The minimum necessary preheat temperature is predicted based on a method describ
ed in the following paper:
N. Yurioka and T. Kasuya: "A chart method to determine necessary preheat in stee l welding" Welding in the World, vol. 35 (1995), p. 327-334 The validity of this method is compared with the British Standard and American W elding Society method: N. Yurioka: "Comparison of preheat predictive methods" Welding in the World, vol. 48 (2004), p. 21-27 The objective of preheating is to effuse diffusible hydrogen out of welds to pre vent hydrogen-assisted cold cracking. The occurrence of cold cracking is influen ced by the following factors: Chemical composition of steel; Plate thickness or wall thickness; Weld metal diffusible hydrogen content Welding heat input Welding residual stresses or weld metal yield strength Weld joint restraint Notch concentration factor at weld toe and weld root or groove shape Weld pass number Preheating method (Heating rate, heating width) Ambient temperature Immediate postheating The present predictive method considers most of the factors above mentioned. 1. Chemical composition of steel The following carbon equivalent has been long used as an index representing the susceptibility to cold cracking. or weldability. CE(IIW) = C + Mn/6 + (Cu + Ni)/15 + (Cr + Mo + V)/5 [wt%] This carbon equivalent satisfactorilly evaluates weldability whose carbon conten t is higher than 0.12%. Modern low alloy steel is mostly of a carbon reduced typ e (C <= 0.12%). Weldability of this type of steel is more adequetly evaluated by the following carbon equivalent. Pcm = C + Si/30 + Mn/20 + Cu/20 + Ni/60 + Cr/20 + Mo/15 +V/10 + 5B [wt%] Susceptibility to cold cracking is determined by hardness of welds (HAZ and weld metal). The weld hardness is determined by an interactive effect of weld harden ability and carbon content. The following carbon equivalent considers this effec t and can evaluates weldability of steel with a wide range of carbon. CEn = C + f(C) { Si/24 + Mn/6 + Cu/15 + Ni/20 + (Cr + Mo + Nb + V)/5 } [wt%] where, f(C) = 0.5 + 0.25 tanh { 20 (C - 0.12) } [wt%] With decreasing carbon content, f(C) decreases from 1.0 to 0.5. Therefore, CEn i s close to CE(IIW) when C is higher than 0.15% and CEn approaches to as a carbon content decreases. The present preheat predictive method uses CEn carbon equiva lent. CEn is stipulated in ASTM A1005/A-00 and ASME B16.49-2000. 2. Plate thickness and wall thickness With increasing plate thickness, 1) the welding cooling rate increases (welding cooling time, t8/5 decreases) and thus, weld hardenability is raised; 2) the wel ding cooling time to 100C, t100 decrease and thus, an oppotunity of effusion of d iffusible hydrogen from weld metal decreases; 3) the welding pass (layer) increa ses and thus the amount of hydrogen accumulated in weld metal is raised. These e ffects raises a risk of the occurence of cold cracking. 3. Weld metal diffusible hydrogenWeld metal diffusible hydrogen Weld metal hydrogen is one of the important factor in hydrogen-assisted cold cra king. It is desired to use welding materials of low hydrogen types. A care must be taken to prevent welding materials from being moistened and to clean weld gro oves before welding. The following is an example of the diffusible hydrogen content, H(IIW) for vario us welding materials: Rutile electrode : 30ml/100g Cellulosic electrode : 60ml/100g Low hydrogen electrode : 5 - 8ml/100g
Ultra low hydrogen electroed : 2 - 5ml/100g
TIG, Solid wire GMAW : 2ml/100g Flux cored wire GMAW : 6 - 10ml/100g SMAW : 2 - 8ml/100g 4. Welding heat input With increasing heat input, the cooling rate decreases (the welding cooliing tim e between 800 and 500C, t8/5 and welding cooling time to 100C, t100 increases) and thus, a risk of the occurence of cold cracking is reduced. Roughly speaking, co ld craking is a matter of concern only when heat input is not higher than 3kJ/mm . 5. Welding residual stresses or weld metal yield strength Welding residual stresses are one of the important factors in cold cracking. The welding residual stresses often attain the yield strength of weld metal. Hydrog en-assisted cold craking is more likely occur in welding of high strength steel with using high strength welding materials. 6. Weld joint restraint The weld joint restraint affects the cold cracking occurence in one-pass welding . In multi-pass welding, the joint restraint influences cold cracking to much le sser extent because a joint has been restrainted after root-pass welding. Very l ow restraint may cause bending distrotion leading to high bending stresses in we ld root. As a result, root cracking may be caused. The present predictive method does not consider the effect of joint restraint. 7. Notch concentration factor at weld toe and weld root or groove shape Cold cracking is more likely to occur at the root pass in the first side of doub le bebel groove (K groove, X groove) because of a high notch concentaraion facto r at the root. However, the root weld of the first side is generally gouged befo re the start of second side welding. In welding with V groove and single-bevel g roove, a notch concentration factor at the root is far less than that in double bevel groove welding. Therefore, the present predictive method does not consider the effect of a notch concentration factor. In partical penetration welding with Y groove or single bebel groove, it is diff icult to detect root cracking. Therefore, it is desired to employ the preheat te mperature for repair welding. 8. The number of weld passes In muti-pass welding, a root pass is reheated by subsequent passes so that resid ual stresses as well as hydrogen in the root bead are reduced. As a result, root craking is less likely to occure in multi-pass welding than in one-pass welding . This predictive method firstly gives the preheat temperature necessary to avoid root craking in y-groove restraint testing in which a one-pass short bead is dep osited with high restraint as well as high notch concentraions. This testing is so sever that much higher preheat is required than in normal welding practices. For nomal welding, this predictive method gives preheating temperatures much low er than that for y-groove testing. For instance, the necessary preheating temper ature for normal welding is 75C less than that for y-groove tesitng when YP380MPa class steel is welded. 9. Welding residual stress This predictive method considers the effect of welding residual stresses. The ma ximum welding residual stress is considered to be close to the yield strength of the weld metal. For higher strength steel, HAZ toe cracking, HAZ under bead cra cking and weld metal transverse cracking are more likely other than root crackin g. As mentioned above, the necesary preheat can be decreased from that obtained by y-groove testing. However, the amount of this temperature reduction decreases as the streel strength increases (the weld metal strength also increases and we lding residual stress increases as well). For instance, the temperature reducito n is 75C for YP360 steel and 0C for YP700 steel. In this predictive method, the yield strength of weld metal has to be input. Whe n it is unkown, the specified minimum yield strength of the steel may be input. 10. Preheating metho
The objective of preheating is to enhance the hydorgen evolution from a weld. Th
e effect of preheating increases as the width of preheating increases and the he ating rate of preheating decrease. The preheating width over 200mm each side of the groove is desired. The nessesary preheating temperature has to be increased in the case of rapid preheating and narrow local preheating. 11. Ambient temperature The occurence of cold cracking is significaltly affected by the ambient temperat ure. The cracking is more likely at the lower tempertures. As for the determinat ion of preheat at lower ambient temperatures, the following paper should be refe rred to. T. Kasuya and N. Yuiroka: "Determination of necessary preheat temperature to avo id cold cracking under various ambient temperatrues", ISIJ International, vol. 3 5 (1995), No.10, p.1183-1189 12. Imediate post heating Post heating immediately after welding is very effective for the hydrogen evolut ion. When the predected necesary preheating temperature is escessively high, imm ediate post heating shold be employed so that the necessary preheating tempertur e could be reduced. 150 C for 95 hrs, or 200 C for 29 hrs, or 250 C for 12 hrs, or 300 C for 2 hrs.