• 대한금속재료학회지
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• 제47권9호
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• pp.523-532
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• 2009

In this study, four API X80 linepipe steel specimens were fabricated with varying cooling rates and finish cooling temperatures, and their microstructures and crystallographic orientations were analyzed to investigate the effects of cooling conditions on their tensile and Charpy impact properties. All the specimens consisted of acicular ferrite, granular bainite, and secondary phases such as martensite and martensiteaustenite constituent. The volume fraction of secondary phases increased with increasing cooling rate, and the higher finish cooling temperature resulted in the reduction in volume fraction and grain size of secondary phases. According to the crystallographic orientation analysis data, the effective grain size and unit crack path decreased as fine acicular ferrites having a large amount of high-angle grain boundaries were homogeneously formed, thereby leading to the improvement of Charpy impact properties. The specimen fabricated with the higher cooling rate and lower finish cooling temperature had the highest upper shelf energy and the lowest energy transition temperature because it contained a large amount of fine secondary phases homogeneously distributed inside fine acicular ferrites, while its tensile properties well maintained.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제21권5호
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• pp.547-554
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• 2003

Apparent mechanical properties in structural components can be different from the initially designed values due to the formation of the residual stress in metal forming and welding. Therefore, the evaluation of residual stress has great importance in the reliability diagnosis of structural components. A nondestructive instrumented indentation technique has been proposed to evaluate various strength concerning mechanical properties from the analysis of load-depth curve. In this study, quantitative residual stress estimation on API X65 welded joints for natural gas pipeline was performed by analyzing the variation of indentation loading curve by residual stress through a new proposed theoretical model. The residual stress from the indentation method was compared with that from the saw-cutting method.

• Metals and materials international
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.1221-1231
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• 2018

The effect of strain aging on tensile behavior and properties of API X60, X70, and X80 pipeline steels was investigated in this study. The API X60, X70, and X80 pipeline steels were fabricated by varying alloying elements and thermomechanical processing conditions. Although all the steels exhibited complex microstructure consisting of polygonal ferrite (PF), acicular ferrite, granular bainite (GB), bainitic ferrite (BF), and secondary phases, they had different fractions of microstructures depending on the alloying elements and thermomechanical processing conditions. The tensile test results revealed that yielding behavior steadily changed from continuous-type to discontinuous-type as aging temperature increases after 1% pre-strain. After pre-strain and thermal aging treatment in all the steels, the yield and tensile strengths, and yield ratio were increased, while the uniform elongation and work hardening exponent were decreased. In the case of the X80 steel, particularly, the decrease in uniform elongation was relatively small due to many mobile dislocations in PF, and the increase in yield ratio was the lowest because a large amount of harder microstructures such as GB, BF, and coarse secondary phases effectively enhanced work hardening.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.96-102
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• 2007

The resistance of the linepipe steel to hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) and sulfide stress cracking (SSC) is very important for steel to be used in sour oil/gas environments. Welding of steels is necessary to the construction of pipe-line transporting oil/gas. In this study, HIC and SSC resistance of an electric resistance welded (ERW) steel plate which belongs to API X70 grade was evaluated by using NACE TM0284-96A and NACE TM0177-96A methods. HIC and SSC fracturing behavior was investigated by observing fractured surfaces using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was discussed in terms of metallurgical parameters such as the distribution of primary microstructure, second phases and inclusions. Results showed that the weld joint of ERW steel is more sensitive than base metal to HIC and SSC. This is due to difference in the contribution of metallurgical parameters to HIC and SSC nucleation and propagation.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.435-451
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• 2015

Evaluation of the performance of aging structures is essential in the oil and gas industry, where the inaccurate prediction of structural performance can have significantly hazardous consequences. The effects of structure failure due to the significant reduction in wall thickness, which determines the burst strength, make it very complicated for pipeline operators to maintain pipeline serviceability. In other words, the serviceability of gas pipelines and elbows needs to be predicted and assessed to ensure that the burst or collapse strength capacities of the structures remain less than the maximum allowable operation pressure. In this study, several positions of the corrosion in a subsea elbow made of API X42 steel were evaluated using both design formulas and numerical analysis. The most hazardous corrosion position of the aging elbow was then determined to assess its serviceability. The results of this study are applicable to the operational and elbow serviceability needs of subsea pipelines and can help predict more accurate replacement or repair times.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.284-292
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• 2020

In this study, hydrogen charging was conducted for API X70 steel by the electro-chemical hydrogen charging method. Right after hydrogen was diffused from the specimen surface to the inside of the X70, the small punch tests and hydrogen concentration analysis was conducted within 5 minutes. Hydrogen was analyzed by melting the whole specimen and detect the gas after melting. Mechanical properties were measured by the small punch (SP) testing. Fracture surface and specimen surface were observed using scanning electron microscope. Three tests were repeated for study sensitivity of the SP test results under a same charging condition. It was observed that the variation of the maximum load, SP displacement at failure, hydrogen concentration as the charging period was not much in the case of X70 as the other steel such as Inconel. It can be argued that X70 base metal may have high hydrogen damage resistance and hydrogen diffusion in the base metal would not cause much embrittlement. Limitations of the SP test with 0.5 mm thickness for hydrogen damage test for X70 were discussed.

