Research on the residual stress of stainless steel pipe after overlay repair

Abstract

The weld overlays are widely used to repair metal butt welds or piping components by depositing weld metal on the outside surface of the welds and piping components. This paper presents the detailed residual stress distribution of girth weld in stainless steel pipe after butt welding and weld overlay repair by using finite element analysis. Two dimensional (2D) cross-section models, axisymmetric assumptions for piping girth welds are used to simulate the welding process in order to predict the residual stress distribution in the weld and base material. A project has been implemented to validate the analytical models used to perform welding residual stress analysis against measured residual stresses data in literature. It is found that the simulation results of butt welding are consistent with the experimental results in literature, which means that the analysis model and its results are accurate and reliable. A series of simulations are conducted to investigate the changing rules of influencing factors of overlay repair for stainless steel pipe. The results show that appropriate interpass temperature and heat input, increasing the thickness of overlay can effectively increase the range of compressive stress in pipe, so as to prevent and limit the generation and propagation of cracks. This research may provide an important support for the formulation of weld overlay repair standards in service.