• Journal of Advanced Research in Ocean Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.106-114
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• 2015

In the fabrication of offshore oil and gas facilities, the significance of dimension control is growing continuously. But, it is difficult to determine the deformation of the structure during fabrication by simple lab tests due to the large size and the complicated shape. Strain-boundary method (a kind of shrinkage method) based on the shell element was proposed to predict the welding distortion of a structure effectively. Modeling of weld geometry in shell element is still a difficult task. In this paper, a concept of imaginary temperature pair is introduced to handle the effect of geometric factors such as groove shape, plate thickness and pass number, etc. Single pass imaginary temperature pair formula is derived from the relation between the groove area and the FE mesh size. By considering the contribution of each weld layer to the whole weldment, multi-pass imaginary temperature is also derived. Since the temperature difference represents the distortion increment, cumulative distortion curve can be drawn by integrating the temperature difference. This curve will be a useful solution when engineers meet some problems occurred in the shipyard. A typical example is shown about utilization of this curve. Several verifications are conducted to examine the validity of the proposed methodology. The applicability of the model is also demonstrated by applying it to the fabrication process of the heavy ship block. It is expected that the imaginary temperature model can effectively solve the modeling problem in shell element. It is also expected that the cumulative distortion curve derived from the imaginary temperature can offer useful qualitative information about angular distortion without FE analysis.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.88-96
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• 1999

The effects of root gap on welding residual stress and deformation are dealt with the multi-pass weldment with three kinds(0, 6, 30mm) of root gap by F.E.M common code, and then compared with experiment data. In this analysis, an 100% ramp heat input model was used to avoid numerical convergence problem due to an instantaneous increase in temperature near the fusion zone, and the effect of a moving arc in a two dimensional plane was also included. During the analysis, a small time increment was applied in a period with instantaneous temperature fluctuation while a large time increment was used in the rest period. The residual stress is distributed as symmetric types and maximum value is also equivalent when the weldment with 0mm and 6mm root gap is welded. In the case of 30mm root gap welding, the distribution of the residual stress extends over a wide range as asymmetric types due to the built-up weld, and most of the residual stress is biased in the side of a built-up weld part. In case of 0mm gap welding and 6mm gap welding, a little angular distortion occurs, but the level of deformation is small. When the weldment with 30mm root gap is welded, the angular deformation of the asymmetric types, however, occurs larger than the other specimens. The experimental and the analytic results show good coincidence and indicate that the welding residual stress and deformation distribution of 30 mm root gap specimen may be asymmetric and the amplitude is larger than those of root gap specimen under standard.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.70-75
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• 2002

The penetration potential of TIG welding in one single run is limited, though the process itself generates high quality welds with good weld cosmetics. This is one of the main reasons, which has contributed to its development in high duty applications such as those encountered in aeronautical, aerospace, nuclear & power plant applications. For these applications, stainless steels, titanium k nickel based alloys are most often used. As these materials remain very sensible to weld heat input k atmospheric pollution, stringent processing conditions are imposed. For example welding of titanium alloys requires argon shielding of weld zone and for 5 mm thick plates multi-pass runs & filler additions are required. This multi-run operation not only raises the welding cost, but also increases defect risks. In recent years, extensive interest has been raised by the possibility to increase weld penetrations through flux applications & the process is designated ATIG-activated TIG, or FBTIG-flux bounded TIG. The improved welding performance of such flux assisted TIG is related to arc constriction and surface tension effects on weld pool. The research work by authors has lead to the formulation of welding fluxes for stainless steels k titanium alloys with TIG Process. These fluxes are now commercialized & some applications in industry have already been carried out. FBTIG for aluminum has been proposed with silica application for AC mode TIG welding. The paper highlights the fundamentals of flux role in TIG welding and illustrates some industrial applications.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.15-17
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• 2006

Weld residual stresses can be a major concern in structural integrity assessments such as a nuclear power plant. In this paper, detailed weld residual stress analyses were presented for a typical multi-pass weld of pipe-butt weld and plate T-butt weld. The calculated residual stress distributions were compared with those of the measured data and recommended profiles in R6 and BS7910. Defect assessment which is based on the stress intensity factor(SIF) calculations was carried out for a plate T-butt weld with cracks considering the weld residual stress distributions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.529-535
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• 2011

In this study, evaluation of acoustic emission signals characteristics for the post weld heat treated (PWHT) multi-pass weldment and weldment was dealt. Charpy standard specimens were taken from the lowest, middle and highest regions of the weld block. Pre-crack was made using the repeated load. Four point bend and AE tests were conducted simultaneously. Regardless of the specimens, AE signals were absent within elastic region and produced in the process of plastic deformation. AE signals for all specimens were not emitted after the maximum load. Value of signal strength for the all PWHT specimens was lower than that of the weldment. Besides, relations of plastic deformation zone size and accumulated AE counts for the PWHT specimens were more simple compared with the weldment. In case of the PWHT specimen, particles on the fractured surface decreased prominently compared with the weldment due.to PWHT. From these results, it can be concluded that PWHT was effective in reducing the AE sources for the weldment.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.36-43
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• 1999

