Issue 165 March/Apr i l 2 0 1 0

Diary events The magazine of TWI

April 2010

TAGSI Seminar
Welding with Chocolate - the
fusion of fun and engineering
Structural integrity -
challenges to new build
Tue 20
Great Abington

17th Technical Seminar

Institute of Rail Welding:
Current developments in rail The BBC reporter was so excited
welding and repair
Wed 28
Wolverhampton
by the ‘Welding with Chocolate’
Seminar
experiment on The Welding
Stainless steel fabrication –
focus on the energy sector
Institute’s stand at the Big Bang
Wed 28
Middlesbrough
Fair that she recorded her Radio 4
Today programme interview next
May 2010
to it, then returned with a camera
International Meeting
8th Friction Stir Welding
Symposium
crew to get right into the action.
Tue 18 - Thu 20 Rebecca Morelle wasn’t the only one to be
Germany
attracted by the excitement of welding, as
between 11 and 13 March, thousands of
June 2010
budding young engineers tried their skills at
Materials Technical Group Meeting fusion welding chocolate box girders and
Materials issues in defence and tested them to destruction before eating
security largest single celebration of science and
their broken bridges.
Wed 9 engineering aimed exclusively at children and
Venue TBA
The welding simulator, kindly provided young people.
The WJS Conference by Lincoln Electric, was an almost equally
SOS! Specification or Standard:
For other welding engineering outreach
enthralling attraction, and again thousands of
Sink or Swim! opportunities and educational information,
An update on Directives and youngsters, and some not so young, pulled
Standards
contact twi_professional@twi.co.uk
on the virtual reality face screen to try their
Wed 23 - Thu 24
Great Abington handskills in creating a MAG (GMAW) fillet

Q
weld. What are the principles of
September 2010 radiography in non-destructive
Over 22,500 people attended the Big Bang: testing?
Advanced Structures
Technical Group Meeting
UK Young Scientists’ and Engineers’ Fair in
Milau Viaduct Manchester which is thought to be the Why is the Ti:N ratio specified in
September TBa steel specifications?
Great Abington
How can I avoid interface failures
Seminar
Joint TWI/EWI event
in resistance spot welds?

JoinIT
Mon 20 - Tue 21
Cincinnati, USA

A
Workshops and seminars
are recognised
Continuous Professional
Development
register now
events
www.twi.co.uk
w w w . t w i . c o . u k e - m a i l : t w i @ t w i . c o . u k
 March/April 2010

TWI hosts high-level delegation from

Malaysia
In early March 2010, a party and training
and certification
of senior Malaysian officials, led programmes
by Deputy Minister of Defence
TWI already
YB Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff bin (through its
Ahmad visited TWI at Granta Malaysia subsidiary,
TWISEA) offers
Park, Great Abington. The training and
Minister was accompanied by certification to
industry at its
Laksamana Tan Sri llyas Bin Hj headquarters in
Din, Chairman of PERHEBAT Kuala Lumpur The Malaysian visitors with TWI senior management at TWI headquarters
and Tuan Haji Hassan Bin and other venues on Granta Park
throughout the As well as meeting the senior
Jantan, Director of PERHEBAT country. management team, the visitors were
The reason for the visit was to discuss given a guided tour of TWI’s state-of-
This new venture will extend the
options for collaboration between the-art facility and met some of the
programme to PERHEBAT, an
TWI and Perbadanan Hal Ehwal Bekas technical staff who undertake cutting
organisation established to provide
Angkatan Tentera (PERHEBAT) in the edge research into the technology of
skills training to retiring and retired
supply of TWI’s technical education materials joining.
armed forces personnel.

