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INTRODUCTION
Excellent strength properties and good weldability make the application of high strength finegrained steels (HSS) attractive for complex steel structures like bridges, offshore structures, railway
wagons, cranes, ships or pipelines. In combination with newly developed high-performance
welding processes like, e.g. gas metal arc (GMA)-laser hybrid welding, the quality and efficiency of
these structures can be further improved. These welding technologies have short cooling times
which can result in reduced strength and fatigue properties. By using inductive preheating as a
simultaneous heating method, a controlled temperature cycle over the entire welding process can be
obtained. In detail, this includes increasing the formability and toughness, controlling the hardness
and reducing the cooling rate to avoid cold cracks and unfavorable residual stresses.
1
workpiece
Fig. 1. Experimental setup with inductor, GMA torch, laser processing head and workpiece
Table 1. Mechanical properties of the investigated base materials
CEV1
S700, t = 10 mm
X70, t = 13.2 mm
S690, t = 15mm
(%)
0.41
0.32
0.48
Carbon
content
(%)
0.06
0.03
0.13
Yield
strength fy
(MPa)
751
528
755
Ultimate
strength fu
(MPa)
816
564
805
Hardness
(HV1)
290
190
270
Impact
toughness
(J)
84
460
61
Filler
material2
CrNiMo
NiMo
CrNiMo
S700, t = 10 mm
X70, t = 13.2 mm
S690, t = 15 mm
Welding
speed
(m/min)
2.3 2.5
1.91 2.02,3
1.5
Wire feed
rate
(m/min)
13
2,3
12.5 13.51
10
Edge
Energy per unit
preparation
length
(-)
(kJ/mm)
10Y2-3mm 0.35 0.38
10Y5mm
0.40 0.50
10Y8mm
0.60 0.70
Preheating temperature
at top / root
(C)
170 / 1402; 300 / 2503
140 / 1202; 250 / 2003
150 / 1302; 280 / 2203
Table 1 summarizes the mechanical properties of the investigated steels according to their inception
certificates. The development of the welding process was performed in dependence on the steel
grade, the preheating temperature and the material thickness. A constant laser beam power of
Plaser = 6 kW was used. It was possible to achieve high quality welds within one layer for all
investigated material thicknesses from 10 mm to 15 mm. Table 2 lists the determined welding
parameters.
2
The application of HSS is connected with a proper heat management, which means the correct
balance between preheating and postheating processes and welding energy per unit length. This is
not only necessary to avoid hydrogen-induced cold cracking, but also to preserve the fine-grained
microstructure necessary for excellent strength and toughness properties.
2.1 Characteristics of the cooling time t8/5
Local, concentrated heat input during welding is characterised by high temperature gradients for
heating up and cooling down. The temperature-time courses vary, depending on the welding
conditions. Parameters with the highest influence on the result are the welding procedure and
welding parameters, the preheating temperature, the plate thickness and the weld form.
For structural steel, thermal cycles with the highest peak temperature lead to the worst mechanical
properties in the weld metal and in the heat affected zone. According to Degenkolbe et al. [4]
experience has shown that defining the cooling phase as the time range between 800C and 500C
as a single parameter t8/5 is sufficient to characterise the welding thermal cycles. Thermocouples of
type K, = 0.25 mm were applied at various distances to the weld, in order to measure the thermal
cycles during welding. Table 3 shows the summary of cooling times t8/5 and maximum hardness
values in the HAZ for different welding parameters and preheating temperatures. It is important to
note that the developed induction assisted GMA-laser hybrid welding process still has low cooling
times t8/5 in comparison to conventionally applied arc welding, where cooling times lie in a range of
10 up to 25 s[4]. However, an increased preheating temperature has a positive effect in increasing
cooling time t8/5 and decreasing hardness at the HAZ. For the material S700, the hardness in the
HAZ and weld metal is lower than the value of the base material of 290 HV1. This might indicate
coarse grain growth due to high heat input of preheating and welding.
Table 3. Measured cooling times t8/5 and hardness for different preheating temperatures
Energy per
unit length
(kJ/mm)
S700,
t = 10 mm
X70,
t = 13.2 mm
S690,
t = 15 mm
0.4
0.4 - 0.5
0.6 - 0.7
high
preheating2
1.7
(T0 = 270C)
3.7
(T0 = 200C)
4.5
(T0 = 250C)
255 / 255
255 / 255
240 / 230
220 / 220
210 / 190
430 / 440
425 / 420
427 / 415
1000
base material S700
900
stress (MPa)
800
700
40 kW
600
500
20 kW
400
300
0 kW
200
10 kW
100
0
0
10
20
strain (%)
30
Fig. 2. S700, t = 10 mm, stress strain diagram for different preheating temperatures (strain bases on the initial
extensometer length of 50 mm) (left) and location of fracture and fracture surfaces (right)
According to ISO 148 for the Charpy impact test, standard specimen sizes
(10 mm 10 mm 55 mm) were used for testing X70, and subsize specimens
(10 mm 7.5 mm 55 mm) for S700. Due to the narrow width of the heat affected zone, the
V-notched specimen was positioned at the middle axis of the weld. Two testing temperatures,
T1 = -20C and T2 = -40C were investigated. The impact energy as a means of three tests, and the
minimum of each test series are summarized in Table 4. For the series S700 an increasing impact
energy with increasing preheating temperatures can be seen. Contrary to these results, the X70
series shows a tendency of decreasing impact energies with increasing preheating temperature.
