A new method for measurement of three dimensional residual stresses in a multi-pass butt welded joint

In this paper, a new method for the measurement of three dimensional residual stresses in a multi-pass butt welded joint is presented. The method involves the measurement of strain changes at a through hole surface as a coupon of material with the hole is separated from the body of interest and split. The finite element calculations are used to relate the strain changes at the measurenent points to the initial residual stresses at the hole location. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated by using it to measure a known stress field in a bent beam. The method has been used to measure the through thickness distribution of three dimensional residual stresses in a multi-pass butt welded joint. It could also be applied to the measurement of residual stresses in other welded joints.     

Sub-surface stress measurement of cross welds in a dissimilar welded pressure vessel

Manufacturing process of pressure vessels used in high-temperature applications normally needs employing dissimilar metal welds (DMWs) between austenitic and ferritic steel. However, high amount of thermal stresses at the welds are induced due to differences in coefficient of thermal expansion between the types of steel. This study investigates the evaluation of welding residual stresses in a pressure vessel manufactured by DMW of 316 L stainless steel shell to A106 carbon steel caps as well as similar welding of stainless steel shells. By using longitudinal critically refracted (LCR) ultrasonic waves, the residual stresses are experimentally measured. The ultrasonic method is based on acoustoelasticity law by which the ultrasonic wave velocity could be connected to the material stress. By changing the frequency in which the ultrasonic transducers are working, the LCR waves are able to penetrate in various depths of the material in order to measure the sub-surface residual stresses. Hence, four main aspects are considered in this study: (I) stress evaluation of the DMW; (II) sub-surface stress measurement; (III) stress evaluation of longitudinal weld and (IV) stress measurement in cross weld. It is demonstrated that the residual stresses of the DMW pressure vessel could be comprehensively evaluated by using the LCR method.     

Correlation between the defect structure and the residual stress distribution in ZnO visualized by TEM and Raman microscopy

A deep understanding of the appearance and distribution of residual stresses in ZnO is of high importance as mechanical stresses directly influence its electrical and optical properties. In this paper we investigate the correlation between residual stresses and the plastic deformation below a micro indent placed on a prism plane of a ZnO single crystal. The residual stress field was mapped by means of confocal Raman microscopy. A cross section was studied by transmission electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence to visualize defect structures. In the Raman measurement bands of residual stresses were observed. The analysis of the defect structure showed that the residual stress distribution corresponds to crystallographic directions which are known to be the preferred directions for plastic deformation. The preparation of lamellae by FIB strongly alters both the residual stress state as well as the defect density caused by plastic deformation.     

Experimental method for determining through thickness residual hoop stresses in thin walled pipes and tubes without inside access

The determination of through thickness residual stresses in pipes and pressure vessels is of growing interest because of emphasis placed on life prediction, design, and failure analysis of piping systems. Most of the through thickness residual stress measurement techniques require the placement of gauges on the outside and inside of the pipe. These methods are severely hampered when gauges cannot be placed on the inside of the pipe. This constraint could arise for small diameter pipes, long pipes or for pipes that have been used in a service condition causing corrosion or fouling of the inner surface.
This paper focuses on the first step of a three step procedure for determining residual hoop stresses in thin walled pipes and tubes. The method described is designed for cases where it is impossible to place gauges on the inside of the pipe. The method yses biaxial strain gauges on the outside of the pipe and involves a through thickness axial cut of the pipe. Based on the change in strain on the outside of the pipe, changes in the hoop residual stress distribution due to the axial cut are obtained with the method presented here. The method provides a means to evaluate changes in stresses on both the outside surface and the inside surface of the pipe as well as an evaluation of the change in through thickness hoop stress distribution at any location in the pipe cross section. This paper further demonstrates that the problem of shortening long pipes to enable placement of gauges on the inside of the pipe can result in the loss of significant residual stress information.     

An analytically formulated structural strain method for fatigue evaluation of welded components incorporating nonlinear hardening effects

An analytically formulated structural strain method is presented for performing fatigue evaluation of welded components by incorporating nonlinear material hardening effects by means of a modified Ramberg‐Osgood power law hardening model. The modified Ramberg‐Osgood model enables a consistent partitioning of elastic and plastic strain increments during both loading and unloading. For supporting 2 major forms of welded structures in practice, the new method is applied for computing structural strain defined with respect to a through‐thickness section in plate structures and cross section in piping systems. In both cases, the structural strain is formulated as the linearly deformation gradient on their respective cross sections, consistent with the “plane sections remain plane” assumption in structural mechanics. The structural strain‐based fatigue parameter is proposed and has been shown effective in correlating some well‐known low‐cycle and high‐cycle fatigue test data, ranging from gusset‐to‐plate welded plate connections to pipe girth welds.     

