State of the Art and Perspectives of Hydroforming of Tubes and Sheets

Hollow parts of high accuracy and high strength can be produced by forming methods using liquid media. Hydroforming of tubes has reached a high standard for small parts (volume some 1000 cm3) and is further developed for larger parts (volume some 10.000 cm3). Processes for hydraulic sheet metal forming are sometimes used for small parts from single sheets These pro-cesses are currently under intensive investigation, which is also true for the processing of double layered sheets Single sheets can be formed using membranes which separate the workpiece and the liquid. This results in interesting possibilities for a part and process integration in one step The forming performance of aluminum alloys can be enhanced by using a heated liquid media when forming without membranes.

Effect of cyclotron resonance on ‘hot’ dispersion in a staggered double metallic grating sheet beam travelling wave tube

Based on the beam wave synchronous interaction in transverse and longitudinal directions at the same time and starting from Maxwell’s equation and linear Vlasov equation, the beam–wave interaction ‘hot’ dispersion equation considering both cyclotron resonance and Cherenkov resonance in a staggered double metallic grating traveling wave tube is deduced.Through the reasonable selection for geometric and electrical parameters, the numerical calculation and analysis of the ‘hot’ dispersion equation shows that the beam–wave interaction gain and frequency band with the cyclotron resonance enhancement effect are higher than those with only Cherenkov resonance radiation.

Review of the development of tube and pipe products at Baosteel over the past 30 years

The history of the development of the tube ＆ pipe division of Baosteel was reviewed in the article, focusing on the process of technical innovation and the product category enrichment. Thanks to the technical innovation, the Ф 140 product line has become the most efficient one in the world. With the advance of conglomeracy and the construction of the most advanced weld pipe line and the Ф460 premium quality finishing （PQF） line ,the catalogue of Baosteel tube ＆pipe products has covered the extensive range from the hot roll to cold roll, the seamless to the welded, and all of the product dimension scope from 25.4 mm to 610 ram. To meet the requirements of relevant industries such as energy ,transportation, machinery,ammunition and other relevant industries, the product variety is diverting from carbon steel to alloy steel, stainless steel and special alloys. As the Baosteel Steel Tubing Plant increased its number of production units, expanded its production capacity and developed new products ,it has grown into a pipe and tube supplier with global competitiveness.

Weld Characteristics and NC Bending Formability of QSTE340 Welded Tube

The mechanical characteristics of the weld joint were investigated by tensile test, microstructure test, and microhardness test. The welded tube NC bending tests were carried out to evaluate the weld on the formability of the QSTE340 welded tube. The results show that the wall thinning degree, cross-sectional deformation and springback angle increase significantly as the weld line is located on the outside of the bend compared with that located on the middle and inside, and the welded tubes produce nearly identical performance as the weld line is located on the middle and inside. The wall thickening degree decreases much as the weld line is located on the inside of the bend. So the welded tube can acquire good bending formability as the weld line is located in the region away from the outside of the bend.

Mechanism of weld-line movement within hydroforming of tailor-welded tube

To reveal the reason of weld-line movement in hydroforming of a tailor-welded tube (TWT) with dissimilar thickness,the stress ratio of axial stress to circumferential stress is derived by mechanical analysis and analyzed between the thicker and thinner tubes,as well as the property of the axial strain. During TWT hydroforming,tensile strain along axial direction happens on the thinner tube. On the contrary,compressive strain happens on the thicker tube. Experiments are conducted to varify the weld-line movement regularity and strain distribution. It indicates that the weld-line moves from the thinner part to the thicker during TWT hydroforming. The thinning ratio of the thinner tube is bigger than that of the thicker tube,especially in the zone near weldline. Stress ratio difference between the thicker tube and the thinner tube is the main reason of weld-line movement and non-uniform thinning ratio distribution.

Transient out-of-plane distortion of multi-pass fillet welded tube to pipe T-joints

The out-of-plane distortion induced in a multi-pass circumferential fillet welding of tube to pipe under different weld sequences and directions was studied using Finite Element Method(FEM) based Sysweld software and verified experimentally. The FEM analyses consisted of thermal and mechanical analyses.Thermal analysis was validated with experimental transient temperature measurements. In the mechanical analysis, three different weld sequences and directions were considered to understand the mechanism of out-of-plane distortion in the tube to pipe T-joints. It was learnt that the welding direction plays a major role in minimizing the out-of-plane distortion. Further, during circumferential fillet welding of the tube to pipe component, the out-of-plane distortion generated in the x direction was primarily influenced by heat input due to the start and stop points, whereas the distortion in the z direction was influenced by time lag and welding direction. The FEM predicted distortion was compared with experimental measurements and the mechanism of out-of-plane distortion was confirmed.

