• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.314-321
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• 1987

Post weld heat treatment (PWHT) of weldment of the low alloy Cr-Mo steel, in general, is carried out not only to remove residual stress and hydrogen existing in weldment but to improve fracture toughness of weld heat affected zone (HAZ). There occur some problems such as toughness decrement and stress relief cracking (SRC) in the coarse grained region of weld HAZ when PWHT is practiced. Especially, embrittlement of structure directly relates to the mode of fracture and is appeared as the difference of fracture surface such as grain boundary failure. Therefore, in this paper, the effect of heating rate on PWHT embrittlement under the various kinds of stresses simulated residual stress in weld HAZ was evaluated by COD fracture toughness test and observation of fracture surface. Fracture toughness of weld HAZ decreased with increment of heating rate under no stress, but it was improved to increment of heating rate under the stress. Grain boundary failure didn't almost appear at the heating rate of 600.deg.C/hr but it appeared from being the applied stress of 294 MPa at 220.deg.C/hr and 196 MPa at 60.deg.C/hr.

• 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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• 1995.04a
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• pp.91-93
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• 1995

A study was made to examine the effects of post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) on the toughness and microstructures in the weld heat-affacted zone(HAZ) of Cu-bearing HSLA-100 steel. The Gleeble thermal/mechanical simulator was used to simulate the weld HAZ. The behavior of Cu-precipitates in HAZ is similar to that in base plate. PWHT at 55$0^{\circ}C$ shows highest hardness and lowest toughness, whereas PWHT at $650^{\circ}C$ shows reasonable toughness. Cu precipitated during agcing for increasing the strength of base metal is dissolved during single thermal cycle to 135$0^{\circ}C$ and is precipitated little on cooling and heating during subsequent weld thermal cycle. It precipitates by introducing PWHT.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.413-422
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• 2014

Presented in this study are the variations of microstructures and mechanical properties with tempering and Post-Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) conditions for SA508 Gr.4N steel used as Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) material. The blocks of model alloy were austenitized at the conventional temperature of $880^{\circ}C$ then tempered and post-weld heat treated at four different conditions. The hardness and yield strength decrease with increased tempering and PWHT temperatures, but impact toughness is significantly improved, especially in the specimens tempered at $630^{\circ}C$. The sample tempered at $630^{\circ}C$ with PWHT at $610^{\circ}C$ shows optimum mechanical properties in hardness, strength, and toughness, excluding only the transition property in the low temperature region. The microstructural observation and quantitative analysis of carbide size distribution show that the variations of mechanical properties are caused by the under-tempering and carbide coarsening which occurred during the heat treatment process. The introduction of PWHT results in the deterioration of the ductile-brittle transition property by an increase of coarse carbides controlling cleavage initiation, especially in the tempered state at $630^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.4 s.247
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• pp.402-408
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• 2006

Dissimilar friction welding were produced using 15(mm) diameter solid bar in chrome molybedenum steel(KS SCM440) to carbon steel(KS S45C) to investigate their mechanical properties. The main friction welding parameters were selected to endure good quality welds on the basis of visual examination, tensile tests, Vickers hardness surveys of the bond of area and H.A.Z and microstructure investigations. The specimens were tested as-welded and post-weld heat treated(PWHT). The tensile strength of the friction welded steel bars was increased up to 100% of the S45C base metal under the condition of all heating time. Optimal welding conditions were n=2,000(rpm), $P_1=60(MPa),\;P_2=100(MPa),\;t_1=4(s),\;t_2=5(s)$ when the total upset length is 5.4 and 5.7(mm), respectively. The peak of hardness distribution of the friction welded joints can be eliminated by PWHT. Two different kinds of materials are strongly mixed to show a well-combined structure of macro-particles without any molten material and particle growth or any defects.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.273-275
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• 2002

The effect of post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) of marine structures steel was investigated at electrochemical viewpoint. In addition, slow strain rate test (SSRT) was carried out to investigate both electrochemical and mechanical properties by PWHT effect during impressed current cathodic protection. The optimum cathodic protection potential by SSRT was -770 mV(SCE). At the applied cathodic protection potential of -770 mV -850 mV(SCE), the fracture morphology was dimple pattern with ductile fracture, while it was transgranular pattern (Q.C: quasi cleavage) under -875 mV(SCE).