Development and comparison of residual stress measurement on welds by various methods

Abstract

Residual stress constitutes an integral part of the total stress acting on any component in service. It is imperative to determine residual stress to estimate the life of critical engineering components, especially those that are welded. The stresses caused by non-uniform temperature distribution due to welding and the effect of these multiaxial stresses upon service performance are discussed. A controlled thermal severity test (CTS) was performed on mild steel plates bolted together, with anchor welds deposited on opposite sides. After cooling, bithermal and trithermal test welds were deposited one after the other. Varying welding stresses were deliberately introduced by using different thicknesses of both plates to change the thermal severity numbers (TSN). The main experimental technique used here to determine the magnitude and nature of residual stress is based on X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was utilised to develop and standardise other techniques. The XRD method is based on the peak shiftin the diffraction profile due to the presence of stress using a sin² ψ method. The peak shift is determined by orienting the sample at different angles ± ψ to the incident X-ray beam. The semidestructive technique of hole drilling and use of a strain gauge was also employed to determine residual stress in CTS specimens. The magnitude, nature, and direction of principal stresses were determined by relieving stresses through incremental blind hole drilling and measuring strain values at each step. The surface displacements arising due to hole drilling can also be determined by laser holography. A sandwich holography technique was developed to avoid unwanted rigid body motions of samples due to hole drilling when relieving stresses. Stress values were obtained by measuring fringe displacement between two exposures of a sandwich hologram, due to hole drilling. Results on the change in residual stress values with TSN are discussed. The residual stress values determined by XRD and sandwich holography were found to be comparable, and stress values obtained by hole drilling/strain gauge measurement were higher than these values. The reasons are discussed.     

Measuring residual stress and the resulting stress intensity factor in compact tension specimens

The measurement of residual stress through the remaining ligament of a compact tension specimen was studied. In the crack compliance method, a slot or notch is successively extended through the part, and the resulting strain is measured at an appropriate location. By using a finite element simulation of a specimen preloaded beyond yield, three techniques for determining the original residual stress from the measured strains were compared for accuracy and sensitivity to measurement errors. A common beam-bending approximation was substantially inaccurate. The series expansion method proved to be very versatile and accurate. The fracture mechanics approach could determine the stress intensity factor caused by the residual stresses with a very simple calculation. This approach offers the exciting possibility of determining the stress intensity factor prior to a fatigue or fracture test by measuring strains during the specimen preparation.     

Discrepancies between calculated and measured residual stresses in quenched pure iron cylinder

Abstract

The residual stresses in a pure iron cylinder 50 mm in diameter, after water quenching from 850°C were calculated using the finite element method. This rather simple case without phase changes was chosen so that the calculated results could be compared with those from experiments. The comparison, however, showed discrepancies which could not be explained solely by the inaccuracy of the data or by the mathematical approach used for the calculation. These differences were found to be the result of plastic deformations that occurred during measurement of the residual stresses by the boring–turning method. This was borne out by a numerical simulation of the experimental procedure. Beginning the calculation at the residual–stress state after quenching, the boring and turning steps were simulated by a stepwise elimination of the contributions of the removed material to the total stiffness matrix. Thus, the changes in the residual stresses and the corresponding changes in the measured strain at the surface due to removal of material could be calculated. The boring–turning technique assumes pure elastic stress states throughout the process of material removal. However, the calculated results revealed that this technique caused unanticipated plastic deformations which resulted in erroneous experimental results in this special case. Stress values measured by mechanical methods are therefore unreliable if the corresponding equivalent stress in parts of the cross–section of the cylinder approaches the yield point at room temperature.

MST/7     

Effect of residual stresses on ductile crack growth resistance

It is well known that residual stresses influence the ductile fracture behaviour. In this paper, a numerical study was performed to assess the effect of residual stresses on ductile crack growth resistance of a typical pipeline steel. A modified boundary layer model was employed for the analysis under plane strain, Mode I loading condition. The residual stress fields were introduced into the finite element model by the eigenstrain method. A sharp crack was embedded in the center of the weld region. The complete Gurson model has been applied to simulate the ductile fracture by microvoid nucleation, growth and coalescence. Results show that tensile residual stresses can significantly reduce the crack growth resistance when the crack growth is small compared with the length scale of the tensile residual stress field. With the crack growth, the effect of residual stresses on the crack growth resistance tends to diminish. The effect of residual stress on ductile crack growth resistance seems independent of the size of geometrically similar welds. When normalized by the weld zone size, the ductile crack growth resistance collapses into one curve, which can be used to assess the structural integrity and evaluate the effect of residual stresses. It has also been found that the effect of residual stresses on crack growth resistance depends on the initial void volume fraction f₀, hardening exponent n and T-stress.     