Influence of flash trap profiles on joint properties of friction welded CP-Ti tube to 304L stainless steel tube plate using external tool

Titanium tube and stainless steel tube plate were welded by an innovative friction welding of tube to tube plate using an external tool (FWTPET). Copper was used as an interlayer for joining the dissimilar materials and also to minimize the effect of intermetallics formed at the joint interface. The process parameters that govern FWTPET process are plunge rate, rotational speed, plunge depth, axial load and flash trap profile. Among them, the flash trap profile of the tube has a significant influence on the joint integrity. Various flash trap profiles like vertical slots, holes, zig-zag holes, and petals were made on the titanium tube welded to the stainless steel tube plate. Macroscopic and microscopic studies reveal defect-free joints. The presence of copper interlayer and intermetallics was evident from X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) studies. The microhardness survey was presented across and along the interface. A novel test procedure called “plunge shear test” was developed to evaluate the joint properties of the welded joints. The highest shear fracture load of 31.58 kN was observed on the sample having petals as flash trap profile. The sheared surfaces were further characterized using SEM for fractography.

Cold welding sealing of copper-water micro heat pipe ends

The quality of micro heat pipe(MHP) is strongly affected by sealing technology. Based on the analysis of requirements of sealing technology, a cold welding technology was presented to seal MHP. In the cold welding process, compression force was used to flatten micro groove copper(MGC) tube. Then the bonding of MGC tube was reached because of intensively plastic deformation of MGC tube under pressure. It is found that the plastic deformation area of the cold welding of MGC tube can be divided into three sections. The deformation of micro grooves in each section was investigated; the influence of the dimensions of cylindrical heads on the weld joint shape and strength was studied; and a comparison between smooth copper tube and MGC tube was done. The results show that a groove compression stage exists in the cold welding of MGC tube besides a flattened stage and a melting stage.

A Study of the Welding Parameters for High Frequency Welded Pipes

In cold roll forming, steel pipes are welded with different technology parameters in order to improve the steel pipe＇s quality, thus we should optimize the technology parameters for producing steel pipes. By means of metallographic examination, scanning electron microscope examination, hardness test, impact test, bend test, tensile test and so on, the microstructure and mechanical properties of the steel pipes were investigated. The test results show that welding defects such as crack and blowholes are not found. The microstructure of the welded metal is Widmanstatten ; the microstructure of the heat affected zone is Widmanstatten, pearlite and proeutectoid ferrite, and the base metal is pearlite and ferrite. The highest of the metal Brinell hardness is in the weld seam, followed by the heat affected zone, and the lowest is in the base metal. The microstructure of the weld metal is coarse, which results in that the toughness of the weld is the lowest, but the hardness of the welds is the highest in the weld zone. The bend angles of the weld metal present a mountainous shape with the surface energy. Only when the surface energy is of the best value, the mechanical properties of the weld metal is the best.

Study of Magnetically Impelled Arc Butt Welder for Tube to Sheet Welding

Magnetically impelled arc butt welder is mainly used in the automotive industry for butt welding tubes.To extend the range of the welding applications,a new type of magnetically impelled arc butt welder for tube to plate welding had been developed.The welder consisted two parts of mechanical device and electrical control system,in which the mechanical device with an appropriate clamping,location and upsetting control was specially designed for simple operation.The electrical control system involved the power supply,magnetic field and logic control of the welding.So the starting and rotating behaviour of the arc in the welding region of tube and sheet can be accurately controlled for the quality of tube to sheet joints.As a result,the welder for tube to sheet welding could generate a stable rotating arc by adjusting the welding parameters,and had a constant high-quality joint.

ExExperimental and numerical studies on the prediction of bendability limit of QSTE340 welded tube in NC bending process

For a low carbon steel tube with small wall factor D/t and bending radius R,the over-thinning induced localized necking is one dominant failure in tube numerical control(NC) bending process,which strongly restricts the bendability limit of the tube.In addition,the deterioration of bendability of a tube is increased by the existence of the weak weld region.Therefore,an important issue is how to determinate and predict the welded tube bendability limit.In the present study,a finite element(FE) model with weld and subdivided heat affected zones under ABAQUS platform is employed to explore the deformation behaviors of welded tube NC bending.A localized necking criterion based on the critical thickness thinning is used to predict the critical principal strains,critical bending radius and burst location during the forming process.It is found that the failures always occur at the rigid supporting point of mandrel flexible balls near the tangent point at the outside of the bend,where the wall thickness of the tube is the lowest.The bending limit curves(BLCs) of the QSTE340 welded tube are obtained by shifting the standard shaped forming limit curve to the critical principal strains along the major strain axis.Comparison between the numerical and experimental results has shown that the BLC and critical bending radius predictions agree well with the experimental results.In addition,the effect of weld positions on BLC is discussed,the weld region shows an almost negligible effect on the forming limit at a non-critical location that is far away from the outside of the bend.However,when the weld is at the large tensile deformation region on the outside of the bend,a decrease of the forming limit strains is seen.

