Michael Rhode

In-service welding of pipelines without interrupting the internal gas flow is nowadays state of the art for the maintenance and extension of the grid. However, due to access restrictions, it is quite challenging or even impossible to measure local temperatures during welding and subsequent cooling. To address this issue, in the present work welding experiments were performed that consider representative weld configurations and process parameters relevant for in-service welding of gas pipelines. A flat steel sheet was multi-pass welded onto the outer surface of a straight steel pipe segment by manual shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) or by manual gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). Thermocouples were used for measuring local temperatures at defined positions next to the weld seam. The influences of joint type, wall thickness of the sheet and pipe and heat input on the temperature distribution and, in particular, on the local peak temperatures and cooling rates were studied. Moreover, a finite element (FE) model of a selected weld configuration was created and validated for calculating the temperatures at positions that were inaccessible for direct measurements. The results of the measurements showed that the peak temperature at the inner surface of the pipe decreases with increasing wall thickness. However, independently from the wall thickness, the results of the simulations indicated austenitization next to the weld seam. The low cooling rates did not promote any martensite transformation, as confirmed by the moderate increase of the hardness and by microstructure characterization. The results are of practical interest for pipelines used to transport hydrogen gas, as the temperature-dependent composition of the microstructure and the temperature itself influence the absorption, diffusion and solubility of hydrogen in steel.

Hydrogen is the energy carrier for a sustainable future without fossil fuels. As this requires a reliable transportation infrastructure, the conversion of existing natural gas (NG) grids is an essential part of the worldwide individual national hydrogen strategies, in addition to newly erected pipelines. In view of the known effect of hydrogen embrittlement, the compatibility of the materials already in use (typically low-alloy steels in a wide range of strengths and thicknesses) must be investigated. Initial comprehensive studies on the hydrogen compatibility of pipeline materials indicate that these materials can be used to a certain extent. Nevertheless, the material compatibility for hydrogen service is currently of great importance. However, pipelines require frequent maintenance and repair work. In some cases, it is necessary to carry out welding work on pipelines while they are under pressure, e.g., the well-known tapping of NG grids. This in-service welding brings additional challenges for hydrogen operations in terms of additional hydrogen absorption during welding and material compatibility. The challenge can be roughly divided into two parts: (1) the possible austenitization of the inner piping material exposed to hydrogen, which can lead to additional hydrogen absorption, and (2) the welding itself causes an increased temperature range. Both lead to a significantly increased hydrogen solubility in the respective materials compared to room temperature. In that connection, the knowledge on hot tapping on hydrogen pipelines is rare so far due to the missing service experiences. Fundamental experimental investigations are required to investigate the possible transferability of the state-of-the-art concepts from NG to hydrogen pipeline grids. This is necessary to ensure that no critical material degradation occurs due to the potentially increased hydrogen uptake. For this reason, the paper introduces the state of the art in pipeline hot tapping, encompassing current research projects and their individual solution strategies for the problems that may arise for future hydrogen service. Methods of material testing, their limitations, and possible solutions will be presented and discussed.

Creep-resistant steels such as 13CrMoV9-10 are utilized in the manufacture of thick-walled pressure vessels and are typically joined by submerged arc welding (SAW). However, these materials are susceptible to stress relief cracking (SRC) if the required post weld heat treatment (PWHT) is not applied correctly. Existing PWHT guidelines, encompassing heating rate and dwell (or holding) time at a given temperature, are derived from a synthesis of empirical knowledge and typically free-shrinkage weld experiments to assess the susceptibility to SRC. Therefore, this study discusses the combined effect of the PWHT heating rate under free-shrinkage compared to restrained shrinkage. Welding experiments were conducted (using plates with a thickness of 25 mm) for both shrinkage conditions for a variety of heating rates and maximum temperatures. In-situ acoustic emission analysis was used to locate propagating SRCs during PWHT. Hardness measurements, mechanical property characterization (Charpy impact strength), and microstructure correlation were used to evaluate the SRC susceptibility. The results suggested that the influence of heating rate could not be directly related to SRC formation and that the initial weld microstructure prior to PWHT was more relevant in terms of very high hardness in the coarse grain heat affected zone, especially that of the last beads in the top layer of the welding sequence. This was seen in the form of random, unexpected SRC occurrence in only one specimen at a heating rate commonly used in welding practice (approximately 100 K/h). In this context, the additional effect of an external shrinkage restraint on SRC must be considered in the form of increasing mechanical loads during welding, which are typically not within the scope of welding practice. To mitigate the probability of SRC during PWHT, it is imperative to reduce the welding heat input and to restrict the structural shrinkage restraint of the weld joint.