Table 4. Results of the Charpy impact test
0 kW
1
S700 ,
t = 10 mm
X70,
t = 13,2 mm
mean (J)
min (J)
mean (J)
min (J)
-20C
38
28
243
206
-40C
20
18
224
178
20 kW
-20 C
40
37
215
199
-40C
21
16
180
157
30 kW
-20 C
78
59
-
40 kW
-40C
32
28
-
-20 C
178
169
-40C
168
120
process. Depending on the speed and the power of the induction heating, different maximum
temperatures and temperature distributions occured. The results from the numerical model and the
experimental investigations show that the perpendicular direction of the inductor and its electric and
geometric parameters enable an exact regulation of the temperature profile for the following hybrid
welding process. And it also involves higher welding speeds especially for thick steel sheets [5]. In
Fig. 3 the induction heating process for the final process parameters is shown on the right.
500
450
TE1_30
TE2_30
TE3_30
Temperature
[C]
Temperatur[C]
400
350
300
250
200
10 mm
150
2 3
100
3 mm
50
0
0
10
15
20
25
Time Zeit(nachInduktor)[s]
after induction heating [sec]
Fig. 3. Thermocouple measurement of the induction heating process (left) and simulated temperature distribution in one
half of the workpiece below and behind the inductor (right)
Fig. 4. Temperature-time curves for simulated and measured temperatures (X70, t = 13.2 mm, preheating 20 kW,
energy per unit length 4.4 kJ/cm) (left) and (right) simulated cooling times and resulting hardness distribution for X70,
t = 13.2 mm according equations set by Frank [9]
The input parameters were derived from the molten pool dimensions, and the distance between arc
and beam welding process. In order to modify measured and simulated temperatures, the thermal
efficiency of the welding processes were varied. The achieved agreement between simulation and
measurement can be regarded as good. An exemplary comparison of the temperature-time courses
can be seen in Fig. 4 on the left.
SUMMARY
The developments of the preheating and GMA-laser hybrid welding in one process lead to high
quality welded joints for the steel grades S700, X70 and S690 in a material thickness range from 10
to 15 mm, so that the potential use of this technology could be demonstrated. The effect of various
preheating temperatures on the cooling down periods and the mechanical properties are shown
using temperature measurements, as well as tensile, notched-bar impact and hardness tests. The
effect of preheating on the mechanical properties differs for the investigated steel grades, and must
be evaluated as the case arises. For a deeper process understanding, the test results were used to
validate numerical models which connect the simulation of inductive preheating and GMA-laserhybrid welding in one holistic FE-model.
5
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The experiments were carried out in the course of the research project DOVOR with IGFNo. 16600 N, commissioned by the German Association for Steel Application (FOSTA). This
project was funded by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology (BMWi) and supported
by the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations Otto von Guericke e.V. (AiF). The
authors would like to express their gratitude for financing this project.
REFERENCES
[1] Neumeyer, J, Induktive Untersttzung von Hybrid-Schweiverfahren zum Fgen dickwandiger
Bauteile, dissertation, Hannover, 2013.
[2] EN ISO 12932:2013-09-15, Welding - Laser-arc hybrid welding of steels, nickel and nickel alloys Quality levels for imperfections, 2013.
[3] Seffer, O, Lindner, J, Springer, A, Kaierle, S, Wesling, V, Haferkamp, H, Laser GMA hybrid welding
for thick wall applications of pipeline steel with the grade X70, Proc. of the International Congress on
Applications of Laser & Electro-optics (ICALEO 2012), California (USA), 2012.
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Effects on the Mechanical Properties of Welded Joints by the Cooling Time t8/5 and its Determination,
Thyssen Technische Berichte, Heft 1/85, pp. 57-73, 1985.
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structural steel, Proc. of the International Congress on Applications of Laser & Electro-Optics
(ICALEO 2013), Miami (USA), 2013.
[6] Goldak, JA, and Akhlaghi, M, Computational Welding Mechanics, Springer Science+Business Media
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