Vibratory stress relief of welded structure in China

Abstract

Vibratory stress relief (VSR) has been used in China for 25 years. The relevant code of practice on VSR is finished and has been released recently. Residual stress is an important problem during manufacturing welded structures, especially for huge structures, as the heat treatment process is impractical for huge structures. VSR is a simple and practical method to reduce the residual stress of welded structure and maintain the structure’s dimension stability. This paper introduces the recent application and research of welded structures VSR in China. The VSR of carbon steel and stainless steel structures, such as the structure in huge hoist machine, the rail of maglev train system and structure of HT-7U Tokamak, are discussed. The effectiveness evaluation of VSR processing is described and a new method of evaluation using dynamic stress is discussed.