Residual stress measurements and modelling for temper bead qualification

This paper presents results from a programme of through thickness residual stress measurements and finite element analysis (FEA) modelling carried out on a temper bead mock-up. Emphasis is placed on results comparison rather than the measurement technique and procedure, which is well documented in the accompanying references. Temper bead welding processes have been developed to simulate the tempering effect of post-weld heat treatment and are used to repair reactor pressure vessel components to alleviate the need for further heat-treatment. The Temper Bead Mock-up comprised of a rectangular block with dimension 960mm × 189mm × 124mm was manufactured from a ferritic steel forged block with an austenitic stainless steel buttering and a nickel alloy temper bead cladding. The temper bead and buttering surfaces were machined after welding. Biaxial residual stresses were measured at a number of locations using the standard Deep-Hole Drilling (DHD) and Incremental DHD (iDHD) techniques on the Temper Bead Mock-up and compared with FEA modelling results. An excellent correlation existed between the iDHD and the modelled results, and highlighted the need for the iDHD technique in order to account for plastic relaxation during the measurement process. Maximum tensile residual stresses through the thickness were observed near the austenitic stainless steel surface at 298MPa. High compressive stresses were observed within the ferritic base plate beneath the bimetallic interface between austenitic and ferritic steels with peak stresses of-377MPa in the longitudinal direction.