doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2010.01480.

x
Numerical investigation on welding residual stresses in a PWR
pressurizer safety/relief nozzle
TAE- KWANG SONG
1
, HONG- RYUL BAE
1
, YUN- J AE KI M
1
and KYUNG- SOO LEE
2
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, 1-5 Ka, Anam-Dong, Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul 136-701, Korea,
2
Korea Electric Power Research
Institute, Yusung-gu, Daejon 305-380, Korea
Received in final form 11 January 2010
ABSTRACT This paper presents finite element simulation results of residual stresses in dissimilar
metal welds of a PWR pressurizer safety/relief nozzle. The present results are believed
to be significant in two aspects. The first one is to consider the effect of the presence
of similar metal welds on resulting residual stresses. The second one is the mitigation
effect of the overlay welding thickness on residual stresses. After dissimilar metal welding,
tensile residual stresses are present both at the inner surface and at the outer surface
of dissimilar metal welds. Adjacent similar metal welding, however, decreases residual
stresses to compressive ones at the inner surface of dissimilar metal welds, possibly due
to the bending mechanism caused radial contraction of the weld. At the outer surface of
dissimilar metal welds, similar metal welding increases residual stresses. Overlay welding
further decreases residual stresses at the inner surface of dissimilar and similar metal
welds, but increases slightly residual stresses at the outer surface.
Keywords finite element simulation; PWR pressurizer safety/relief nozzle; weld over-
lay; welding residual stress.
I NT RODUCT I ON
Recently stress corrosion cracks were found in dissimi-
lar metal welds of some pressurized water reactor (PWR)
nuclear plants.
15
As a result, several mitigation methods
have been discussed,
57
one of which is the weld over-
lay.
5,810
As the weld overlay method has been applied to
piping systems in boiling water reactor components over
some decades,
11,12
its effectiveness in mitigation is well
appreciated. In addition, the weld overlay can also pro-
vide other benefits, for instance, improved inspectability
and structural reinforcement effects due to an increasing
thickness.
5,10,12
Although some guidelines on the weld
overlay for dissimilar metal welds in pressurized water
reactor nuclear plants are available,
1315
numerical simu-
lations are desirable to assess the weld overlay effect on
residual stresses, as the weld overlay process is expensive.
Furthermore such numerical simulations can be used to
help optimise the weld overlay process.
Welding residual stress simulation of stainless pipes us-
ing the finite element (FE) analysis is relatively well estab-
lished, and accordingly many papers have been published
Correspondence: Yun-Jae Kim. E-mail: kimy0308@korea.ac.kr
in the literature.
1620
Some relevant works are briefly de-
scribed here. Brickstad and Josefson
16
performed a para-
metric study for multipass circumferential butt-welding
of stainless steel pipes to quantify residual stresses and
their sensitivity to variation in weld parameters. Yaghi
et al.
17
presented another parametric study on effects of
the thickness and radius-to-thickness ratio on residual
stresses in butt-welded stainless pipes. Related to repair
welds and overlay welding for dissimilar metal welds in
PWR plants, many works have been published in Ameri-
can Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pressure Vessel and
Piping Division (ASMEPVP) conferences.
46,8,9
One im-