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.77-82
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• 2006

In this study, dissimilar friction welding were produced using 15mm diameter solid bar in chrome molybedenum steel(SCM440) to carbon steel(S45C) to investigate their mechanical properties and the relationship between the weld parameters and the nondestructive coefficients, such as AE counts and ultrasonic attenuation coefficient. The main friction welding parameters were selected to endure good quality welds on the basis of visual examination, tensile tests, Vickers hardness surveys of the bond of area and heat affected zone. The specimens were tested as-welded and post weld heat treated(PWHT). The tensile strength of the friction welded steel bars was increased up to 100％ of the S45C base metal under the condition of all heating time. The ductility of PWHT specimens is higher than as-welded.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.139-146
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• 2009

The heat-affected zone (HAZ) of SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel, which has higher Ni and Cr contents than SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel, was investigated on the microstructure and mechanical properties. The HAZ was categorized into seven characteristic zones (CGCG, FGCG, ICCG, SCCG, FGFG, ICIC and SCSC-HAZ) according to the peak temperature from the thermal cycle experienced during multi-pass welding. Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) was conducted in the temperature range of $550{\sim}610^{\circ}C$ for 30 hours to evaluate the effect of PWHT conditions on the microstructure and mechanical properties. Before PWHT, CGHAZ and FGFGHAZ showed high yield strength (YS) ranging from 1000 to 1250 MPa, while YS of SCSCHAZ decreased from 607 MPa (observed for base metal) to 501 MPa. The Charpy impact energies of sub-HAZs fell below 100J at $-29^{\circ}C$, except in the SCSCHAZ. By applying PWHT to sub-HAZ specimens, YS decreased as the PWHT temperature increased. In the case of CGHAZs and FGFGHAZ heat-treated at $610^{\circ}C$, YS dropped drastically to the range of 654~686 MPa. From the Charpy impact test, the upper-shelf energy (USE) increased to approximately 250J and Index temperature ($T_{68J}$) decreased below $-50^{\circ}C$. Specifically, in FGFG, ICIC and SCSC-HAZ, $T_{68J}$ was below -110, which was lower than the case of base metal.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.75-85
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• 1996

In this paper the influence of postweld heat treatment on mechanical properties of SMAW and FCAW stainless steel weldments was examined and the obtained results are as follows ; (1) The amount of $\delta$-ferrite formed by SMAW and FCAW process decreased with increasing holding temperature and time in post weld heat treatment(PWHT), and it was found that the reduced ferrite was transformed into sigma phase after $800^{circ}C{\times}50hr$ PWHT. This sigma phase, even though it was very small, resulted in brittleness of dissimilar weldment between carbon steel and stainless steel in bending test, however in similar weldment between stainless steel and stainless steel was not occured. (2) The chemical composition of sigma phase was measured to 28-30%Cr, 7-9%Mo, 4-6Ni in 316L weldment, and also 35-37%Cr, 0.9-1.0Mo, 6-8%Ni in 309L weldment by EDS analysis.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.55-60
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• 2008

Structural reliability of electrical panels installed in naval vessels is of critical importance from structural performance viewpoint. The panels may be exposed to vibration and fatigue loadings from internal and external sources and wave loading which cause fatigue cracking. In this study, common methods such as burr grinding and post weld heat treatment (PWHT), for the fatigue strength improvement of weldments are investigated. Burr grinding is carried out using a electric grinder in order to remove surface defects and improve the weld bead profile. And also PWHT is carried out for the purpose of removing residual. The effectiveness of the two post treatment methods is evaluated in terms of fatigue strength improvement of welded structures.