BULLETIN 475-2002
STUDIES OF LOCAL DIFFERENCES IN MATERIAL CREEP PROPERTIES ON WELDMENTS

Standard No.
BULLETIN 475-2002
Release Date
2002
Published By
WRC - Welding Research Council
Latest
BULLETIN 475-2002
Scope
"Part 1: Finite Element Case Study of Local Stress Effects in Long Seam Welded Piping Part 2: Determination of Creep Behavior of Singular HAZ Regions to Model the Behavior of the Entire HAZ of CR-MO Steels (ASME T/P11@ T/P91@ T/P92@ T/P122) in Elevated Temperature Service Creep damage in weldments has lead to loss of life@ property@ operating time and@ of course@ profit. Only relatively recently has it been appreciated that the life expectancy of a weld may be a small fraction of that of the base metals being joined. The problem is not an inherent deficiency in the weld metal. Rather it is the local interaction of metallurgical structures with differing creep properties that leads to stress intensification and associated increases in the triaxial or hydrostatic stresses in the neighborhood of the joint. Hydrostatic tensions serve to reduce the creep rates of less creep resistant areas but accelerate the rate of cavity growth. The failures and damage reported in service show cavitation@ microcracking and then@ rapid macrocracking. Furthermore@ it has been concluded from postmortems that creep damage initiates primarily at subsurface locations@ and in long seam welded piping the creep damage progresses to an advanced stage without any apparent OD surface evidence. The Pressure Vessel Research Council (PVRC) of WRC and its sister organization@ The Materials Properties Council (MPC)@ have responded to the concerns of industry with a variety of studies ranging from NDE performance demonstration@ to development of life assessment tools. One of these tools consisted of the software discussed herein. The software incorporated estimates of the stress intensification associated with local variations in weld deposit or heat affected zone creep properties and with geometrical factors such as weld joint geometry and pipe peaking. When combined with the Omega creep damage model@ also developed under the auspices of MPC@ and a cavity growth algorithm@ the software explained quantitatively the observed reductions on operating life for both normalized and subcritically heat treated weldments. Failures of the latter group are often described as Type IV failures@ and have only recently been observed in the United States. The significant creep rate mismatch expected in the heat affected zones of high strength ferritic steels increases the tendency towards such failures as described in the two papers . The work by Lundin et al represents a first step toward sytematically gathering data needed to improve the analytical models. It takes advantage of a novel@ long ""singular"" simulated heat affected zone specimen that facilitates measurement of creep rates on other aspects of creep performance of microstructures of interest. The works reported here should be viewed as the first systematic steps aimed at developing tools to be used for design and life assessment and even alloy development or optimization"

BULLETIN 475-2002 history

  • 2002 BULLETIN 475-2002 STUDIES OF LOCAL DIFFERENCES IN MATERIAL CREEP PROPERTIES ON WELDMENTS



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