portant point is that all these works assume an isolated
weld. Typical PWR components, however, have similar
metal welds adjacent to dissimilar ones. An example is
shown in Fig. 1 where a pressurizer safety/relief nozzle in
one Korean PWR plant is schematically shown. It shows
that a nozzle is connected to a stainless pipe by dissimilar
and similar metal welds. Intuitively the presence of sim-
ilar metal welds could alter residual stresses in dissimilar
metal welds. This is because, during similar metal weld-
ing, thermal contraction of deposited weld metal in the
hoop direction effectively applies a tourniquet ring load
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Fatigue & Fracture of
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690 TAE- KWANG SONG et al.
Fig. 1 Schematic illustrations of a
pressurizer safety/relief nozzle; (a) overall
geometry and materials, and (b) the
geometry considered in this work and
relevant dimensions (in mm).
on the safe-end, which in turn can provide through-wall
bending stresses to dissimilar metal welds. Moreover, as
thermal contraction of deposited weld metal essentially
gives displacement controlled load, the distance between
dissimilar and similar metal welds (or the safe-end length)
could affect residual stresses in dissimilar metal welds.
Therefore, it would be important to quantify the effect of
the presence of similar metal welds on residual stresses in
a dissimilar metal weld before discussing the weld overlay
effect on residual stresses.
The objectives of this paper are twofold. The first one
is to estimate welding residual stresses in dissimilar metal
welds for a typical PWR plant, via FE simulations. A par-
ticular emphasis is put on the effect of similar metal welds
adjacent to dissimilar ones on residual stresses. The sec-
ond objective is to quantify the weld overlay effect on
residual stresses. To be realistic, the actual geometry for
the pressurizer safety/relief nozzle in a Korean PWR nu-
clear component is considered. Section 2 describes the
geometry and materials considered in this work, and
FE simulations are described in Section 3. Section 4
presents results and discussion. This work is concluded in
Section 5.
GE OME T RY AND MAT E RI AL S
Geometry
Figure 1 depicts a pressurizer safety/relief nozzle in a typ-
ical PWRnuclear plant, considered in this work. Relevant
materials and dimensions are also included in the figure.
A nozzle made of SA 508 Cl. 2a ferritic steel is welded to
the safe-end made of F316L stainless steel, by means of
Alloy 82 buttering laid on the SA 508 nozzle and Alloy
82/182 groove welding. The F316L pipe is then welded
to another pipe made of TP304L stainless steel, by means
of similar metal welding using Alloy ER 308L. It should
be noted that the geometry considered in this work con-
sists not only of dissimilar metal welds but also of sim-
ilar metal welds close to dissimilar ones. The welding
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NUMERI CAL I NVESTI GATI ON ON WELDI NG RESI DUAL STRESSES 691
Table 1 The welding procedure specifications (WPS) for the pressurizer safety/relief nozzle
Pass name/ Size Current Voltage Travelling speed
Number Process (mm) (A) (V) (cm/min)
Dissimilar metal welds Buttering/(111) SMAW 3.2 125 25 510
Root/(13) GTAW 2.4 140 12 510
Groove/(416) SMAW 3.2 135 25 510
Similar metal welds Root/(13) GTAW 2.4 140 12 510
Groove/(411) SMAW 3.2 105 27 510
Note: SMAW, shielded metal arc welding; GTAW, gas tungsten arc welding.
Table 2 Material properties of F316L used in this work, taken from Ref. [18]. Note that liquidus and solidus temperatures are 1420

