Residual stresses in 2 1/4Cr1Mo welds

Two separate investigations, initiated in an attempt to explain the large amount of residual stress scatter previously observed in the weld metal of eighteen nominally identical thick-section 2 1/4Cr1Mo butt welds, are described in this paper. The first examined the detailed surface residual stress distributions in 2 1/4Cr1Mo manual arc circumferential butt welds in 80mm and 100mm thick 1/2Cr1/2Mo1/4V steam pipe. High residual stresses were found in the regions of overlap between adjacent weld beads, with low values in virgin weld metal. The second utilised single pass manual metal arc bead-in-groove welds to investigate the effects of preheat and weld metal composition on weld metal residual stresses. In four weld metals, mild steel, 1/2Cr1/2Mo1/4V, 1Cr1/2Mo, and 2 1/4Cr1Mo, the residual stresses were very similar, becoming less tensile (or more compressive) with increase of preheat, while the residual stresses in the fifth weld metal (12Cr) were significantly different, being compressive and less affected by preheat. In both investigations the effects have been described in terms of the basic metallurgical phenomena occurring in the weld metal. (author)