New Members of TWI

TWI is pleased to welcome the following as Industrial Members

2K Manufacturing ETA Technology PVT Ltd Network Rail Skoda Power AS

UK India UK Czech Republic
Manufacture of plywood Design and manufacture of Railway engineering Power engineering - turbines and
substitute from waste plastics special purpose machines, heat exchangers
including those for solid Oil States Industries Inc
Amber Composites Ltd phase welding USA TADA Electric Co,
UK Manufacture of equipment for Industrial Apparatus Works
Prepreg manufacture and supply GE Energy the offshore oil and gas industry Japan
of associated materials USA Production of welding machines
Suppliers of power generation Polysoude SAS
Carpenter Technology equipment France Thermacore Europe
Corporation Orbital and mechanised welding UK
USA GE Oil & Gas cladding solutions Electronic cooling systems
Semi-finished metals – Drilling & Production
USA Rewinds and J Windsor & Sons Trelleborg Offshore UK Ltd
Carville Ltd Manufacture of drilling and (Engineers) Limited UK
UK production equipment UK Manufacturing
Sub contract manufacturing Electrical and mechanical
HYDRO Exploitation SA engineering Toyo Kanetsu KK
Eclipse Scientific Switzerland Japan
Canada Services in the operation of RTI International Metals Inc Manufacture of LNG and LPG
NDT services, products and electrical installations and USA tanks
training hydroelectric facilities Titanium production

2 Co n n e c t J a n u a r y /F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 0 www.twi.co.uk e-mail:twi@twi.co.uk

TWI awarded funding to develop
innovative fabrication route for wind
turbine foundations
TWI has recently been awarded
a £500k project (FabFound)
funded by the Northern Wind
Innovation Programme along
with project partners RCID at
Newcastle University, SEtech, Parsons
Brinckerhoff, McNulty Offshore
Construction, Vattenfall Wind Power,
Scottish Power Renewables and
Clipper Windpower Marine.
It is anticipated that there will shortly
be a market for offshore turbines
that significantly outstrips the current
manufacturing capacity. FabFound
aims to use a new and innovative
fabrication process for wind turbine
foundations to allow the necessary
production capacity to be met.
Currently, several foundation concepts
are being considered, including
monopiles, tripods and braced
jacket structures all of which are
manufactured from steel tubular
sections.
The largest of these are fabricated
Low
distortion
No rolling -
long strips longitudinal
edge prepared seams
A proposed novel design of wind tower foundation, fabricated from flat plate. This multi-faceted
approach to fabrication has the potential to meet the increasing capacity for wind farms at a
reduced cost.
www.twi.co.uk e-mail:twi@twi.co.uk Connect March/Apr il 2010
March/April 2010
by rolling thick plate and welding
longitudinally. Rolling thick plate
(>100mm) requires specialist rollers
and hence incurs capital expense and
limits the number of facilities capable
of carrying out the process. It is also
a time consuming process and the
length of each ring is restricted by
the width of the rollers, commonly to
approximately three metres.
The novel multi-faceted design
proposed in FabFound is fabricated
from strips of flat plate welded
together thus eliminating the rolling
step. This allows sub-assemblies
of perhaps 10m in length to be
manufactured, reducing the number of manufacture) that can be fabricated
on-site welds necessary in the tower from readily available flat steel plate
construction. This approach is enabled with only minimal processing required
through the use of rapid thick section prior to joining by novel high speed
welding techniques for the longitudinal welding techniques. The designs will
seams. be examined structurally and geo-
technically and will be qualified for use.
Over the next 12 months, the
project will generate new foundation The entire production route will be
designs (optimised for rapid examined (facilities required, metal
supply, joining processes, materials
After making handling, etc) in terms of performance,
one section
end prepared logistics and economic viability.
for circular
weld The aim of the project is to increase
the foundation manufacturing
capacity of the UK, and specifically to
position the consortium and other
fabrication/supply chain companies
in the Northern Way regions to be
ready to address the requirements of
an emerging market for high power
(>3.6MW) marine wind turbine
foundations.
For further information, contact
anita.buxton@twi.co.uk
3
 Technolog y Transfer