C and
1460
o
C, respectively, and the latent heat is 300kJ/kg
Specific Heat Thermal 0% 20%
Temperature Density heat conductivity Poissons expansion 10
6
Proof stress Proof stress
(

C) (kg/m
3
) (kJ/kg

K) (W/m

K) ratio (mm/mm/

K) (MPa) (MPa)
20 7970 0.460 14.9 15.3 243.6 517.1
100 7940 0.505 16.3 16.2 203 467.8
200 7900 0.531 17.9 17.0 168.1 410.1
300 7860 0.545 19.4 17.6 149.4 348.5
400 7810 0.558 20.9 18.1 139.7 328.2
500 7770 0.567 22.1 18.5 129.1 285.8
600 7720 0.578 23.6 18.9 123.5 224.6
700 7680 0.587 24.9 0.27 19.3 116.5 187.3
800 7630 0.595 26.3 19.4 112.1 152.2
900 7580 0.624 26.9 19.7 70.5 86.2
1000 7540 0.639 27.5 20.0 27.2 33.3
1100 7490 0.656 28.7 20.3 13.1 15.9
1200 7440 0.671 29.8 20.6 7.89 9.4
1420 7320 0.703 32.3 21.4 2.63 3.0
2000 6500 0.703 323 21.4 2.63 3.0
procedure specification (WPS) for dissimilar and similar
metal welds is listed in Table 1.
Several points are worth mentioning. The first one is
that the thickness of the buttering layer in dissimilar metal
welds is about 20 mm. Post-weld heat treatment was per-
formed to remove possible residual stresses.
4,6,21,22
The
second one is radius-to-thickness ratios. The inner radius
of the nozzle is r
i
=66 mm. The thicknesses of the pipe,
safe-end and nozzle range from18 to 74 mm, as shown
in Fig. 1b, leading to the (mean) radius-to-thickness ratios
from 5 to 1. Finally, the distance between dissimilar
and similar metal welds should be noted. The weld widths
of similar and dissimilar metal welds at the outer surface
are 27 and35 mm, respectively. The distances between
similar and dissimilar metal welds in the outer and inner
surfaces are 17 and 54 mm, respectively. Thus the av-
erage distance (35 mm) is similar to the weld widths of
similar and dissimilar metal welds at the outer surface. It
should be noted that, depending on the design and manu-
facturer, the distance between similar and dissimilar metal
welds (or the safe-end length) can vary.
Materials
As indicated in Fig. 1, a number of materials are involved
in this problem. To perform welding residual stress sim-
ulations, relevant physical and mechanical properties as
a function of temperature are needed for all materials
involved. Such properties include, for instance, the den-
sity, specific heat, thermal conductivity, Youngs mod-
ulus, Poissons ratio, instantaneous thermal expansion
coefficient, yield strength and plastic properties. These
data were taken from several sources such as construc-
tion codes,
23
manufactures database
24
and the litera-
ture.
16,18,19
For instance, Table 2 lists relevant physi-
cal/material properties for F316L stainless steel, taken
fromRef. [18]. All other materials properties were found,
except those for ER308L and Alloy 82/182. For these
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692 TAE- KWANG SONG et al.
materials, physical/material properties for similar mate-
rials were taken instead, that is, TP304 for ER308L and
Alloy 600 for Alloy 82/182.
In terms of the yield strengths at room temperature, the
yield strength of the nozzle is higher than stainless pipes
(F316L and TP304L). To meet welding requirements,
the yield strengths of the buttering layer and dissimilar
metal welds are chosentobe higher thanthose for stainless
pipes. The similar metal welds, on the other hand, have
similar yield strengths to those of stainless pipes.
Fabrication
The pressurizer safety/relief nozzle, considered in this
work, is typically fabricated and serviced as follows. In
the first step, the safe-end is connected to the nozzle in
a shop. Buttering is laid and post-weld heat treatment is
performed to remove possible residual stresses. Then dis-
similar metal welding is performed to connect the noz-
zle and safe-end. In the second step, the component is
transported to the site (field) and similar metal welding
is performed to connect the safe-end to the pipe. Af-
ter dissimilar and similar metal welding, post-weld heat
treatment is not performed due to possible sensitization
effects. Before the completely fabricated component is put
into service, hydrotest is performed according to the re-
quirement in construction codes. Overlay welding, when
needed, is performed during service.
F I NI T E E L E ME NT S I MUL AT I ONS
Analysis overview
The objectives of this paper are twofold. The first one
is to estimate residual stresses in dissimilar metal welds,
and the second one to quantify the overlay welding effect
on residual stress. To achieve these goals, a series of FE
simulations are needed, reflecting actual fabrication, con-
struction and operation processes. The FE simulations in
this paper are divided into four steps:
In the first step, FE simulation was performed for dis-
similar metal welds, connecting the (SA 508 Cl. 2a) vessel
and the (F316L) safe-end. The second step was to simu-
late similar metal welds, connecting the safe-end and the
TP304L stainless steel pipe. It should be noted that this
similar welding process could alter the residual stresses in
dissimilar metal welds. Then hydrostatic test was simu-
lated in the third step. Finally, overlay welding was simu-
lated to quantify its effect on residual stresses.
General aspects of welding simulation
Before describing above four steps in detail, general and
common aspects of welding simulations are given here.
Analyses are carried out using the general purpose FEpro-
gram ABAQUS.
25
Throughout simulations, rotational
symmetry is assumed and thus a two-dimensional axisym-
metric model is used.
All analyses inthis work are performedintwosteps. First,
uncoupled transient thermal analysis is performed during
which the time-dependent temperature distribution is de-
termined for the successive build-up of the welding passes.
The temperature fields at each time step are then read to
evaluate stress and strain fields in subsequent structural
analysis. In the thermal analysis, first-order (four-node)
elements (DCAX4 in ABAQUS) were used, which is rec-
ommended in ABAQUS for thermal analysis with latent
heat. The addition of each weld pass is modelled by an
element birth technique using the MODEL CHANGE
option within ABAQUS. Heat input is modelled within
ABAQUS by a distributed heat flux DFLUX working on
the individual element. Heat input Q is simulated by body
flux only using the following equation:
Q