• 한국해양공학회지
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• 제20권6호
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• pp.88-92
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• 2006

Large-scale model tests of welded topside joints were carried out to observe the fatigue behavior of API 2W Gr.50 steel produced by POSCO. The fatigue crack behaviors for various loading conditions were measured and investigated around the critical joint sections. The experimental results have been verified with numerical approaches and also compared with the AWS D1.1 and DnV RP-C203 design curves. The large-scale experiment models were fabricated, based on the actual operating east area fixed platform. The dimensions of the models were slightly modified to accommodate the test facilities and capacities. The fatigue test was carried out having ${\Delta}Q$ of T1=705.6kN, T2=749.7kN and T3=793.8kN. The three specimens were statically loaded 20 times, with various loadings of about 50kN intervalsbetween the maximum and minimum loads required in the fatigue tests. This loading removed the residual stress in the specimen before the fatigue tests. The topside joint crack was initiated from the brace heel, where the maximum tensile stress occurred. The API 2W Gr.50 steel satisfied the AWS D1.1 detail category C and DnV RP-C203 detail category F ${\Delta}S-N$ curve.

• 한국해양공학회지
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.73-80
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• 2012

It is well known that a considerable amount of scatter is shown in experimental results relating to fatigue crack growth even under identical and constant amplitude cyclic loading conditions. Moreover, flux cored arc welding (FCAW) is a common method used to join thick plates such as the structural members of large scale offshore structures and very large container ships. The objective of this study was to investigate the macro- and microscopic observations of the fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of the FCAWed API 2W Gr. 50 steel joints typically applied for offshore structures. In order to clearly understand the randomness of the fatigue crack growth behavior in the materials of three different zones, the weld metal (WM), heat affected zone (HAZ), and base metal (BM), experimental fatigue crack growth tests for each of five specimens were performed on ASTM standard compact tension (CT) specimens under constant amplitude cyclic loading. Special focus was placed on the fatigued fracture surfaces. As a result, a different behavior was observed at the macro-level, depending on the type of material property: BM, HAZ, or WM. The variability in the fatigue crack growth rate for WM was higher than that of BM and HAZ.

• 대한금속재료학회지
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• 제48권10호
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• pp.875-883
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• 2010

This study assessed the Charpy impact properties of the heat-affected zones (HAZs) of API X80 linepipe steels containing complex oxides. Three types of steel were fabricated by adding Mg and $O_2$ to form complex oxides and their microstructures and Charpy impact properties were investigated. The number of complex oxides increased with the amount of excess Mg and $O_2$ that was included in the steels. Simulated HAZs containing a number of oxides showed a high volume fraction of acicular ferrite (AF) because the oxides acted as nucleation sites for AF, thereby leading to an improvement in the Charpy impact properties. According to a correlation study between the heat input, the volume fraction of the AF, and the Charpy impact properties, ductile fractures occurred predominantly when the fraction of the AF was 20% or higher; moreover, the Charpy absorbed energy was excellent at more than 100 J. These findings suggest that the improvement of the Charpy impact properties of the HAZs was associated with the active nucleation of AF in the oxide-containing steel HAZs.

• 대한금속재료학회지
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.155-168
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• 2009

In this study, microstructural investigation was conducted on the separation phenomenon occurring during Charpy impact tests of API X80 linepipe steels. Particular emphasis was placed on the role of microstructural phases present in the API X80 steels such as acicular ferrite, bainite, and hard secondary phases. Detailed microstructural analysis of fractured impact specimens showed that highly elongated bainite worked as prior initiation sites for separations, and that the number and length of separations increased with increasing volume fraction of bainite. In the steels having high work hardenability, tearing-shaped separations were found because the hammer-impacted region was seriously hardened during the impact test, which led to the reduction in the impact toughness. As the test temperature decreased, the tendency of separations increased, but separations were not observed when the cleavage fracture prevailed at very low temperatures. Thus, the minimization of the formation of bainite and secondary phases in the steels would be beneficial for preventing or minimizing separations because separations deteriorated low-temperature impact toughness.