Job Knowledge
pipelines and pressure vessels. duplex and 25%Cr superduplex, and
105 Duplex stainless steel. even higher alloyed, hyperduplex
Part 1 In addition to the improved corrosion
grades have been developed, this
resistance compared with the 300
division being based primarily on the
The name ‘duplex’ for this family series stainless steels duplex steels also
alloy’s alloying level, eg in terms of
of stainless steels derives from the have higher strength. For example, a
‘PREN’ (pitting resistance equivalence
microstructure of the alloys which Type 304 stainless steel has a 0.2%
number), a measure of the alloy’s
comprises approximately 50/50 proof strength in the region of 280N/
resistance to pitting corrosion. PREN
mixture of austenite and delta-ferrite. mm2, a 22%Cr duplex stainless steel a
is calculated from a simple formula:
They are designed to provide better minimum 0.2% proof strength of some
PREN = %Cr + 3.3%Mo +16%N
corrosion resistance, particularly 450N/mm2 and a superduplex grade a
and an allowance for W is sometimes
chloride stress corrosion and chloride minimum of 550N/mm2.
made, having a factor of 1.65. A duplex
pitting corrosion, and higher strength
Although duplex stainless steels steel has a PREN less than 40; a
than standard austenitic stainless
are highly corrosion and oxidation superduplex a PREN between 40 and
steels such as Type 304 or 316. The
resistant they cannot be used at 45 and hyperduplex a PREN above 45,
main differences in composition, when
elevated temperatures. This is due to whilst the lean grades typically have
compared with an austenitic stainless
the formation of brittle phases in the lower nickel and hence lower price.
steel is that the duplex steels have a
ferrite at relatively low temperatures,
higher chromium content, 20 - 28%; The commonest shorthand method of
see below, these phases having a
higher molybdenum, up to 5%; lower identifying the individual alloys is by the
catastrophic effect on the toughness of
nickel, up to 9% and 0.05 - 0.5% use of the trade name, particularly for
the steels. The ASME pressure vessel
nitrogen. Both the low nickel content the superduplex grades, eg UR52N+,
codes therefore restrict the service
and the high strength (enabling thinner Zeron 100, 2507 or DP3W, whilst the
temperature of all grades to below
sections to be used) give significant most common 22%Cr grade, UNS
3150C, other codes specify even lower
cost benefits. They are therefore used S31803 has widely become known
service temperatures, perhaps as low
extensively in the offshore oil and as 2205 regardless of its supplier,
as 2500C for superduplex steels.
gas industry for pipework systems, although this is a trade name.
manifolds, risers, etc and in the Duplex alloys can be divided into
The UNS numbering system offers
petrochemical industry in the form of three main groups; lean duplex, 22%Cr
an independent
Common UNS No BS EN Steel Typical Chemical Composition %
alternative. Typical
Name No Type
compositions and
%C Cr Ni Mo N Cu 0.2%
proof
minimum proof
strength strengths of the
N/mm2 more common
(min)
duplex alloys are
2304 S32304 1.4362 duplex 0.015 23.0 4.0 0.055 0.13 400
given in the Table.
2205 S31803 1.4462 duplex 0.015 22.0 5.5 3.0 0.14 - 450
Note that the
commonly used
2205 S32205 1.4462 duplex 0.015 22.5 5.5 3.3 0.17 450
2205 applies to
two UNS numbers,
255(UR52N) S32520 1.4507 super 0.015 25.0 7.0 3-5 0.28 0.13 550
duplex
S31803 and S32205,
with S32205 being
2507 S32750 1.4410 super 0.015 25.0 7.0 4.5 0.28 0.3 550
duplex
a more recent
Zeron 100 S32760 1.4501 super 0.015 25.0 7.0 3.5 0.25 0.8 550 and controlled
duplex composition.
Sandvik S33207 - hyper 0.03 31 7.5 4.0 0.50 0.75 700
SAF3207 duplex The metallurgy
Typical compositions and proof strengths of common duplex stainless steels