W
m
3

=
VI
Avt
. (1)
In Eq. (1), A, v and t denote the cross-sectional area
of the weld bead, welding velocity and heating time, re-
spectively, and thus the denominator in Eq. (1) represents
the weld pass volume. The voltage and current for weld-
ing are denoted as V and I, respectively. For the stainless
steel welds considered in this work, values of are =0.5
for GTAW and =0.7 for SMAW.
16
Sensitivity analysis
shows that the effect of the choice for the initial temper-
ature of molten beads is minimal, and thus it is assumed
to be T
m
+10

C where T
m
denotes the liquidus temper-
ature. For cooling conditions, both convection and radi-
ation is considered using the following time-dependent
heat transfer coefficient:
16
h

W
m
2
C

0.0668 T for 0 T 500

C
0.231 T 82.1 for T 500

C.
(2)
The cooling time is adjusted such that the maximum in-
terpass temperature does not exceed 170

C, as suggested
in the WPSs.
21
For the structural analysis, first-order elements with re-
duced integrations (CAX4 in ABAQUS) were used with
the incremental plasticity option. The small geometry
change option was chosen, as the nonlinear geometry ef-
fect was found to be minimal.
16
For strain hardening,
the nonlinear kinematic hardening option was chosen
to consider the Bauchingers effect. The annealing ef-
fect was considered, but phase transformation was not.
Phase transformation during welding occurs at 750

