Experimental Study on High Performance Welding Materials for Pipeline Steels

Author(s):  
Zhijun Huang ◽  
Kai Miao ◽  
Xiudi Cao ◽  
Yutao Wang

West-to-East Natural Gas Transmission Project is in great need of high quality steels of API grade X70 and suitable high quality welding materials. The weld of pipe should have high strength, high toughness and low sulphur and arsenic contents (less than or equal to 0.005 wt % respectively). The work performed in WISCO concerning welding wires of SAW, GMAW and SMAW and weldability of pipe steel is reported in this article. Steel grade X70 is a TMCP high strength and high toughness steel with low carbon equivalent. It has good weldability and is less susceptible to cold cracking in the heat-affected zone. Generally in order for weld to gain the same strength as the base metal, more alloying elements should be added into the weld. Therefore, it is likely that the weld is expected to be more susceptible to cold cracking. The mechanism of strengthening and toughening of the weld should be carefully investigated. WISCO has made great progress in both property improvement and manufacturing of welding materials. Through the addition of alloying elements, the influences of some alloying elements on the strength and toughness of welds, especially on the low temperature toughness were carried out. The results show that the upper shelves of the Charpy V transition curves for the weld metals remain high despite the different alloying elements. However, the influence of alloying degree on the low-temperature toughness is significant. The weld metals micro-alloyed with Ti,B and Ni, etc. have high acicular ferrite volume fractions in the metallographs, thereby possessing high strengths and high toughness. For SAW weld, the strength is more than 590MPa, the Charpy impact energy at −40°C above 180J; for the weld of gas metal arc welding, the Charpy impact energy at −30°C reaches 190J which are far better than some current specifications. If the welding is performed with caution, no cracks were found. HIC and SSCC test for corrosion resistance of the welds were also performed and the results fully met the requirements concerned. With respect to strength and toughness, chemistry and metallography, the HIC performance of welds was analysed.

Author(s):  
Tomonori Kakizaki ◽  
Shodai Koga ◽  
Hajime Yamamoto ◽  
Yoshiki Mikami ◽  
Kazuhiro Ito ◽  
...  

AbstractElectroslag welding (ESW) is known to show higher heat input than electrogas welding (EGW), resulting in poor low-temperature toughness. However, a newly developed ESW (dev. ESW) method using low-resistivity slag bath exhibited excellent low-temperature toughness as a result of lower effective heat input than conventional EGW, as demonstrated by the faster cooling rates measured in weld metals and estimated using finite element method analyses. This led to much shallower molten pool in the dev. ESW, resulting in much finer columnar grains and thinner centerline axial grains. High cooling speed in the dev. ESW method appeared to contribute to increased acicular ferrite proportion. The uniform microstructure with large acicular ferrite proportion and small number of inclusions in the weld metal permitted the dev. ESW weld metal to possess little variation in Charpy impact energy across the center of weld metal.


2019 ◽  
Vol 795 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Hai Tao Wang ◽  
Shi Li Li ◽  
Yan Long Luo ◽  
Jun Qiang Wang ◽  
Hai Bin Zhang ◽  
...  

Based on research of the low temperature fracture property of high grade steel pipe, it shows that X70, X80 steel pipe and X80 tee have high Charpy impact toughness. However, as the wall thickness increases, the shear area of DWTT decreases rapidly, and the thickness effect is significant. The research results show that the original wall thickness impact specimen fracture of steel pipe may not be ductile, for design temperature less than -30°C and wall thickness greater than 40mm. The brittle fracture was caused by structural factors. The Charpy impact energy, which just reflects the toughness of materials, does not show the fracture appearance as it would occur in service, because of the different specimen geometry and high rate of impact. The brittle fracture can occur at low temperature and low stress even with a high Charpy impact energy, the conditions of brittle fracture should be established under combination of the wall thickness, temperature and other factors. In this work, it is clarified that measurement of the fracture toughness under service temperature should be used to control low stress brittle fracture, besides the Charpy impact energy to ensure the material toughness.


2012 ◽  
Vol 190-191 ◽  
pp. 590-594
Author(s):  
Ming Wei Tong ◽  
Ze Xi Yuan ◽  
Kai Guang Zhang

This paper provides a detailed description of high strength architectural heavy plates with 80mm in thickness developed at Wuhan Iron and Steel(Group)Corporation(WISCO). The chemical composition of plates contains mainly C-Mn-Nb-V-Ti with proper content of other alloys, and the thermal-mechanical controlled process and normalizing treatment were applied. The results show that the base plates manufactured at WISCO have a good match of high strength, good through-thickness characteristic, low yield ratio and low temperature toughness with fine microstructure, and the fracture transition temperature is about -40°C. The welding plate also has high strength and good low temperature toughness which comprehensively meet the technical requirement of large-scale architectural buildings.


1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-176
Author(s):  
Y. Nakano ◽  
Y. Saito ◽  
K. Amano ◽  
M. Koda ◽  
Y. Sannomiya ◽  
...  

