Abstract
Welding of pipes and tubes are important as the same are used for transportation of oil and gas in various industries and under demanding situations. Friction Stir Welding (FSW) has the potential to provide strong, efficient and cost effective joint for this type of applications. Carrying out circular FSW has its own share of challenges related to pipe fixture and curved geometry. The current study thus attempts to investigate the performance of FSW in case of industrial grade steel pipes made of AISI316L and P91 materials which are commonly used in powerplant related applications. FSW has been carried out in force control (FC) mode with 35 kN applied load. The effect of two parameters i.e. spindle speed (rpm) and welding speed (mm/min) on the weld characteristics of the two steel pipes have been investigated. Both the steel pipes displayed more than 100% joint efficiency at optimal combination of parameters. Stir zone of both the welded samples revealed higher hardness values than respective base metal (BM). However, this increase is significant in case of P91 steel. Thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) in case of P91 is wider compared to 316L as revealed by optical microscopy (OM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The results indicate that FSW is able to produce high quality joints in both AISI316L and P91 steel pipes which will be useful for the industry.
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