C
for ferritic steels. It is reported that simulation with-
out phase transformation tends to overestimate tensile
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NUMERI CAL I NVESTI GATI ON ON WELDI NG RESI DUAL STRESSES 693
Fig. 2 The FE mesh for dissimilar metal
welding simulation, showing beads and
welding sequence.
Fig. 3 The FE mesh for similar metal
welding simulation, showing beads and
welding sequence.
residual stresses and thus is conservative for the present
purpose.
26
FE simulations
Dissimilar metal welds are simulated as follows. For tran-
sient thermal analysis, heating time and input are esti-
mated based on the WPS shown in Table 1. For the
buttering and cladding, their thicknesses (20 mm for the
buttering layer and 4.5 mm for the cladding) and rele-
vant material properties are considered. However, possi-
ble residual stresses due to buttering and cladding are not
considered, as they would be minimal after post weld heat
treatment.
4,22
Sixteen beads are simulated to be consis-
tent to the WPS. Figure 2 shows the FE mesh with bead
numbers showing welding sequence. Regarding kinematic
boundary conditions, the roller boundary and clamped
conditions are applied to the ends of the nozzle and safe-
end, respectively (see Fig. 2), to reflect actual (shop-weld)
conditions. That is, the axial displacement of the nozzle
end is restrained, and the end of the safe-end is fixed.
After simulation, the restraint imposed to the end of the
safe-end was released.
For similar metal welds, the overall simulation proce-
dures are similar to those for dissimilar metal welds. Ac-
cording to the WPS, a total of eleven beads are simu-
lated, as shown in Fig. 3. Kinematic boundary conditions
are worth noting. During welding, the roller boundary
condition is applied to the end of the nozzle, as for the
dissimilar welding simulation (Fig. 3). The free bound-
ary condition is imposed to the end of the pipe, and thus
no reaction force from the adjacent pipes is considered
(Fig. 3).
The hydrotest is simulated after similar metal welding
simulation. The test pressure should be 1.25 times design
pressure according to ASME Section III.
27,28
For the par-
ticular nozzle considered in this work, the design pressure
was 17.2 MPa, and thus hydrostatic pressure of 21.5 MPa
was applied to the nozzle. Hydrostatic pressure was ap-
plied as a distributed load to the inner surface of the FE
model, together with an axial tension equivalent to the
internal pressure applied to both ends to simulate closing
ends.
To simulate overlay welding, its thickness and length
should be assumed first. Figure 4a shows a schematic il-
lustration of weld overlay. For boiling water reactors, a
criterion for the thickness and length of weld overlay is
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694 TAE- KWANG SONG et al.
Fig. 4 (a) Schematic illustration of overlay
welding, and (b) FE mesh for overlay
welding simulation.
well established.
11,12,15
For pressurized water reactors, the
code case N-740
13
provides guidance, suggesting that the
overlay thickness, t
WOL
, should be greater than one-third
of the pipe thickness. For piping components, the thick-
ness can be easily defined. However, for the nozzle, thick-
nesses vary with the spatial location. In this work, the pipe
thickness is defined as the average thickness of the dissim-
ilar metal welds, denoted as t
DMW
(Fig. 4a). Accordingly
the overlay thickness is taken to be one-third of t
DMW
,
t
WOL
= t
DMW
/3. In the code case N-740, the weld over-
lay is recommended to cover 0.75(r
o
t
DMW
)
0.5
(where r
o
and t
DMW
denote the outer radius and pipe thickness, re-
spectively) from the weld end at the outer surface. When
only dissimilar metal welds are present, this implies that
the length of weld overlay should be the sum of 1.5(r
o
t
DMW
)
0.5
and the weld width.
13,15
In the present problem,
however, similar metal welds are very close to dissimilar
ones, and thus the weld overlay is assumed to extend by
0.75(r
o
t
DMW
)
0.5
from similar metal welds, as depicted in
Fig. 4a. Regarding materials, overlay welding is typically
performed using Alloy 690 of which relevant mechanical
properties for welding simulations are not available to the
authors. As mechanical/physical properties for Alloy 690
are known to be similar to Alloy 600, relevant proper-
ties for Alloy 600 are used for simulations. The overlay
welding is assumed to use GTAW and to have three lay-
ers. The welding direction is taken from the nozzle to
the pipe, as indicated in Fig. 4a. The FE mesh is shown
in Fig. 4b. Finally it is recommended to perform weld
overlay with the water (instead of air) condition inside
the nozzle-pipe system to improve the mitigation effect
of the weld overlay due to the larger temperature gradient
through the pipe thickness.
12
Such a condition is consid-
ered in this work, and the heat conductivity for water is
taken to be 5000 (W/m