The effect of microstructure on the fracture toughness of multi pass weld metal has been investigated. The micromechanisms of fracture process are identified by in-situ scanning electron microscopy(SEM) fracture observation using single edge notched specimen. The notches of the in-situ fracture specimens were carefully located such that the ends of the notches were in the as-deposited top bead and the reheated weld metal respectively. The observation of in-situ fracture process for as-deposited top bead indicated that as strains are applied, microcracks are formed at the interfaces between soft proeutectoid ferrite and acicular ferrite under relatively low stress intensity factor. Then, the microcracks propagate easily along the proeutectoid ferrite phase, leading to final fracture. These findings suggest that proeutectoid ferrite plays an important role in reducing the toughness of the weld metal. On the other hand, reheated regions showed that the microcrack initiated at the notch tip grows along the localized shear bands under relatively high stress intensity factor, confirming that reheated area showing momogeneous and fine microstructure would be beneficial to the fracture resistance of weld metal.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.66-74
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• 2005

API(American Petroleum Institute) steel, as a line pipe material, requires the enhanced mechanical and chemical properties with the environmental severity. Especially, the weld part(weld metal and heat affected zone) is an important region for the safety. However, the study for the behavior of microstructure and toughness in multi-pass welding is seldom. In this study, the relationship between the microstructure and toughness of welds with several welding, bending and heat-treatment conditions was examined. In particular, HIC property in the weld metal was evaluated. The microstructure and toughness in multi-passed HAZ seemed to be determined by the final welding thermal cycle and the low toughness was attributed to the MA constituents formed in the intercritically reheated region. The weld metal showed very low toughness and it was not improved by the change in bending and heat treatment conditions. Additionally, the cracks are observed in the weld metal. from these results, it was found that the choice of welding wire/flux is very important.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.706-713
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• 2002

In the multi-pass welding of pressure vessels or ships, the mechanical touch sensor system is generally used together with a manipulator to measure the gap and depth of the narrow gap to perform seam tracking. Unfortunately, such mechanical touch sensors may commit measuring errors caused by the eterioration of the measuring device. An automation system of narrow gap multi-pass welding using a laser vision system which can track the seam line of narrow gap and which can control welding power has been developed. The joint profile of the narrow gap, with 250mm depth and 28mm width, can be captured by laser vision camera. The image is then processed for defining tracking positions of the torch during welding. Then, the real-time correction of lateral and vertical position of the torch can be done by the laser vision system. The adaptive control of welding conditions like welding Currents and welding speeds, can also be performed by the laser vision system, which cannot be done by conventional mechanical touch systems. The developed automation system will be adopted to reduce the idle time of welders, which happens frequently in conventional long welding processes, and to improve the reliability of the weld quality as well.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.636-642
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• 2001

Partial penetration welding joint defines the groove welds that applies the one side welding which does not use steel backing and both side welding without back gouging, that is, the partial penetration welding joint leaves an unwelded portion at the root of the welding area. In this study, we analyzed the residual stress and fracture on the thick metal plates that introduced the partial penetration welding method. As results of using above mentioned welding method, we could draw a conclusion that longitudinal stress and traverse stress occurred around the welding area was so minimal and did not affect any influence. We also performed the fracture behavior evaluation on the partial penetration multi-pass welding with 25.4mm thick plate by using theJ-integral, which finally led us the conclusion that the partial penetration multi -pass welding method is more applicable and effective in handling the root face with less than 6.35mm.

• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2002

In the multi-pass welding of pressure vessels or ships, the mechanical touch sensor system is generally used together with a manipulator to measure the gap and depth of the narrow gap to perform seam tracking. Unfortunately, such mechanical touch sensors may commit measuring errors caused by the deterioration of the measuring device. An automation system of narrow gap multi-pass welding using a laser vision system which can track the seam line of narrow gap and which can control welding power has been developed. The joint profile of the narrow gap, with 250mm depth and 28mm width, can be captured by laser vision camera. The image is then processed for defining tracking positions of the torch during welding. Then, the real-time correction of lateral and vertical position of the torch can be done by the laser vision system. The adaptive control of welding conditions like welding currents and welding speeds, can also be performed by the laser vision system, which cannot be done by conventional mechanical touch systems. The developed automation system will be adopted to reduce the idle time of welders, which happens frequently in conventional long welding processes, and to improve the reliability of the weld quality as well.