PREDICTION OF MICROSTRUCTURE EVOLUTION AND HARDNESS DISTRIBUTION IN THE WELD REPAIR OF CARBON STEEL PIPELINE

  • Li, Victor (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Portland State University) ;
  • Kim, Dong (Westhollow Technology Center)
  • Published : 2002.10.01

Abstract

This article presents an integrated modeling approach for coupled analysis of heat transfer and microstructure evolution in welding carbon steel. The modeling procedure utilizes commercial [mite element code ABAQUS/Standard as the platform for solving the equation of heat conduction. User subroutines that implement computational thermodynamics and kinetics models are integrated with the FEA code to compute the transient microstructure evolution. In this study, the integrated models are applied to simulate the hot-tap repair welding of carbon steel pipeline. Microstructural components are treated as user output variables. Based on the predicted microstructure and cooling rates, hardness distributions in the welds were also predicted. The predicted microstructure and hardness distribution were found in good agreement with metallographic examinations and hardness measurements. This study demonstrates the applicability of computational models for the development of welding procedure for in-service pipeline repair.

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