C) which is five hundred times
that of air.
15
It should be noted that the air condition was
also performed and the resulting residual stresses were
found to be similar. This is probably due to the fact that
the radius-to-thickness ratios of the pipes for the present
problem are small.
Comparison with existing results
To gain confidence of present FE simulations, sensitivity
analyses were performed for parameters related to resid-
ual stress simulations. The findings from sensitivity anal-
yses were overall consistent to those reported in other
works.
16,20,26
Further confidence was gained by compar-
ing present results with published results, as briefly de-
scribed below.
It was argued in Refs [16,17] that the sizes of the fu-
sion line and heat affected zone could be indicators for
the quality of transient thermal analysis. In other words,
parameters related to thermal analysis can be adjusted to
produce reasonable sizes of the fusion and heat affected
zones. Note that the heat-affected zone here is defined
by the region experiencing the maximum temperature of
800900

C during welding. In this paper, parameters
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NUMERI CAL I NVESTI GATI ON ON WELDI NG RESI DUAL STRESSES 695
Fig. 5 Variations of peak temperature along the HAZ line and temperature contours: (a) dissimilar metal welding simulation and (b) similar
metal welding simulation. In contours, brighter regions indicate the region with temperatures above 900

C.
related to thermal analysis was chosen to produce the
2.5 mm heat affected zone size. Figure 5 show plots of
the peak temperature at the HAZ line during welding in
dissimilar and similar metal welding.
In the literature, welding residual stresses for dissimi-
lar metal welds, resulting from the FE analysis, were re-
ported in Ref. [1]. The materials considered in Ref. [1]
are the same as the present ones, and furthermore the
geometry is very close, as listed in Table 3. Figure 6 com-
pares residual stresses resulting from the present analysis
with those from Ref. [1], showing overall good agree-
ments. Note that simulations were performed according
Table 3 Comparison of dimensions
Present analysis EPRI (5

