Multiscale Measurements of Residual Stress in a Low-Alloy Carbon Steel Weld Clad with IN625 Superalloy

Abstract

Fatigue fracture is one of the major degradation mechanisms in the low-alloy 4330 carbon steel pumps that are utilized in the hydraulic fracturing process operating under cyclic loading conditions. A weld cladding technology has been developed to improve the ability of these components to resist fatigue crack initiation by cladding them with a secondary material. This process introduces a residual stress profile into the component that can be potentially detrimental for fatigue performance. The cladding technology under examination is a low-alloy 4330 carbon steel substrate weld that is clad with the nickel-chromium-based superalloy IN625 and is investigated herein using several experimental residual stress measurement techniques. Understanding the magnitude and distribution of residual stress in weld clad components is of the utmost importance to accurately assess the performance of the component in service. This study summarizes the results of residual stress measurements that were determined using X-ray diffraction, i.e., hole drilling based on electronic speckle pattern interferometry, deep-hole drilling, and the contour method, to obtain the residual stress distributions from the surface of the weld clad, through the clad layer, and into the substrate material. The results of deep-hole drilling and the contour method show large-scale tensile residual stress in the clad layer and compressive residual stress in the majority of the substrate. However, the X-ray diffraction and hole drilling methods indicate the presence of short-scale compressive residual stress on the surface and near the surface of the clad layer. It was shown that these Manuscript

Evolution of Microstructure and Crystallographic Texture During Dissimilar Friction Stir Welding of Duplex Stainless Steel to Low Carbon-Manganese Structural Steel

“…[5] Also, the FS weld has improved mechanical and metallurgical properties, and normally a lower residual stress level than other methods of welding such as electron-beam welding, brazing, and weld cladding. [14][15][16] Residual stress can provide enough driving force for the initiation and propagation of cracks that might lead to the failure in service. [17,18] An extensive body of literature has been published on the viability of FSW for producing high quality defect free welds between dissimilar materials and alloys, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] in particular, those systems such as metal matrix composites that are difficult or impossible to weld by conventional fusion welding.…”

Evolution of Microstructure During Double-Sided Friction Stir Welding of Microalloyed Steel

“…This results in improved mechanical and metallurgical weld properties, and normally, a lower level of residual stress compared to other methods of welding. [11][12][13] Several publications describe the results of this double-sided FSW technique for steels. [10,14,15] The study reported in Reference 10 investigated the dominant deformation mechanisms by looking at the evolution of microstructure and crystallographic texture in different regions of the weld, but has not considered in detail the evolution of microstructure at submicron scales.…”

Comparison Between Surface and Near-Surface Residual Stress Measurement Techniques Using a Standard Four-Point-Bend Specimen

“…A type 304 high carbon austenitic stainless steel (UNS S30400) in the form of plate with a known rolling direction (RD) was selected for these investigations, which was in the mill annealed condition. The chemical composition of the material, supplied by the manufacturer, along with a standard composition for type 304 stainless steel [20] are provided in Table 1. A set of strips with 260 × 28 × 6 mm (L × W × T) dimensions were machined from the as-received plate with their length along the RD.…”

“…While this technique is capable of providing useful information about the near-surface residual stress profile down to a limited depth from the surface, it is not useful for measurement on samples with complex surface geometry and where information about bulk residual stresses is needed. Other techniques such as deep hole-drilling and the contour method have been developed for the measurements of bulk residual stresses that are discussed in more details elsewhere [20,21].…”

“…The novelty of the current study is in the use of a standard sample, based on ASTM, for the generation of known magnitudes of residual stress to benchmark these measurement techniques. Otherwise, cross comparisons between diffraction and hole-drilling methods have been carried out previously and reported through numerous studies (e.g., [20,21]). However, none of these studies have performed these cross comparisons on a standard setup with a pre-defined nominal stress magnitude.…”