Effect of enhanced cooling on mechanical properties of a multipass welded martensitic steel

Abstract The effect of forced cooling using heat sinks on the mechanical properties and interpass waiting time of two-pass welds has been studied for a martensitic steel with a yield strength of 960 MPa when the interpass temperature was 100 °C. Cross-weld tensile and − 40 °C Charpy-V impact toughness properties were examined. The use of heat sinks is shown to result in a beneficial increase of the cross-weld yield strength but at the expense of the yield-to-tensile strength ratio. Due to its particularly detrimental effect on the heat-affected zone (HAZ) toughness of multipass welds, special attention was given in the Charpy-V toughness of the intercritically reheated coarse-grained HAZ (ICCGHAZ) by also testing simulated ICCGHAZs. It is shown that forced cooling has a beneficial effect in respect of the toughness of this simulated subzone and on the Charpy-V toughness of the HAZ of the actual welds. The interpass cooling time during the two-pass welding was reduced by 37%. The results indicate that, in the case of high-strength steels, it may be possible to simultaneously improve both welding productivity and mechanical properties by using forced cooling down to 100 °C to reduce waiting time between weld passes

Effect of enhanced weld cooling on the mechanical properties of a structural steel with a yield strength of 700 MPa

Abstract In this study, we present the effect of enhanced cooling on the mechanical properties of a high-strength low-alloy steel (having a yield strength of 700 MPa) following a single-pass weld process. The properties evaluated in this study include uniform elongation, impact toughness, yield, tensile and fatigue strengths alongside the cooling time of the weld. With the steel used in this study, the enhanced cooling resulted in a weld joint characterized with excellent cross-weld uniform elongation, yield and fatigue strength. The intensified cooling reduced the time it takes for the weld to reach 100 °C by around 190 s. Not only the fusion line of the weld was less pronounced, but also the grain size of the CGHAZ was greatly refined as a result of the enhanced cooling. The results indicate that combining external cooling to the welding processes can be beneficial for the studied high-strength steel

Effect of forced cooling after welding on CGHAZ mechanical properties of a martensitic steel

Abstract The effects of forced cooling, meaning forced cooling rate and forced cooling finish temperature, on the tensile and impact toughness properties of simulated weld coarse-grained heat-affected zones have been studied for a commercial grade martensitic steel with a yield strength of 960 MPa. The simulations were done by using a Gleeble 3800 to give forced cooling finish temperatures of 500, 400, 300, 200, and 100 °C and forced cooling rates of 50 and 15 °C/s. For the steel studied, strength significantly increased with no significant negative effects on impact toughness when the steel was cooled rapidly to 200 or 100 °C at 15 °C/s. The results indicate that it may be possible to improve welding productivity and mechanical properties of the steel by using forced cooling down to 100 °C to reduce waiting time between weld passes

Effect of forced cooling on the tensile properties and impact toughness of the coarse-grained heat-affected zone of a high-strength structural steel

Abstract The effects of forced cooling, i.e., forced cooling rate and forced cooling finish temperature, on the tensile and impact toughness properties of simulated weld coarse-grained heat-affected zones has been explored in the case of a low-carbon thermomechanically processed steel with a yield strength of 700 MPa. The forced cooling finish temperatures that were studied were 400, 300, 200, and 100 °C and the forced cooling rates were 50 and 15 °C/s. Coarse-grained heat-affected zones were simulated using a Gleeble 3800 thermomechanical simulator. For the steel concerned, strength and impact toughness improved significantly when the steel was cooled rapidly to 200 or 100 °C. The results indicate that it may be possible to substantially improve welding productivity by using forced cooling to reduce interpass times

Effect of heat sinks on cooling time to weld interpass temperature

Abstract In high- and ultrahigh-strength steel welding, interpass cooling time is an important factor affecting productivity and welding costs. Usually, welding heat input is restricted to meet the relatively short recommended cooling times between 800 and 500 °C (t8/5), which are prescribed by the need to meet weld strength and toughness properties. This, in turn, leads to the need for multipass welding with the interpass waiting times needed for the weld to cool to a sufficiently low interpass temperature. Welding productivity is affected by both the number of passes and the interpass waiting time. With a view to minimizing the total number of passes needed for a given preparation, it is beneficial for the interpass temperature to be as low as possible as this permits higher heat input for a given t8/5. On the other hand, low interpass temperature requires longer interpass waiting times. Therefore, this research concerns the potential of introducing copper heat sinks adjacent to the weld to reduce the time it takes for the weld to cool down to the interpass temperature. It is demonstrated that, in the case of a butt weld in a 6 mm thick base plate MAG welded with a weld energy of 1 kJ/mm and an interpass temperature of 100 °C, copper heat sinks almoust halve the interpass waiting time. This can have a marked effect on the overall productivity when welding highand ultrahigh-strength steels and increase their attractiveness for steel construction

The effect of internal contact pressure on thermal contact conductance during coil cooling

Abstract Coil cooling process is an important step in production of certain steel grades. Phase transformations for dual phase steels and precipitations for precipitation hardened steels occur mainly during the coil cooling. Generally, a coil goes through a coil conveyance chain before arriving at the final cooling storage at a steel plant. This conveyance chain contains various thermal contacts with different types of conveyors. Ambient temperatures and weather conditions may also change considerably. Those variables are relatively easy to measure and define in a simulation model whereas internal stresses and contact pressure inside the coil are very challenging to measure in industrial scale process. Thermal conductance between adjacent strip revolutions is dependent of contact pressure. In addition, thermal conductance is influenced by the combined thermal conductivity of steel and oxide layer of contact interfaces as well as thickness profile. In this paper the internal contact pressure between strip revolutions due to strip coiling and gravity are solved and considered when defining thermal conductance. Heat transfer is computed using FE-model, and GAPCON subroutine in Abaqus is utilized to calculate thermal contact conductance, taking into consideration the contact pressure between the strip revolutions. Also, the whole coil conveyance chain commencing from downcoiler mandrel to coil field cooling is implemented.

Virtual rolling automation and setup calculations for six stands FEM finishing mill

Abstract Digitalization is becoming increasingly common in the steel industry. Formerly developed models of individual phenomenon or separate sub-processes are being further developed into wider complexes where multiple models are coupled together. Virtual rolling automation, which can be used to control a finite-element rolling model, is a new element in these complexes. The automation enables to model the variations caused by the process adjustment. It must be taken in the account that neither the model nor the industrial process are ideal, but there are limitations in the attainable accuracy in both cases. Inclusion of the new automation control in the FE-model introduces new requirements: the setup calculations for all six rolling stands and the automation logic adjustments must perform within the model. The focus of the current article is prediction of the roll force and the virtual rolling automation of six stand finishing mill