)
DMW DMW
t (mm) 33 40
r
i
(mm) 65.9 62.6
r
i
/t 2.00 1.57
to the conditions in Ref. [1]. Materials were assumed to
be elastic-perfectly plastic. Similar metal welds were not
considered, and kinematic boundary conditions were also
the same. Minor differences shown in Fig. 6 are believed
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Fig. 6 Through-thickness variations of (a) axial and (b) hoop residual stresses along the centre line in dissimilar metal welds; comparison of
present FE results with those in Ref. [1].
Fig. 7 Three paths along which axial and
hoop residual stresses are extracted. Due to
the un-symmetrical geometry of dissimilar
metal welds, the path A is not vertical.
to result fromthe material data used in simulations, which
are not given in Ref. [1].
RE S UL T S AND DI S CUS S I ON
In this section, residual stress distributions resulting from
present FE simulations are presented. Before presenta-
tion, it is important to note locations where stresses are
extracted and components to be reported. Regarding lo-
cations, stress distributions are reported along three dif-
ferent paths, as depicted in Fig. 7. The paths A and C
are centre lines within dissimilar and similar metal welds,
respectively, whereas the path B follows the inner sur-
face. Regarding components, both axial and circumferen-
tial (hoop) stress components are reported.
Residual stresses after dissimilar welding simulation
Figure 8 shows FE (hoop and axial) residual stresses af-
ter dissimilar metal welding. Along the thickness direc-
tion from the inner toward the outer surface (path A),
both axial and hoop residual stresses change from tensile,
compressive and then to tensile. Although both axial and
hoop stresses are tensile at both the inner and the outer
surfaces, magnitudes at the outer surface are much larger
than those at the inner one. At the inner surface, residual
stresses are less than 100 MPa, whereas those at the outer
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Fig. 8 Variations of axial and hoop residual stresses after dissimilar metal welding: (a) along the path A (through-thickness), and (b) along
the path B (longitudinal).
surface can be as much as 400 MPa. Longitudinal vari-
ations of residual stresses at the inner surface (along the
path B) are shown in Fig. 8b. In the buttering layer, the
axial residual stress is compressive to the nozzle side, but
is tensile to the dissimilar weld side. In the safe-end, the
axial stress is overall compressive. Hoop residual stresses
are compressive in the buttering layer but are tensile in
the safe-end.
Residual stresses after similar welding simulation
Figure 9 compares residual stresses before and after sim-
ilar metal welding. Figure 9a shows that similar metal
welding does alter both shapes and magnitudes of resid-
ual stresses in dissimilar metal welds. Similar metal weld-
ing decreases residual stresses at the inner surface, but
increases those at the outer surface. At the inner sur-
face, both the axial and hoop stresses are decreased by
200 MPa, and the resulting residual stresses are com-
pressive. At the outer surface, on the other hand, the
axial residual stress is increased by 200 MPa, but the
hoop residual stress is not much affected. Such effects
are possibly due to the bending mechanism caused by
the proximity of the similar metal weld. This result is
consistent to experimental and numerical findings in the
literature.
29,30
The effect of similar metal welding on residual stresses
at the inner surface (along the path B) is shown in
Fig. 9b. The similar metal welding process decreases
residual stresses both in the buttering layer and in the
safe-end, and resulting (axial and hoop) residual stresses
are compressive. Through-thickness variations of resid-
ual stresses in similar metal welds (along the path C) are
shown in Fig. 10. It shows that overall shapes are similar
to those in dissimilar metal welds, shown in Fig. 8a. At
the inner surface, small compressive residual stresses are
present, whereas at the outer surface, residual stresses are
tensile.
Effect of hydrotest on residual stresses
Figure 11 shows residual stress distributions along the
path A and path C after the hydrotest. It shows that the
effect of overload in the hydrotest on residual stresses is
minimal. The results for the path B are not shown, as
they also show almost identical results. Such a minimal
effect is due to the fact that the radius-to-thickness ratio
for the present problem is quite small, corresponding to
thick-walled pipes.
6
Effect of overlay welding on residual stresses
Figure 12 shows the effect of overlay welding on through-
thickness variations of residual stresses in dissimilar metal
welds (along the path A). As expected, overlay welding
decreases residual stresses at the inner surface. The axial
and hoop residual stresses are decreased by 100 and
200 MPa, respectively, showing the mitigation effect of
overlay welding onresidual stresses at the inner surface. At
the outer surface, however, residual stresses are increased
up to 500 MPa after overlay welding. One interesting
point is that residual stresses at the inner surface tend to
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Fig. 9 Variations of axial and hoop residual stresses after similar metal welding: (a) and (b) along the path A (through-thickness); (c) and
(d) along the path B (longitudinal).
saturate after the first pass of weld overlay. The second
and third passes do not change residual stresses at the
inner surface.
Figure 13 shows the effect of weld overlay on longitu-
dinal variations of residual stresses at the inner surface
(along the path B). As shown, residual stresses at the inner
surface are overall decreased with weld overlay. The effect
of weld overlay on residual stresses is more pronounced
in the safe-end and in similar metal welds. For instance,
in similar metal welds, (axial and hoop) residual stresses
