Girth welded pipes such as those located offshore on platforms in the North Sea are subjected to highly corrosive environment. The need to consider welding residual stresses in the assessment of the fitness for service and damages to these pipes when investigating local corrosion damages across a welded region is therefore important for the operators of the platforms and the manufacturers of the pipes. This paper presents a review of work carried out to ascertain the welding residual stresses present within a thin-walled girth welded pipe mock-up made from steel API 5LX Grade 52. The mock-up was manufactured to replicate typical pipes used to convey gas, oil and water through the platforms. The mock-up was of diameter 762mm and of thickness 19mm. The incremental deep hole drilling (iDHD) technique and the contour method were applied to characterize the residual stresses in the weld and heat affected zone of the specimen. The results of these measurements are presented and compared to highlight agreements and discrepancies in the measured residual stress distributions using these different techniques. Most residual stress measurement methods are limited in terms of their stress and spatial resolution, the number of measurable stress tensor components and their quantifiable measurement uncertainty. In contrast, finite element simulations of welding processes provide full field distributions of residual stresses, with results dependent on the quality of the input conditions available. As measurements and predictions are not often the same, the true residual stress state is therefore difficult to determine. In this paper, through-thickness residual stress measurements are made using the contour and iDHD methods and these residual stresses measured using the iDHD technique are then used as input to a residual stress mapping technique provided within a finite element analysis to reconstruct the residual stress field in the whole specimen. The technique is applied iteratively to converge to a balanced solution which is not necessarily unique. The solution can then be reused for further simulations and residual stress analyses, such as corrosion simulation. Results of the reconstruction are presented here.

The presence of high magnitude residual stresses in welded components causes material degradation, local yielding and plastic deformation. Their presence provides the potential for premature failure and compromises the integrity of a structure. This paper presents a review of work carried out to ascertain the residual stresses present within T-section specimens, made from ferritic steel, in their as-welded condition. The standard and incremental deep hole drilling (DHD and iDHD) techniques, the neutron diffraction (ND) and the contour method were applied to characterise the residual stresses in the regions in and around the two fillet welds of the specimens and the surrounding parent material within which the balancing residual stresses needed to be measured. The results of these measurements are presented and compared to highlight agreements and discrepancies in the measured residual stress distributions using these different techniques. A compendium of measurements at a similar location in various T-sections and their comparison with the BS7910 standard show that the measured longitudinal distributions are similar despite the observed scatter. Finally, this paper briefly attempts to investigate and discuss the technical challenges identified when applying the contour method to complex geometry components. The constraint of the specimen during the wire electro-discharge machining (EDM) process, the quality of the wire EDM cut made and the analysis of the raw data for the conversion into residual stresses directly affect the accuracy of the contour method results. The identification and investigation of these challenges lead to continuous improvements of the contour method procedure and reduce uncertainties of the measurement.

This paper presents the residual stress measurements carried out on a t-section representative of a ring stiffened cylindrical structures. This paper presents the work carried out to ascertain the residual stresses present within a T-plate section representative of a ring stiffened cylindrical structures. The contour, the deep hole drilling (DHD) and the neutron diffraction (ND) methods were applied to determine the longitudinal component of residual stress in the weld toe of the fillet weld in the as-welded condition. The results of these measurements are presented and compared to highlight agreements and discrepancies in the measured residual stress distributions using these different techniques. Finally, non-destructive residual stress measurement using the ultrasonic (US) technique was carried out on the component. The ultrasonic measurement provides a relative measurement and usually requires a tensile test in order to determine the acoustoelastic constant and the time of flight in a stress-free state. The tensile test requires some material to be extracted from the component. The tensile test can be avoided if other residual stress measurement techniques are used for the calibration. After the calibration the US technique can be deployed on a full-scale ring stiffened cylindrical structures to detect abnormal variation in the residual stress field.

Abstract. Off shore ring stiffened cylindrical structures are subjected to high stresses caused by static or variable external hydrostatic pressure and residual stresses due to the fabrication and welding processes. The use of numerical simulation allows a straightforward calculation of the stresses induced by the hydrostatic pressure in the structure. However it is more intricate to determine the residual stresses resulting from the progressive manufacture of components and assembly using a multi-pass welding processes. This paper presents the work carried out to ascertain the residual stresses present within a high strength welded T-plate test piece, representative of part of a ring stiffened cylindrical structure, by the contour method to determine the longitudinal residual stresses across the width of the test piece. This test piece had previously been subjected to neutron strain scanning in a pattern across the test piece and also the incremental Deep Hole Drilling (iDHD) and, the Deep Hole Drilling (DHD) processes to validate the neutron results for the longitudinal and transverse components of residual stress in the weld toe and centreline of the T butt weld. Therefore the work on this test piece is unique as three methods of residual stress measurement have been used. The results of these measurements are presented and compared to highlight agreements and discrepancies in the measured residual stresses by each method.

Abstract. The structural integrity of an oil and gas pipeline is increasingly factored into the design of new installations to ensure that operating risks are maintained low. In addition, the life extension of existing assets beyond their original anticipated design life, as a result of the current oil price environment and the need to optimize field development expenditure, is an ongoing challenge. Operators would like to extend pipeline service life, while many of the technologies required for the validation of their ongoing condition are not yet mature enough to provide confidence that this is a viable strategy. One of the issues considered as a key threat to pipeline integrity is corrosion. Therefore understanding the distribution and redistribution of residual stresses within a pipeline affected by corrosion can be of great benefit. A way to monitor in-situ the pipeline residual stress is to use the ultrasonic (UT) technique. The paper aimed to assess and calibrate the US technique on a pipeline mock-up in the presence of a typical local corrosion damage mechanism. Contour, iDHD, ICHD, XRD and ultrasonic measurements were carried out before machining a flaw to produce an accurate FE model of the pipe. The residual stress was then measured during the manufacture of the flaw and was compared with the FE prediction. Ultrasonic measurements were then carried out on the outer surface of the pipe and show a significant increase in the residual stress. The Ultrasonic technique can therefore, be used to monitor the changes in the residual stress which may be caused by corrosion. IntroductionAcross the globe, 5 metric tons of steel are degenerated every second with the offshore industry. The main fault on pipelines in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico is caused by internal corrosion. About 67% of the global pipeline are now older than 20 year which is the minimum design life [1]. Guideline provides guidance to estimate the life of a component in the presence of a flaw, analytically or with finite element analysis [2]. The finite element analysis can be less conservative than the analytical solution and, therefore, increase the in-service time of the pipeline. In order to create a representative FE model of the pipeline, an accurate description of the weld residual stress is important. In this study, the Contour, the Incremental Deep Hole Drilling (DHD), the Incremental Center-Hole Drilling (ICHD) and XRD residual stress measurement techniques were employed and compared on an as-welded section of pipeline.In order to evaluate the life of a pipeline, the corrosion growth needs to be known. Ultrasonic technique is already used to measure the wall thickness of the pipes. This study, however, looks at the measure of the residual stress using ultrasound in an as-welded zone and in a zone with thinner wall thickness. To obtain this results the ultrasonic system needs to be first calibrated. The calibration can be done using a tensile test or using absolute residual stress values. In this study, the ultrasonic method was...