An IIW residual stress profile estimation scheme for girth welds in pressure vessel and piping components

Over the years, one major objective of IIW Joint Working Group (JWG) on residual stresses and distortion prediction (RSDP) has been the development of consistent residual stress profiles for supporting fitness-for-service assessment of welded components. As a result of the JWG activities and further in-depth investigations, this paper presents a major development on a novel full-field residual stress estimation scheme that can be used for describing through-thickness residual stress profiles not only within a weld region, but also at any location away from a weld in pressure vessel and piping components. Within weld region, a systematic parametric finite element analysis is used to establish key parameters that govern through-thickness residual stress distribution characteristics by introducing membrane, bending, and self-equilibrating based decomposition technique. Away from weld region, a shell theory based method is developed for describing through-thickness residual stress distribution at any distance away from weld toe. This paper presents detailed results for single "V" joint preparation with pipe wall thickness varying from 6.25 to 250 mm and wall thickness to pipe radius ratio (r/t) varying from 2 to 100. The residual stress estimation method can be applied for double V and narrow groove joint preparations for girth welded components since all three joint preparations have been shown to follow a similar functional form to that seen in single V joint preparation.