Influence of Alloying Elements on the Toughness in the HAZ of DSAW-Welded Large-Diameter Linepipes

Abstract

There is a strong interest worldwide to transport large gas volumes from remote areas and hostile environments to the market. Pipe producers are therefore faced with increasingly demanding requirements both with regard to the toughness of the base material and the heat-affected zone. The toughness of the base material depends primarily on the steel composition and the TM processing conditions. Impressive levels of toughness in the base material were achieved by extensive alloy and process development over the past decades. These were realised by balancing the steel composition and processing parameters to give an optimum microstructure with a low grain size and homogeneous distribution of phases. During double submerged arc welding (DSAW) in the production of large-diameter linepipes, the heat-affected zone (HAZ) undergoes severe changes in the microstructure that include grain coarsening by about one order of magnitude and phase transformation during cooling and intercritical reheating. These have a negative impact on the toughness close to the fusion line. The higher austenite grain size close to the fusion line leads to a coarser structure after the phase transformation with larger carbon-rich M/A-phase particles than are typically observed in the base material in the as-rolled condition. This causes a drop of the toughness close to the fusion line compared to the base material. Classically, the carbon equivalent is an empirical measure for the weldability of steels and is known to correlate with the maximum hardness. However, its purpose is not to reflect the effect of individual alloying elements on the HAZ-toughness. The present paper addresses the relationship between base material composition and the HAZ-toughness of linepipe steels. An experimental investigation was carried out at EUROPIPE GmbH in cooperation with Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH in which the chemical composition of laboratory heats was varied systematically. These heats were thermomechanically rolled to a wall thickness of 30 mm and subsequently used for submerged arc welding trials. The processing parameters during rolling and welding were held constant in the trials in order to ensure that the effect of the alloying elements could be isolated. The fusion line toughness was tested at −30°C and the microstructure was investigated by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. This was complemented by microstructure investigations in the HAZ of large-diameter pipe material between the X65 and X80 strength levels. It was found that the influence of alloying elements on the HAZ-toughness is only reflected to some degree by the commonly used carbon equivalents, especially at similar strength levels. The results of the investigation were used for optimisation of the HAZ-toughness in production.