The constantly increasing demand for renewable energy sources leads to the necessity of transporting large amounts of hydrogen. Since pipelines enable a cost-effective way for the distribution of gaseous hydrogen, the interaction of hydrogen and the pipeline materials must be carefully investigated as hydrogen can cause a degradation of the mechanical properties under certain conditions. Especially welds, which are assumed to be more susceptible to the degradation enhanced by hydrogen, are of great interest. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of gaseous hydrogen on the mechanical properties of an X65 pipeline, and the longitudinal submerged arc welding (SAW) welded joint. The tests are conducted using the hollow specimen technique on two types of specimens: one extracted from the base material (BM) and the other extracted as a cross-weld (CW) specimen consisting of BM and weld seam. The specimens are charged in situ under a pressure of 60 bar and tested using slow strain rate (SSR) tensile tests with a nominal strain rate of 10⁻⁵ s⁻¹. The properties obtained of specimens tested in hydrogen atmosphere are compared to the properties of comparable specimen in inert argon atmosphere as a reference. The performed tests showed a decrease of the reduction of area (RA) from 72% in inert atmosphere to 52% in hydrogen atmosphere for the CW specimen and a decrease from 73% in inert atmosphere to 51% for the BM. Metallographic analyses showed the crack initiation between fine-grained heat-affected zone (FGHAZ) and BM for the specimens tested in hydrogen atmosphere as well as for the reference specimens. This leads to the conclusion that the location of the crack initiation does not change due to the presence of gaseous hydrogen.

The Paton Welding Journal, 2024, №08. International Scientific-Technical and Production Journal «The Paton Welding Journal» «The Paton Welding Journal» has been published monthly since 2000 in English, ISSN 0957-798X. «The Paton Welding Journal» is a cover-to-cover English translation of the «Avtomaticheskaya Svarka» (Automatic Welding) journal. The «Avtomaticheskaya Svarka» journal has been published monthly since 1948 in Russian, ISSN 005-111X.

The development of multi‐principal‐element alloys (MPEAs) with unique characteristics such as high work hardening capacity similar to well‐known alloy systems like Hadfield steel X120Mn12 (ASTM A128) is a promising approach. Hence, by exploiting the core effects of MPEAs, the application range of conventional alloy systems can be extended. In the present study, work‐hardening MPEAs based on the equimolar composition CoFeNi are developed. Mn and C are alloyed in the same ratio as for X120Mn12. The production route consists of cast manufacturing by an electric arc furnace and surface functionalization via mechanical finishing using ultrasonic‐assisted milling (USAM) to initiate work hardening. The microstructure evolution, the hardness as well as the resulting oscillating wear resistance are detected. A pronounced lattice strain and grain refinement due to the plastic deformation during the USAM is recorded for the MPEA CoFeNi‐Mn12C1.2. Consequently, hardness increases by ≈380 HV0.025 in combination with a higher oscillating wear resistance compared to the X120Mn12. This shows the promising approach for developing work‐hardening alloys based on novel alloy concepts such as MPEAs.