CO_2 Corrosion and Grooving Corrosion Behavior of the ERW Joint of the Q125 Grade Tube Steel

In order to investigate the CO2 corrosion behavior and the grooving corrosion susceptibility of electric resistance welded tubes of the Q125 grade, the high temperature and high pressure autoclave was employed to conduct CO2 corrosion experiments for the welded joint. The mechanisms of grooving corrosion and the factors influencing grooving corrosion susceptibility were identified by electrochemical measurement, microstructure observation, residual stress examination, micro-region composition and orientation analysis. The CO2 corrosion results show that the corrosion resistance of the base material is the best, followed by heataffected zone and the welded seam is the worst. The grooving corrosion occurred in the welded seam, and the grooving corrosion susceptibility of welded seam is relativity high. The dominated reason for the grooving corrosion of the electric resistance welded joint is the notable inclusions consisting of MnS as the main content in the welded seam. The proportion of high-angle grain boundaries in the welding zone is higher than that of base metal and the heat affected zone, which plays an important role in the corrosion behavior of the welded seam.

Effect of Rare Earth on the Corrosion-Resisting Performance of Zinc-Based Alloy Coatings

The corrosion behavior of coatings of pure zinc and Zn-Al,Zn-Al-RE alloys in NaCl solu- tions was studied by salt-spray experiments,even corrosion experiments and electrochemical measurements of bi-directional polarization curves and a.c.impedance in weak polarization region consistent regularities were obtained by these different methods,viz.,the corrosion resistance of Zn could be enhanced by alloying it with Al,and particularly with Al-RE.The causes of enhancement of corrosion resistance by RE were also discussed.

STRESS ANALYSIS OF TUBULAR JOINTS WITH WELD EFFECTS

In this paper the penalty element and the virtual beam element are proposed to handle the weak connection between the shell element and the 3-D solid element to take weld effects into account in stress analysis. In the mixed finite element method model presented here, the weld zone is discreted by plate-shell elements and 3D isoparametric elements. Numerical calculations have been performed for T-joint. The results obtained with this model are verified by experimental data. The location of the hot spot and stress concentration factors are greatly affected by the shape and size of the weld.

Product development of Baosteel HFW 610 Mill

Baosteel's high-frequency electric resistance welded(HFW) 610 longitudinal seam mill(8 5/8″-24″, the yearly output 300000 t) and UOE 1422 longitudinal submerged arc welding(SAW) mill(20' -56',the yearly output 500000 t) are established in 2005 and 2008,respectively.Product specification covers whole of API 5CT standard and most of API 5L standard,terminating the history of manufacturing the medium and large size pipes at Baosteel.The yearly output increased from 1,200000 t to nearly 2000000 t.HFW 610 mill is oriented at mid size pipes,which are mainly linepipe and welded casing.The designed yearly output of HFW mill is 300000 t,including casing of 90000 t,linepipe of 180000 t,round structural pipe of 15000 t and rectangle structural pipe of 15000 t. The yearly output of oil casing line supporting the welding line is 120000 t,among which including welded casing and seamless casing of 30000 t.Baosteel's HFW 610 longitudinal seam mill was established on October 27,2005. After the equipment trial run In October,2005 - March,2006 and equipment function examination In April,2006 - June,2006,mass production started in July 2006.And in December 2006,monthly designed capacity was achieved,reaching to 30496.644 t in welding pipe and 28 349.939 t in finished pipe.The output of 2006,2007, 2008 and 2009 was 117 067 t,223 554 t,255 791 t,and 204 424 t,with the comprehensive yield ratio 79.4%, 87.8%,90.80%and 91.92%respectively.This study introduces Baosteel HFW 610 Mill which is the world class,energy conservation and environmental protection enterprise,including product orientation,process and new product development.

