Residual Stresses in Strength Mismatched Welded Pipes
It is commonly understood that residual stresses can have significant effects on structural integrity. The extent of such influence varies and is affected by material properties, manufacturing methods and thermal history. Welded components such as pipelines are subject to complex transient temperature fields and associated thermal stresses near the welded regions. These thermal stresses are often high in magnitude and could cause localized yielding around the deposited weld metal. Because of differential thermal expansion/contraction episodes, misfits are introduced into the welded regions which in turn generate residual stresses when the structure has cooled to ambient temperature. This paper is based on a recently completed Joint Industry Project (JIP) led by DNV GL. It briefly reviews published experimental and numerical studies on residual stresses and strength-mismatched girth welds in pipelines. Several Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models of a reeling simulation have been developed including mapping an initial axial residual stress (transverse to the weld) profile onto a seamless girth-welded pipe. The initial welding residual stress distribution used for mapping was measured along the circumference of the girth welds. The predicted residual stresses after reeling simulation was subsequently compared with experimental measurements.