4 Co n n e c t M a r c h / A p r i l 2 0 1 0 www.twi.co.uk e-mail:twi@twi.co.uk

of the duplex stainless steel family
is complex and requires very close
control of composition and heat
treatment regimes if mechanical
properties and/or corrosion resistance
are not to be adversely affected. To
produce the optimum mechanical
properties and corrosion resistance
the microstructure or phase balance
of both the parent and weld metal
should be around 50% ferrite and
50% austenite. This precise value is
impossible to achieve repeatably but a
range of phase balance is acceptable.
The phase balance of parent metals
generally ranges from 35 - 60% ferrite.
Whilst composition and, perhaps
more importantly, heat treatment
parameters are relatively easy to
control this is not the case during
welding. The amount of ferrite is
dependant not only on composition
but also on the cooling rate; fast
cooling rates retain more of the ferrite
that forms at elevated temperature.
Therefore to minimise the risk of
producing very high ferrite levels
in the weld metal it is necessary to
ensure that there is a minimum heat
input and therefore a maximum
cooling rate. A rule of thumb is that
heat input for duplex and superduplex
steels should be not less than
0.5kJ/mm although thick sections will
need this lower limit to be increased.
Welding consumables are also
generally formulated to contain
more nickel than the parent metal,
nickel being one of the elements that
promotes the formation of austenite.
A duplex filler metal may contain up
to 7% nickel, a superduplex up to 10%
nickel.
Reference to the phase diagrams
and CCT curves shows that the
duplex stainless steels fall within the
area where the production of brittle
w ww.twi.co.uk e-mail:twi@twi.co.uk Connect March/Apr il 2010
Technolog y Transfer
intermetallic phases is a major risk
during welding and heat treatment,
markedly reducing both toughness and
corrosion resistance.
The main culprits are sigma phase,
chi phase and 4750C embrittlement.
Sigma and chi phases form at
temperatures between 550 and
10000C with the fastest rate of
formation around 8500C. The time to
form these phases can be as short as
30 or 40 seconds in a superduplex
alloy. 4750C embrittlement, as the
name suggests, occurs at lower
temperatures of some 350 - 5500C
with times for the start of formation
of perhaps 7 - 10 minutes.
Short times such as these are within
the ranges that may be encountered
during interpass cooling so, once again,
heat input and cooling rates become
very important welding parameters
except that this time it is the
maximum heat input that needs to be
controlled. A maximum heat input of
2.5kJ/mm should be acceptable for the
duplex steels and 2.0kJ/mm maximum
for superduplex. Many codes and
contract specifications, however,
further restrict heat inputs to less than
1.75 - 2kJ/mm for duplex steels and
1.5 - 1.75kJ/mm for superduplex.
Two other factors that also affect
cooling rates are preheating and
interpass temperatures. Preheat is
not generally regarded as necessary
for duplex stainless steels unless
the ambient conditions mean that
the steel is below 50C or there is
condensation on the surface. In
these situations a preheat of around
50 - 750C should be adequate. Very
thick section joints, particularly those
welded with the submerged arc
process, can also benefit from a low
preheat of around 1000C.
Interpass temperature can have a
significant effect on the microstructure
of the weld and its heat affected
zones. For a duplex steel 2500C is
regarded as an acceptable maximum
and for a superduplex 1500C
maximum. Note, however, that many
codes do not separate the grades
into duplex and superduplex and
1500C is often required as the norm.
Such low interpass temperatures
can have a serious effect on joint
completion times and forced cooling
by blowing dry air through the bore
of a pipe once the bore purge has
been removed has been used. This is
generally only beneficial when thick
wall vessels or pipes are being welded
using a rotated pipe mechanised TIG
process or submerged arc. If this
technique is used then it is advisable to
force cool the procedure qualification
test piece to ensure that cooling rates
(and the resultant microstructures) are
within the permissible range.
Care therefore needs to be taken
to read through code and contract
specification requirements and to
ensure that the requirements with
respect to heat input, interpass
temperature etc. are incorporated in
welding procedure documentation
prior to welding procedure
qualification. The next Job Knowledge
will provide some guidelines for the
welding of the duplex stainless steels.
This article was written by
Gene Mathers
5
 March/April 2010