Microstructural and mechanical properties of ZA10 alloy tubes and their weld seams prepared by Conform continuous extrusion

In the present work,Zn-10 Al-2 Cu-0.05 Ti(ZA10)alloy tubes with a diameter of 12.5 mm and wall thickness of 1.2 mm were fabricated by one-pass and double-pass Conform continuous extrusion.A stabilizing heat treatment[350℃,30 min(furnace cooling)+120℃,12 h(air cooling)]was also applied to some of the double-pass tubes to improve the quality of their weld seams.The yield strength,ultimate tensile strength,elongation and expansion ratio of the one-pass continuous extrusion tube were 268.4 MPa,294.3 MPa,13.8%and 5.5%,respectively.Double-pass continuous extrusion improved these values to 278.4 MPa,317.2 MPa,15.4%and 11.4%,respectively.Double-pass tubes also had fewer aggregations of Al-αprecipitates along the welding seam,which improved seam quality and caused cracks to appear in the matrix,away from the weld-affected zone,during expansion testing.Heat-treated double-pass tubes exhibited superior yield strength(283.9 MPa)and ultimate tensile strength(328.5 MPa)but lower elongation(10.2%)and expansion ratios(10.3%).Additionally,the heat-treated tubes exhibited markedly lower elongation at room temperature due to the remarkable blockage of dislocation motions by fine-scale lamellar(α+η)eutectoid structures and a lower size effect when stretched.

正弯矩循环加载下粘钢加固管片接头动力特性数值模拟研究

为了研究循环加载作用下粘钢加固管片接头的动力响应特性与破坏模式,以某实际城市盾构隧道为背景,建立粘钢加固管片接头的精细化有限元分析模型,开展正弯矩循环加载下粘钢加固管片接头动力特性模拟,研究其损伤演化特征、破坏模式、刚度退化、滞回耗能特性、延性变形能力等。研究结果表明:加载初期加固接头的钢板可有效分担螺栓承担的拉力,加固接头首先在钢板黏结处发生破坏。在钢板大面积剥离后,加固与未加固接头的破坏过程趋于一致;加载初期加固钢板可显著提高管片接头的刚度及接头弯矩。在钢板大面积剥离失效后,加固接头弯矩及刚度仍略高于未加固接头;正弯矩循环加载作用下管片接头存在损伤累积特征:同一级加载下随着循环次数的增加,接头表现出了一定程度的承载力退化特征;加载初期因结构胶的开裂失效,加固接头的耗能能力明显高于未加固接头。加载后期随着混凝土损伤程度的增加,加固与未加固接头的耗能能力均有所增加,但加固接头的耗能能力仍稍强于未加固管片接头。

爆炸焊接铜/钢复合管界面组织表征与性能研究

为了研究应用于压力容器的管道或承压部件的铜/钢双金属复合管材料中晶粒存在形式和力学性能之间的关系,通过爆炸焊技术获得了T2铜/316L不锈钢复合管,并对其界面形貌与微观组织进行分析。结果表明,T2铜/316L不锈钢复合管结合界面处呈现平直界面和周期性波状界面,波形结合区域的平均波长203μm、波高58μm。复合管结合界面两侧的元素发生互扩散,扩散层厚度为1μm。界面处Fe侧晶粒尺寸较小,随着结合界面距离的增加晶粒尺寸逐渐变大。通过纳米压痕试验发现,波峰处界面的纳米压痕结果达到了3.16 GPa,波谷处的纳米压痕结果达到了2.44 GPa,同时波峰处界面附近区域的纳米压痕结果均高于波谷处,Fe侧纳米压痕结果均高于Cu侧。纳米压痕试验获得的力学性能分布规律和微观组织的分布规律相一致。

轴力作用下焊接方管Π型节点的极限承载力分析

目前规范中还未规定Π型构造形式的方管节点承载力计算公式。该文在经过试验验证有限元分析准确性的基础上,基于两种方管不同区域的材料本构关系模型,利用Abaqus软件对85组在轴力作用下的节点进行了数值模拟,得到了方管Π型节点在轴力作用下的极限承载力。随后,通过参数化分析和多元回归,得出影响Π型节点极限承载力的因素以及修正的承载力计算公式。结果表明,支管-主管宽度比β对节点极限承载力和初始刚度影响较大,增大支管宽度,能够显著提高节点的极限承载力,支管上施加的荷载由主管上表面的抗弯、抗剪作用和主管侧壁共同承担,节点的破坏模式也取决于β;主管宽厚比2γ越大,意味着主管上翼缘和支管连接区域变得更加细长,降低了主管上翼缘的抗弯刚度,节点承载力和初始刚度因此降低;支管-主管高宽比η和支管间距g对节点极限承载力有一定影响,增大支管截面的高度和支管间隙,即增大了沿主管纵向方向的支管、主管相交区域,使得支管在主管翼缘更宽的区域传递荷载,节点的塑性区域更大,材料利用更充分,因此提高了节点的承载能力;支管-主管厚度比τ对节点极限承载力和初始刚度影响不大,支管的壁厚增加,提高了支管的承载力,但节点最终破坏是主管上翼缘达到屈服破坏而并非支管破坏,因此支管厚度的变化对节点承载能力影响不明显。根据有限元模型的分析结果,通过曲线拟合提出了计算方管Π型节点极限承载力的参数方程,并对该方程的准确性进行了评价,为这类节点的进一步研究和工程应用提供了参考。