact specimens in welded joints are cleavage, quasi-cleavage and dimple which shows there is typical ductile rupture.

Fatigue Resistance and Failure Behavior of Penetration and Non-Penetration Laser Welded Lap Joints

Penetration and non-penetration lap laser welding is the joining method for assembling side facade panels of railway passenger cars,while their fatigue performances and the difference between them are not completely understood.In this study,the fatigue resistance and failure behavior of penetration 1.5+0.8-P and non-penetration 0.8+1.5-N laser welded lap joints prepared with 0.8 mm and 1.5 mm cold-rolled 301L plates were investigated.The weld beads showed a solidification microstructure of primary ferrite with good thermal cracking resistance,and their hardness was lower than that of the plates.The 1.5+0.8-P joint exhibited better fatigue resistance to low stress amplitudes,whereas the 0.8+1.5-N joint showed greater resistance to high stress amplitudes.The failure modes of 0.8+1.5-N and 1.5+0.8-P joints were 1.5 mm and 0.8 mm lower lap plate fracture,respectively,and the primary cracks were initiated at welding fusion lines on the lap surface.There were long plastic ribs on the penetration plate fracture,but not on the non-penetration plate fracture.The fatigue resistance stresses in the crack initiation area of the penetration and non-penetration plates calculated based on the mean fatigue limits are 408 MPa and 326 MPa,respectively,which can be used as reference stress for the fatigue design of the laser welded structures.The main reason for the difference in fatigue performance between the two laser welded joints was that the asymmetrical heating in the non-penetration plate thickness resulted in higher residual stress near the welding fusion line.