Stress Relaxation Cracking

Highly restrained thick wall low alloy steel welds are subjected to high stresses and temperatures in service. Post weld heat treatments- (PWHT) are conducted to relieve residual stresses that form during welding.  This can make them subject to the risk for Stress Relief Cracking (SRC) and Stress Relaxation Cracking (SRxC).  Various tests have been developed for evaluation of susceptibility to SRC.  However, many of these tests do not accurately replicate the thermomechanical phenomena that take place during PWHT in welds. The motivation for this project is to develop an- SRC testing procedure that will accurately replicate the PWHT conditions of highly restrained welds which will be used to both rank SRC susceptibility and study the SRC mechanism.  This was done by using a a GleebleTM-based SRC testing procedure developed at The Ohio State University. Currently, there is not a standardized SRC test that accurately reproduces the thermomechanical phenomenon a weldment would experience during PWHT.

Industry Sponsors: Lincoln Electric, Shell

Faculty: Boian Alexandrov (OSU), John DuPont (Lehigh), Avi Benatar (OSU)

Graduate Student: Conner Sarich

Industry Contact: Jorge Penso, Dave Dewess, Tapasvi Lolla, Diego Garcia