• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.227-227
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• 2000

Pressure vessels usually consist of main body and pipes which are connected with the main body. And as joining method of such main body and pipes, welding is carried out. After welding, welding residual stresses inevitably occur around welded joints. As residual stresses act harmfully on fatigue strength, corrosion and buckling strength of structure, PWHT is carried out for the purpose of removing the residual stress. But, during PWHT process, 2 ¼Cr-1Mo steels are frequently apt to generate reheat crack. For this reason, it is strongly needed to analyze and examine the mechanical behavior of welded joints before and after PWHT process. So, in this study, welded nozzle parts of pressure vessel where reheat cracks frequently occur are selected for examining the mechanism of crack-occurrence. (Received December 2, 1999)

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.100-104
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• 2000

Pressure vessels usually consist of main body and pipes which are connected with the main body. And as joining method of such main body and pipes, welding is carried out. After welding, welding residual stresses inevitably occur around welded joints. As residual stresses act harmfully on fatigue strength, corrosion and buckling strength of structure, PWHT is carried out for the purpose of removing the residual stress. But, during PWHT process, $2\frac{1}{4}Cr-1Mo$ steels are frequently apt to generate reheat crack. For this reason, it is strongly needed to analyze and examine the mechanical behavior of welded joints before and after PWHT process. So, in this study, welded nozzle parts of pressure vessel where reheat cracks frequently occur are selected for examining the mechanism of crack-occurrence.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the AE characteristics for the basemetal, PWHT (post-weld heat treatment) and weldment specimens of SA-516 steel during fracture testing. Four-point bending and AE tests were conducted simultaneously. AE signals were emitted in the process of plastic deformation. AE signal strength and amplitude of the weldment was the strongest, followed by PWHT specimen and basemetal. More AE signals were emitted from the weldment samples because of the oxides, and discontinuous mechanical properties. AE signal strength and amplitude for the basemetal or PWHT specimen decreased remarkably compared to the weldment because of lower strength. Pre-cracked specimens emitted even lower event counts than the corresponding blunt notched specimens. Dimple fracture from void coalescence mechanism is associated with low-level AE signal strength for the basemetal or PWHT. Tearing mode and dimple formation were shown on the fracture surfaces of the weldment, but only a small fraction produced detectable AE.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.113-115
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• 1995

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.55-64
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• 1995

A study was made to examine the effects of postweld heat treatment(PWHT) on the toughness and microstructures in the weld heat affected zone(HAZ) of Cu-bearing HSLA-100 steel. The Gleeble thermal/mechanical simulator was used to simulate the weld HAZ. The details between toughness and PWHT of HAZ were studied by impact test, optical microscopy(O.M.), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and differential scanning calorimetry(DSC). The decrease of HAZ toughness in single thermal cycle comparing to base plate is ascribed to the coarsed-grain formed by heating to 1350.deg.C. The increase of HAZ toughness in double thermal cycle comparine to single thermal cycle is due to the fine ferrite(.alpha.) grain transformed from austenite(.gamma.)formed by heating to .alpha./.gamma. two phase region. Cu precipitated during aging for increasing the strength of base metal is dissolved during single thermal cycle to 1350.deg.C and is precipitated little on cooling and heating during subsequent weld thermal cycle. It precipitates by introducing PWHT. Thus, the decrease of toughness in triple thermal cycle of $T_{p1}$ = 1350.deg.C, $T_{p2}$ = 800.deg.C and $T_{p3}$ = 500.deg.C does not occur owing to the precipitation of Cu. The behaviors of Cu=precipitates in HAZ is similar to that in base plate. PWHT at 550.deg.C shows highest hardness and lowest toughness, whereas PWHT at 650.deg.C shows reasonable toughness, which improves the toughness of as-welded state.state.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.59-64
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• 2002