Composite patch repair for marine and

civil engineering applications
A project has begun involving 15 Small and
Medium Enterprises and Research and
Technology Development organisations funded by
the European Commission with the intention of
developing a novel, effective repair/reinforcement
method for defects in large steel structures. The
project has a duration of three years and a
budget of over €3.5m.
For several years, composite patching has proven its • give the project partners the capability of providing
effectiveness and cost benefit in the aerospace industry. high technology and high added value services
However, there are several fundamental differences worldwide, thus improving Europe’s competitiveness in
between aerospace and bridge/marine/offshore steel specialised and advanced repair work.
applications, which dictate a separate approach and
Composite patch repairs and/or reinforcements overcome
investigation of the problem.
many disadvantages of the traditional repair methods:
The project aims are to:
• do not involve hot works and, therefore, existing
• demonstrate that composite patch repairs or deadweight loading and proximity to explosive
reinforcements can be environmentally stable and can environments have no particular consequences
be used as permanent repair measures on large steel
• can be applied directly on corroded steel members by
structures.
performing a simple surface preparation
• show that composite patch repair technology is an
• can be completed faster
innovative and highly competitive product that caters
to the needs of marine vessels and civil engineering • exhibit good fatigue resistance
infrastructures, the latter in the form of steel bridges.
• do not cause stress concentrations
• demonstrate the reduction in maintenance costs and
• result in low added weight
extension of design life of many large steel structures.
The consortium is currently looking to invite interested
stakeholders from marine, civil and materials suppliers
to follow the project activities within the framework of a
relevant stakeholders forum.
For further information please contact
Dr Farshad Salmat-Zadeh on contactus@co-patch.com or
go to www.co-patch.com

6 Co n n e c t J a n u a r y /F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 0 www.twi.co.uk e-mail:twi@twi.co.uk

News in brief
TWI gets high visibility at
Middle East NACE Conference
Brian Cane presented the plenary
lecture at the 13th Middle East
Corrosion Conference in Bahrain
earlier in 2010. Dr Cane’s paper on
Operational excellence through asset
maintenance optimisation included a
series of illustrative RISKWISE case
studies and was the plenary lecture at
the conference attended by more than
600 delegates from all over the world.
Dr Chi-Ming Lee from TWI’s Materials
and Corrosion Group also presented
a paper on Corrosion resistant alloys at
the conference.
WJS Materials Technical Group
Meeting
Materials in defence and security
The next meeting of the WJS Materials
Group will take place on 9 June at
TWI, Great Abington and will include
presentations from industry leaders.
WJS/DVS International Conference on Joining Plastics
2 November 2010, Düsseldorf, Germany
Manufacturing with plastics invariably
involves joining parts together,
whether it is precision welding of
medical devices or large-scale welding
in the construction industry. Joining
plastics is a rapidly developing field,
especially in Germany and the UK.
This conference will provide an
international forum for anyone
involved in joining plastics, including
processors, fabricators, manufacturers,
design engineers and product
developers from all over the world.
www.twi.co.uk e-mail:twi@twi.co.uk Connect Januar y/Febr uar y 2010
March/April 2010
External conferences - 2010
TWI staff are speaking at the following
conferences in the next few months.
For the full list, go to www.twi.co.uk/
content/external_conferences.html
29th OMAE
6-11 June 2010, Shanghai, China
TWI speakers: Simon Smith,
Yanhui Zhang and Amir Bahrami
Topics: Hydrogen induced stress cracking
of duplex stainless steel, modelling of
multi-pass girth welds and Review of
the effect of hydrogen gas on fatigue
performance of steels
ASRANet, Network for integrating
structural analysis, risk and reliability
14-16 June 2010, Edinburgh
TWI speaker: Ujjwal Bharadwaj
Topic: Risk based optimisation of
inspection and maintenance of ships
ECNDT 2010
17 June 2010, Moscow
TWI speaker: Tat-Hean Gan
Topic: TBC
This event, organised jointly by the
Welding & Joining Society (WJS)
of The Welding Institute (TWI)
and the German Welding Society
(DVS), will provide a unique
opportunity to discover the latest
technical developments. Areas
covered will include laser, infrared
and ultrasonic welding; welding
and design of thermoplastic tanks,
pipelines, and heavy wall; welding
of high performance polymers and
composites; testing and inspection of
Top 20 oil and gas companies
meet in Texas for the first
TWI Oil and Gas Panel meeting
A group of major companies in the oil
and gas sector gathered in Houston
late in January to attend the first TWI
Oil and Gas Panel meeting.
Initiated by Amir Bahrami, the
bi-annual event attracted 37 delegates
with four main topics on their
collective agenda.
• Key challenges faced by the
industry and the establishment
of a consensus on the critical
technical issues
• To develop strategies for how
those key challenges can be met
• To evaluate TWI’s current and
future projects to address these
issues
The meeting focused on hot topics
of broad interest to the oil and gas
industry.
welded joints; qualification of plastics
welders; and so on.
For technical information, please
contact mike.troughton@twi.co.uk,
and for administrative information,
contact rachel.wall@twi.co.uk
7