decrease by up to 300 MPa.
The effects of weld overlay on through-thickness varia-
tions of residual stresses in similar metal welds (along the
path C) are shown in Fig. 14. It shows the overall effects
are similar to those in dissimilar metal welds, as shown in
Fig. 12. Overlay welding decreases residual stresses at the
inner surface, but increases those at the outer surface.
CONCL UDI NG RE MARKS
This paper presents variations of residual stresses in dis-
similar metal welds of a PWR pressurizer safety/relief
nozzle, via elastic-plastic FE simulations. As the nozzle
considered in this work consists of dissimilar metal welds,
the safe-end and similar metal welds, actual fabrication
procedures (including dissimilar metal welding, similar
metal welding and the hydrotest) are simulated to quan-
tify residual stresses. Furthermore the mitigation effect
of overlay welding is also investigated. Present results are
c
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NUMERI CAL I NVESTI GATI ON ON WELDI NG RESI DUAL STRESSES 699
Fig. 10 Variations of axial and hoop residual stresses along the
path C (through-thickness in similar metal welds) after similar
metal welding.
believed to be significant in two aspects. The first one
is to consider the effect of the presence of similar metal
welds on resulting residual stresses. The second one is to
the mitigation effect of the overlay welding thickness on
residual stresses.
Important findings from this work can be summarised
as follows. After dissimilar metal welding, tensile resid-
ual stresses are present both at the inner surface and at
the outer surface of dissimilar metal welds. Stresses at the
outer surface are much higher than those at the inner
one. However, similar metal welding decreases residual
stresses at the inner surface of dissimilar metal welds,
possibly due to the bending mechanism caused by weld-
ing. As results, residual stresses at the inner surface be-
come compressive. At the outer surface of dissimilar metal
welds, similar metal welding increases residual stresses.
As explained in Introduction, such through-wall bending
stresses are due to tourniquet ring load resulting from
thermal contraction of deposited weld metal during simi-
lar metal welding. Residual stresses are not affected by the
hydrotest, possibly due to the fact that the mean radius-
to-thickness ratios are very small. The weld overlay effect
on residual stresses is similar to those of similar metal
welding. Overlay welding decrease residual stresses at
the inner surface of dissimilar and similar metal welds.
Residual stresses at the outer surface, on the other hand,
are increased slightly. One interesting point is that the
thickness of overlay welding is currently recommended by
one-third of the pipe thickness. The present results sug-
gest that one-third of the recommended overlay thickness
would be sufficient to mitigate residual stresses at the in-
ner surface of dissimilar metal welds. However, it should
be noted that this work does not consider any crack in dis-
similar metal welds, and the presence of the crack might
change conclusions.
Finally, limitations of present results should be noted.
To be realistic, this work considers the specific geome-
try and materials (the pressurizer safety/relief nozzle in
a Korean PWR nuclear plant). One notable point in ge-
ometry is that overall radius-to-thickness ratios are close
to 2, corresponding thick-walled pipes. Another point
is that the safe-end length (the distance between dis-
similar and similar metal welds) is relatively short. It is
well known that welding residual stresses depend on the
radius-to-thickness ratio. Moreover the effect of simi-
lar metal welding on residual stresses in dissimilar metal
Fig. 11 Variations of axial and hoop residual stresses after hydrotest: (a) along the path A and (b) along the path C.
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Fig. 12 Effect of overlay welding on variations of (a) axial and (b) hoop residual stresses along the path A (the centre line within dissimilar
metal welds).
Fig. 13 Effect of overlay welding on variations of (a) axial and (b) hoop residual stresses along the path B.
welds should depend on the distance between dissimilar
and similar metal welds, as such an effect results from
bending due to welding. Depending on the design, the
radius-to-thickness ratio and the distance between dis-
similar and similar metal welds can vary, and thus the re-
sulting residual stresses can be different. Therefore more
parametric study is needed to quantify residual stresses for
dissimilar metal welds in PWR nuclear plants. A prelimi-
nary study has suggested that residual stresses in dissimilar
metal welds depend not only on the radius-to-thickness
ratio but also on the distance between dissimilar and sim-
ilar metal welds. More detailed results will be reported
separately. The last point is that this work does not con-
sider possible effects of repair welding and the presence
of a crack in dissimilar metal welds. It is known that repair
welding increases residual stresses at the inner surface of
dissimilar metal welds, which promotes stress corrosion
cracking. The presence of a crack might affect the mitiga-
tion effect of overlay welding. Works on these issues are
in progress and results will be reported later.
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NUMERI CAL I NVESTI GATI ON ON WELDI NG RESI DUAL STRESSES 701
Fig. 14 Effect of overlay welding on variations of (a) axial and (b) hoop residual stresses along the path C (the centre line within similar
metal welds).
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by KESRI(R-2007-2-066) and
by Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, Engi-
neering Research Center (No. 2009-0063170) and Grant
No. M207AE030001-08A0503-00111.
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