Effects of the aging treatments on the microstructure and strength of heat affected zone(HAZ) in the welds of a age-hardened Al-Mg-Si alloy, 5N01-T5, were investigated. The base metal aging treatments before MIG welding were conducted at 423K to 473K for 28.8ks Post weld heat treatment(PWHT) to recover the HAZ strength was performed at 448K for 28.8ks. Microstructure observations, hardness measurements and tensile tests were conducted to study properties of the MIG weld joints. The position of the softest region in HAZ where the hardness insufficiently recovered after natural aging and PWHT was at a distance of approximately 15mm from the center of the fusion zone. Hardness of the softest regions after natural aging and PWHT decreased with increase in the base metal aging temperature. TEM observation clarified that strengthening ${\beta}$"(Mg$_2$Si) precipitates and coarse ${\beta}$′ precipitates affected the hardnes of HAZ. Incomplete recover of hardness in HAZ after PWHT was caused by the precipitating of non-hardening ${\beta}$′ phase during the weld thermal cycle. In order to examine the effects of weldheat input and welding speed, the laser weld joints were also investigated and compared with the MIG weld ones. Laser welding had the narrower width of the softened regions in HAZ compared with MIG welding. The hardness of the softest regions of the laser welds after PWHT was higher than that of the MIG welds. Quantitative relations between hardness of the softest region and base metal aging temperature were obtained for both welding processes. Accordingly, the equations to estimate the strength of the weld joints after PWHT with varying base metal temperatures were proposed for MIG welding and laser welding.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.4-17
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• 1984

Overlaid weld metals of austenitic stainless steel in a pressure vessel of power reactor are usually post-weld heated for a long period of time after welding. The PWHT is considered as a kind of sensitizing and it is important to check the soundness of the weld metal after PWHT, especially about the precipitation of carbides. The purpose of this report is to obtain information on the relation between the change of microstructure and Post-Weld Heat Treatment in the overlaid weld metals. Metallurgical aspects of the problem on austenitic stainless steel heated at $625^{\circ}C$, $670^{\circ}C$, $720^{\circ}C$ and $760^{\circ}C$ for 3, 10, 30, 100 and 300 hours have been investigated by means of optical-micrography, micro-hardness measurement, scanning electron microscope and electron-probe micro analysis. From the results obtained, the following conclusions are drawn; 1) The PWHT above $625^{\circ}C$ for a long time causes a diffusion of carbon atoms from low alloy steel into stainless steel, and consequently carbon is highly concentrated at the boundary layer of stainless steel. 2) C in ferritic steel migrated to austenitic steel and carbides precipitated in austenitic steel along fusion line. At higher temperatures, the ferrite grains coarsened in the decarburized zone. 3) In the change of microstructure of stainless steel overlaid weld metal, the width of carbides precipitated zone and decarburized zone increased with increase of PWHT temperature and time. 4) At about $625^{\circ}C$ to $760^{\circ}C$, chromium carbides, mainly $M_{23} C_6$, precipitate very closely in the carburized layer with remarkable hardening. 5) Precipitation of delta ferrite from molten weld metal depends on solidification phenomenon. There was a small of ferrite near the bond in which the local solidification time was short, comparing with after parts of weld metal. Shape and amount of ferrite were not changed by Post-Weld Heat Treatment after solidification.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.156-157
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• 1997

• 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.16 no.6
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• pp.44-51
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• 1998

It is well known that the fine bainitic microstructure obtained by TMCP(thermo-mechanical control process) secures the high toughness of base metal. Besides, TMCP steel is very suitable for high heat input in welding as it has low carbon equivalent. In HAZ, however, the accelerated cooling effect imparted on the matrix by the weld thermal cycles is relieved and thus the weldment of TMCP steel has softening zone which shows low fracture toughness compared with base metal. Therefore, PHWT of weldment is carried out to improve the fracture toughness in weldment of TMCP steel which has softening zone. In this study, the effects of PWHT on the weldment of AH36-TMCP steel are investigated by the small punch (SP) test. From the several results such as SP energy and displacement at room temperature, the behavior of transition curves, the fracture strength at -196$^{\circ}C$, distribution of (DBTT)sp and (DBTT)sp, the PWHT condition of A.C. after 85$0^{\circ}C$-1 sec W.C. was suitable condition for recovering a softening zone of HAZ as welded.