Connect is the
bi-monthly magazine
of TWI
Editor
Penny Edmundson
Photography
Simon Condie
Production
Penny Edmundson
© Copyright TWI Ltd 2010
Articles may be
reprinted with
permission from TWI.
Storage in electronic
media is not permitted.
Articles in this
publication are for
information only.
TWI does not accept
responsibility for the
consequences of actions
taken by others after
reading this information.
Published by
TWI Ltd, Granta Park,
Great Abington,
Cambridge CB21 6AL, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1223 899000
Fax: +44 (0)1223 892588
E-mail: twi@twi.co.uk
www.twi.co.uk
TWI Technology Centre
(North East)
Tel: +44 (0)1642 216 320
Fax: +44 (0)1642 252 218
TWI Technology Centre
(Yorkshire)
Tel: +44 (0)114 269 9046
Fax: +44 (0)114 269 9781
TWI Technology Centre
(Wales)
Tel: +44 (0)1639 873 100
Fax: +44 (0)1639 864 679
TWI Aberdeen
Tel: + 44(0)1224 691222
8
w w w . t w i . c o . u k
Issue 165 March/Apr i l 2 0 1 0
Take advantage of TWI’s
improved identification
service
Recently TWI upgraded its
Fourier Transform Infra-Red
microscopy facility with a
Perkin-Elmer system 2000
FTIR spectrometer with an
i-series FTIR microscope,
and a new attenuated total
reflectance objective.
This enables fast, inexpensive
positive identification of non-
metallic materials, thus avoiding
the potential embarrassment
of using the wrong material.
Samples may be solid, liquid or
thin film. Sample size can be
Infrared spectroscopy exploits the fact
down to 10 x 10 microns, or films down to
that molecules absorb specific frequencies
a micron thickness.
characteristic of their molecular structure.
Some of the samples analysed are listed A spectrum is recorded by passing a beam
below. of IR light through the sample. Examination
of the transmitted light reveals how much
• Polymers and rubber
energy was absorbed at each wavelength.
• Organic liquids
• Corrosion products on PCBs Using a Fourier transformation
• Multi-layer paint coatings instrument enables the measurement
• Thin films of all wavelengths simultaneously. A
• Clean room contaminants transmittance or absorbance spectrum is
• Composites and fibres produced, showing at which IR wavelengths
• Inorganic substances the sample absorbs.
• Adhesives
• Quantitative determination of Each material will have a characteristic
crystallinity and molecular orientation fingerprint which is easily identifiable.
• Polymer degradation
For further information, please contact
• Contaminants in fuel from Formula
sheila.stevens@twi.co.uk
One racing cars
• Recycled polymers
e - m a i l : t w i @ t w i . c o . u k