Generation of residual stress and plastic strain in a fracture mechanics specimen to study the formation of creep damage in type 316 stainless steel

Residual stresses are created in type 316H stainless steel fracture mechanics specimens using the process of local out‐of‐plane compression (LOPC). Three sets of LOPC tools are used to create different distributions of residual stress near to the crack tip. Also the tools create different levels of prior plastic strain. Residual stresses are measured using the neutron diffraction method and compared with the stress predictions obtained from finite element (FE) simulations of LOPC. The specimens are then subjected to thermal exposure at 550 °C for several thousand hours. A creep deformation and damage model is introduced into the FE analysis to predict the relaxation of stresses and creation of damage in the specimens. Neutron diffraction experiments are undertaken to measure the relaxed residual stresses and fractographic analysis of thermally exposed samples measured the extent of creep damage. A comparison between measured and simulated results demonstrates that the prior plastic strain has a significant effect on damage accumulation but this is not accounted for in the current creep damage models.     

Residual stresses and fracture mechanics analysis of a crack in welds of high strength steels

This study presented the characteristics of residual stresses in welds of high strength steels (POSTEN60, POSTEN80) whose tensile strengths were 600 MPa and 800 MPa, respectively. Three-dimensional thermal elastic-plastic analyses were conducted to investigate the characteristics of welding residual stresses in welds of high strength steels through the thermal and mechanical properties at high temperatures obtained from the elevated temperature tensile tests. A finite element analysis method which can calculate the J-integral for a crack in a residual stress field was developed to evaluate the J-integral for a centre crack when mechanical stresses were applied in conjunction with residual stresses.The results show that the volumetric changes associated with the austenite to martensite phase transformation during rapid cooling after welding of high strength steels significantly influence on the development of residual stresses in the weld fusion zone and heat-affected zone. For a centre crack in welds of high strength steels where only residual stresses are present, increased tensile strength of the steel, increased the J-integral values. The values of the J-integral for the case when mechanical stresses are applied in conjunction with residual stresses are larger than those for the case when only residual stresses are present.     

Residual stress field determination in welds by means of X‐ray,synchrotron and neutron diffraction

To what extent the welding residual stresses influence fatigue is still unclear and matter of debate. An important reason for this lack of clarity is that the exact determination of residual stress fields in welds is complicated which leads to conservative assumptions about these stresses in the fatigue design codes. The advances in the diffraction analysis of materials offer the opportunity for the full‐field residual strain mapping in welds albeit at the cost of time and technical complexity. In this work residual stress field determination in welded S1100QL specimens by means of the x‐ray, synchrotron and neutron diffraction techniques was undertaken. The results revealed that the maximum values of surface residual stresses are not as frequently assumed, as high as the yield strength in small scale specimens. At the weld toe which could serve as a fatigue crack initiation site, even lower residual stresses than the weld centreline could be present. The in‐depth measurements revealed that the effective part of the residual stress field which could be decisive for the fatigue failure initiation is concentrated at the surface of the weld.     

Combined experimental–numerical study on residual stresses induced by a single impact as elementary process of mechanical peening

Peening processes can be used as a fatigue enhancement treatment for metallic structures by locally introducing compressive residual stresses. A combined experimental–numerical study on a single-impact process with a drop tower on the aluminium alloy AA5754, representing the elementary process of mechanical peening, has been performed to investigate different impact parameters on the residual stress profile. Residual stresses have been measured using high-energy X-Ray diffraction. A three-dimensional finite element model is used to predict the residual stresses numerically. The elastic strain components from the numerical results are used to calculate residual stresses by assuming either a plane stress or a plane strain state for different specimen thickness to assess the validity of respective assumption. The validity of the numerical simulation is evaluated based on comparisons of the elastic strain profiles and the percentage loss in kinetic energy of the steel ball due to the impact for four different energies, showing overall a good agreement in the experimental–numerical comparisons.     

Application of Moiré Interferometry to Study Residual Deformation in Lap‐Welded Steel Plates

Abstract: Moiré interferometry combined with hole‐drilling is an effective method for measuring welding residual deformation. In this study, two lap‐welded rectangular steel plates with different overlap widths were manufactured, and cross‐gratings with a frequency of 1200 lines per mm were replicated on test areas of the welds. Sixteen through holes were drilled in the plates to release residual stress, while Moiré interferometry, integrated with a phase‐shifting technique, was used to determine the corresponding surface residual deformation. The distribution characteristics of the residual displacements around the drilled holes were investigated using the experimental data as basis. The relationship between the residual displacement located in the plates and the distance to the weld lines is also presented in this paper. Furthermore, the magnitude and direction of the residual strain both near the holes and within the plates were analysed. The experimental data and detailed analysis in this paper can serve as some reference for research on the residual strain of welds.     

