Evaluation of Residual Stresses Induced by Repairs to Small Diameter Stainless Steel Pipe Welds

Abstract

Residual stresses within stainless steel pipe welds may cause or exacerbate in-service cracking. Significant investigative efforts have been devoted to the examination of piping residual stresses in large diameter piping using both finite element modeling and experimental techniques, but limited information is available for small diameter piping. Even less information is available for small diameter piping welds which have been repaired or re-worked during initial fabrication. This investigation used both experimental methods and analytical modeling to assess the impact of repair welding during initial fabrication on the residual stresses along the inner diameter (ID) of small diameter pipe specimens. The investigation showed that tensile axial residual stresses were located in the heat affected zone (HAZ) along the ID of the pipe specimens adjacent to regions which were excavated and re-welded. Such repair welds were also shown to markedly increase the magnitude of the tensile axial residual stresses for weld configurations which otherwise had lower magnitude residual stresses.