Multiple principal element alloys encompass the well-known high entropy alloys (HEA). The alloy system represents a new class of materials consisting of at least three alloying elements, each containing 5 to 35 at.%. Thus, this alloying concept differs fundamentally from conventional materials such as steel or nickel alloys. For this purpose, the alloying elements are specifically selected, the microstructures are adjusted in a single-phase and, in some cases, multi-phase manner. In particular, conflicting goals, such as the trade-off between strength and ductility in conventional steels, are overcome. However, in the last 20 years, the focus has been on material synthesis. With the increase in available material quantities, the focus is now on processing issues such as joining and welding processes. The weldability of HEAs has received very little attention so far. The experience with dissimilar metal welds is completely lacking but is essential for the application of these materials in combination with conventional materials. The present study presents comprehensive experimental results on the weldability of an equimolar CoCrFeMnNi-HEA in cold-rolled and heat-treated condition, which was joined by tungsten inert gas welding to an austenitic steel AISI 304. The mechanical properties of the dissimilar metal welds were characterized by cross-weld tensile samples, whereas the local deformation in the weld of the different welding zones was measured by digital image correlation. In accordance with the respective initial HEA condition (cold-rolled vs. heat-treated), the local strain behavior was divergent and influenced the global mechanical properties of both DMW types. Nonetheless, the experiments provided proof in principle of the weldability for dissimilar joints of the CoCrFeMnNi-HEA welded to conventional materials like austenitic stainless steels ensuring a corresponding capability for mechanical loading. This allows further considerations on the application of these innovative materials.

Offshore wind turbines continuously increase in size and weight and demand adequate offshore foundations concepts like monopiles, tripods, or jackets. These components are typically constructed using submerged arc welding (SAW) with high-strength thick steel plates like the S420ML. During welding, the occurrence of delayed hydrogen-assisted cracking (HAC) must be anticipated. HAC is a critical combination of the local hydrogen concentration within a susceptible microstructure under certain mechanical load, i.e., the occurring (welding) residual stresses. The welding sequence of the thick-walled plates complicates the residual stress distribution due to the necessary repeated thermal cycling, i.e., welding seam/layer deposition to fill the joint. For that purpose, SAW with two-wire-technique was used to weld a specially designed and prototype-like mock-up of a real component with a thickness of 50 mm, filled with over 20 passes and a seam length of 1000 mm. Additional welded stiffeners simulated the effect of a high restraint, to achieve critical HAC conditions. The necessity of a minimum waiting time (MWT) before the NDT can be conducted (to exclude HAC) was critically verified by the application of ultrasonic testing of the welded joint at different time-steps of the NDT of up to 48 h after the completion welding. The residual stresses were determined by a robot XRD goniometer. Tensile residual stresses up to the yield limit are found both in the weld metal and in the heat-affected zone. Numerical modeling allowed the qualitative estimation of the hydrogen diffusion in the weld. No noticeable HAC occurrence was identified and confirms the high cracking resistance of the investigated material. Finally, the applicability of the MWT concept should be critically discussed.

Multi-Principal-Element or High-Entropy Alloys (MPEAs/HEAs) have gained increasing interest in the past two decades largely due to their outstanding properties such as superior mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. However, research studies on their processability are still scarce. This work assesses the effect of different machining conditions on the machinability of these novel alloys, with the objective of advancing the introduction of MPEA systems into industrial applications. The present study focuses on the experimental analysis of finish-milling conditions and their effects on the milling process and resulting surface finish of CoCrFeNi, Al_0.3CoCrFeNi and Al_0.3CoCrFeNiMo_0.2 alloys fabricated via Spark Plasma Sintering. Ball-nose-end milling experiments have been carried out various milling parameters such as cutting speed, feed per cutting edge, and ultrasonic assistance. In situ measurements of cutting forces and temperature on the tool edge were performed during the experiments, and surface finish and tool wear were analyzed afterwards. The results exhibited decreasing cutting forces by means of low feed per cutting edge and reduced process temperatures at low cutting speed, with the use of ultrasonic-assisted milling. It was shown that the machinability of these modern alloys through conventional, as well as modern machining methods such as ultrasonic-assisted milling, is viable, and common theories in machining can be transferred to these novel MPEAs.