Numerical investigation on welding residual stresses in a PWR pressurizer safety/relief nozzle

This paper presents finite element simulation results of residual stresses in dissimilar metal welds of a PWR pressurizer safety/relief nozzle. The present results are believed to be significant in two aspects. The first one is to consider the effect of the presence of similar metal welds on resulting residual stresses. The second one is the mitigation effect of the overlay welding thickness on residual stresses. After dissimilar metal welding, tensile residual stresses are present both at the inner surface and at the outer surface of dissimilar metal welds. Adjacent similar metal welding, however, decreases residual stresses to compressive ones at the inner surface of dissimilar metal welds, possibly due to the bending mechanism caused radial contraction of the weld. At the outer surface of dissimilar metal welds, similar metal welding increases residual stresses. Overlay welding further decreases residual stresses at the inner surface of dissimilar and similar metal welds, but increases slightly residual stresses at the outer surface.     

On the plane problem approximation in the theory of macroisotropic composite material

A plane problem approximation is studied with mean, over the volume of phases, stresses in a two-phase macroisotropic composite material. Numerical results for WC-Co hard metals with a boundary type microstructure are analyzed. The microstresses as determined within the plane strain approach can be higher than the true stresses in the case of simple shearing strain but lower than the true stresses in the case of a uniaxial stressed state; the residual thermal stresses are smaller than the true residual stresses. The stresses estimated by the two-and three-dimensional approaches tend to equalize as the cobalt binder amount is raised. __________ Translated from Problemy Prochnosti, No. 1, pp. 13–21, January–February, 2007.     

An experimental study of the residual stresses,and their alleviation,in tube to tube-sheet welds of industrial boilers

Micro-crack development in welds, including repair welding, of the tube to tube-sheet region of industrial boilers is not an uncommon problem. Often such cracking is exacerbated by stress corrosion cracking or thermal fatigue, in which the residual stresses associated with welding can play a major role. In this paper, a custom built, but robust, air abrasive centre hole drilling facility was used; which induced negligible machining stresses. This system was modified to attach to the (vertical) tube sheets of boilers on site, and to sample residual stresses in the tube to tube-sheet welds, of both conventional circumferential fillet welds of protruding tubes as well as recessed ‘J’ configuration type. The experimental test programme evaluated transverse and circumferential profiles of the residual stresses. Global post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) of a whole boiler, indicated substantial (75%) reductions in the tensile peak residual stress. A localised PWHT technique, using a 1 kW incandescent light source inserted into the tube, easily achieved the requisite temperatures and heating rates, but led to significant increases in local residual stresses. The implications of such localised PWHT techniques on residual stress and consequent service life, are therefore of vital importance with regard to plant integrity and safety.     

A fracture mechanics approach to estimate the fatigue endurance of welded t-joints including residual stress effects

Residual stresses and weld defects play a major role in the fatigue behaviour of welded structures, so these effects need to be accounted for in a theoretical analysis. A simplified engineering procedure based on linear‐elastic fracture mechanics is applied to estimate the fatigue behaviour, particularly the limit of endurance. Local geometrical irregularities and pre‐existing flaws, which are typical for this kind of weld, are covered by an overall notch intensity factor instead of a specific stress intensity factor, so the initial flaw size is not needed explicitly in the analysis. The effect of residual stresses can be easily included. The cut‐compliance method was applied to measure the residual stress distribution on the cross‐section of the weld. A welded T‐joint was used as a benchmark. Unexpectedly, compressive residual stresses were found to prevail in the root region. According to the analysis, they contribute to the endurance limit of the considered joint by about 50%. This result was confirmed by fatigue tests where a significant decrease in the fatigue strength after a post‐weld stress relieving heat treatment was observed.     

Analysis of a plane strain neck in a flat sheet

The Bridgman analysis gives the stress distribution at the minimum cross section in a neck in a flat tensile specimen. This analysis is essentially one-dimensional since only variation through the thickness is considered. In the present analysis the assumptions made by Bridgman are considered valid for other cross sections close to a plane strain neck. A method used previously by the authors for the analysis of round bar necks is used to extend the Bridgman analysis to obtain the full, three-dimensional stress distribution near the minimum cross section.     

The safe-end length effect on welding residual stresses in dissimilar metal welds of surge nozzles

The effects of safe-end length and kinematic boundary conditions during welding on weld residual stresses in dissimilar metal welds are systematically investigated using finite element analyses for typical pressurized water reactor surge nozzle configurations. The study is generalized by idealizing complex nozzle geometries as straight pipes with two welds. The impact of these variables on axial residual stresses at inner surface is examined, since these are of most concern for primary water stress corrosion cracking. Possible mechanisms controlling the development of welding residual stresses are used to qualitatively explain the predicted behavior.