This paper describes the metallurgical approaches for producing 415MPa and 460MPa yield strength offshore structural steel plates and the mechanical properties of the steel plates and their welded joints. A thermo-mechanical control process (TMCP) was adopted to manufacture YP415MPa and YP460MPa steel plates with weldability comparable to conventional YP355MPa steel plates. The Charpy impact and CTOD tests of the steel plates and their welded joints proved to be very good.


Alloy Digest ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  

Abstract IN-787 is an age-hardenable, high-strength structural steel. It is characterized by low-temperature toughness, good atmospheric corrosion resistance and excellent weldability, even under adverse field conditions such as line-pipe welding. This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, elasticity, and tensile properties as well as fracture toughness. It also includes information on corrosion resistance as well as forming, heat treating, machining, joining, and surface treatment. Filing Code: SA-286. Producer or source: International Nickel Company Inc..


Author(s):  
Takuya Hara ◽  
Taishi Fujishiro ◽  
Yasuhiro Shinohara ◽  
Eiji Tsuru ◽  
Naoki Doi ◽  
...  

The application of high-strength line pipes has enabled pipelines to operate at high pressure, generating cost savings for both gas transportation and construction. In general, high-strength line pipes require crack initiation resistance and crack arrestability at low temperatures, as well as field weldability. High strength and deformability for strain-based design and excellent sour resistance are also required. Moreover, composite properties are often required for high-strength line pipes. This paper describes our progress in this field with regard to metallurgical design and development. Metallurgical design aimed at achieving a good balance between strength, low temperature toughness and deformability for strain-based design is also described from the perspectives of grain refinement, microstructure and chemical composition. Metallurgical design focused on a good balance between strength and sour resistance in limited low chemical composition is described from the perspectives of microstructure and control to chemical composition and center segregation. These efforts have led to the development of high-strength heavy wall line pipes of API X60 to X100 grades offering excellent low temperature toughness and high deformability for stain-based design, while API grades X65 to X70 with good sour resistance have also been developed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 152-153 ◽  
pp. 1492-1498
Author(s):  
Jin Qiao Xu ◽  
Bin Guo ◽  
Lin Zheng ◽  
Yin Hua Li ◽  
Le Yu

This paper provides a detailed description of deep-sea pipeline steel developed at Wuhan Iron and Steel Company(Group), WISCO for short. The thickness of the trial produced plates is 28mm. The chemical composition of low C-high Mn-Nb-Ti with proper content of other alloys and thermo-mechanical controlled process were applied. The results show that the deep-sea pipeline steel developed at Wuhan Iron and Steel Company has a good match of high strength, low temperature toughness and excellent deformability with fine uniform microstructure. The LSAW line pipe manufactured by JCOE method has high strength, good low temperature toughness and low yield ratio which comprehensively meet the requirements of the South China Sea Liwan pipeline project.


Author(s):  
L. E. Collins ◽  
K. Dunnett ◽  
T. Hylton ◽  
A. Ray

A decade ago, the pipeline industry was actively exploring the use of high strength steels (X80 and greater) for long distance, large diameter pipelines operating at high pressures. However in recent years the industry has adopted a more conservative approach preferring to utilize well established X70 grade pipe in heavier wall thicknesses to accommodate the demand for increased operating pressures. In order to meet this demand, EVRAZ has undertaken a substantial upgrade of both its steelmaking and helical pipemaking facilities. The EVRAZ process is relatively unique employing electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking to melt scrap, coupled with Steckel mill rolling for the production of coil which is fed into helical DSAW pipe mills for the production of large diameter line pipe in lengths up to 80 feet. Prior to the upgrade production had been limited to a maximum finished wall thickness of ∼17 mm. The upgrades have included installation of vacuum de-gassing to reduce hydrogen and nitrogen levels, upgrading the caster to improve cast steel quality and allow production of thicker (250 mm) slabs, upgrades to the power trains on the mill stands to achieve greater rolling reductions, replacement of the laminar flow cooling system after rolling and installation of a downcoiler capable of coiling 25.4 mm X70 material. As well a new helical DSAW mill has been installed which is capable of producing large diameter pipe in thicknesses up to 25.4 mm. The installation of the equipment has provided both opportunities and challenges. Specific initiatives have sought to produce X70 line pipe in thicknesses up to 25.4 mm, improve low temperature toughness and expand the range of sour service grades available. This paper will focus on alloy design and rolling strategies to achieve high strength coupled with low temperature toughness. The role of improved centerline segregation control will be examined. The use of scrap as a feedstock to the EAF process results in relatively high nitrogen contents compared to blast furnace (BOF) operations. While nitrogen can be reduced to some extent by vacuum de-gassing, rolling practices must be designed to accommodate nitrogen levels of 60 ppm. Greater slab thickness allows greater total reduction, but heat removal considerations must be addressed in optimization of rolling schedules to achieve suitable microstructures to achieve both strength and toughness. This optimization requires definition of the reductions to be accomplished during roughing (recrystallization rolling to achieve a fine uniform austenite grain size) and finishing (pancaking to produce heavily deformed austenite) and specification of cooling rates and coiling temperatures subsequent to rolling to obtain suitable transformation microstructures. The successful process development will be discussed.


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