Int J Adv Manuf Technol
DOI 10.1007/s00170-015-7281-1
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Investigation on welding parameters and bonding characteristics
of underwater wet friction taper plug welding for pipeline steel
Yayun Yin 1 & Xinqi Yang 1 & Lei Cui 1 & Jun Cao 2 & Wei Xu 2
Received: 14 January 2015 / Accepted: 4 May 2015
# Springer-Verlag London 2015
Abstract The Q235 and X65 steel tapered plugs were used to
perform friction taper plug welding (FTPW) on X65 pipeline
steel in underwater wet condition. The work concentrates on
defect formation, torque variation, energy input during FTPW,
and also the weld microstructures and hardness. Energy input
is proportional to torque-time integration under constant rotat-
ing speed and is critical to realize metallurgical bonding be-
tween the hole and plug. Increasing burn-off can prolong
welding time, thus enhancing energy input, so that defect
can be eliminated. Using X65 plug can produce defect-free
welds since the energy input is adequate. However, when
Q235 plug is used, lack of bonding is commonly found as a
kind of root defect in friction taper plug (FTP) weld owing to
the insufficient energy input. The weld zone microstructure
mainly consists of upper bainite in X65 plug weld, but
Widmanstatten structure in Q235 weld. In heat-affected zone,
the microstructure is found as upper bainite in both X65 and
Q235 plug welds.
Keywords Underwater welding . Friction taper plug
welding . Welding parameters . Bonding characteristics .
Pipeline steel
* Lei Cui
cuileitju@163.com
1
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Joining Technology, School of
Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University,
Tianjin 300072, People’s Republic of China
2
Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd, Tianjin 300451, People’s
Republic of China
1 Introduction
The exploitation of marine oil-gas resources been transferred
from offshore to deep sea will become an inevitable trend in
the near future. Submarine pipelines and offshore platforms
are premise for the exploitation of marine oil-gas resources.
However, due to rigorous marine environment, the emergence
of defects and damage is unavoidable in the long-term service
for underwater marine structures. As a result, superior under-
water repair measures are continuously being sought [1, 2].
Underwater welding technologies based on traditional fu-
sion welding methods in the air have achieved great develop-
ment in recent years, but trials and engineering applications
demonstrate that thorny issues still exist with underwater wet
fusion welding, especially in deep sea, such as hydrogen em-
brittlement, arc instability, etc. [3–7]. Although these prob-
lems can be avoided using hyperbaric dry welding [8], some-
times, it is not a good choice when taking the cost and com-
plex implementation in deep sea into account.
Considering the limitations of traditional fusion welding
underwater, friction taper plug welding (FTPW) which is also
called friction hydro pillar processing (FHPP) was invented
and patented by the Welding Institute (TWI) during the 1990s
[9]. FTPW is an innovative solid-state joining process which
involves forcing a rotating tapered plug coaxially into a
matching blind hole drilled at the location of a crack, thus
producing a friction weld. Rotating speed, axial force, burn-
off (equivalent to consumable length of the plug), and forging
force are four basic parameters of FTPW. Under combined
action of rotating and forcing, plasticized material is produced
and maintained at the frictional interface in a sufficiently vis-
cous condition for hydrostatic forces to be transmitted both
axially and radially to the surface of the hole, enabling metal-
lurgical bonding to be realized [10]. With the deposition of
soften material, the real frictional interface rises up along the

plug. Due to the gap between the hole and plug, plasticized
material flows around causing the plug going downward un-
der axial force. Burn-off is the variable to control the axial
shortening value of the plug. When the set burn-off value is
reached, the spindle stalls, and then, the axial force rises to a
higher value immediately called forging force. The forging
force lasts for several seconds to consolidate the welds, and
then, all the welding process is finished. The basic principle of
FTPW is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1. Longer cracks can
be repaired by linking a series of such welds together known
as friction taper stitch welding (FTSW).
As a solid-state welding technology, FTPW eliminates all
the defects associated with melting, such as porosity, hydrogen
embrittlement, slag inclusion, etc. Besides, it can be automated
and remote operated, thus ensuring greater reproducibility and
reliability. Moreover, the weld quality is not sensitive to water
depth and residual stresses with this process in the “as-welded”
condition are mainly compressive [11] which may be benefi-
cial for the fatigue life of the weld. All these aspects may
enable FTPW to become the only key technology that suitable
for the construction and remanufacturing repair of various ma-
rine engineering structures in deep sea environment.
Due to the exclusive application prospect, FTPW has
attracted the attention of many researchers. Although a few
reports have been made on FTPW, these studies mainly focus
on investigating the FTPW on steel in the air condition
[11–18]. Hatting et al. investigated influence of three key pro-
cess parameters namely rotating speed, axial force, and burn-
off on tensile and defects of FTPW on AISI 4140 steel. It was
found that low axial force, high rotating speed, and high burn-
off not only produce the highest average tensile strengths but
also give a relatively low standard deviation in tensile strength
of about 37 MPa [11]. Meyer found that the tensile strength
and ductility of friction taper plug (FTP) welds on S235 steel
are nearly equal to the base metal, and Charpy impact proper-
ties would match the requirement of the standard for marine
applications [12]. These studies show that welds performed by
Fig. 1 Geometrical sizes of the
blind hole and plug and schematic
illustration of FTPW process
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
FTPW in the air usually exhibit good weld quality under op-
timized parameters, further demonstrating the promising ap-
plication of FTPW in various sectors.
Reports of FTPW underwater are very rare because defect-
free welds are generally difficult to obtain owing to the bad
effect of water. Ambroziak et al. carried out FHPP experi-
ments to determine the maximum diameter of the plug and
to optimize welding parameters for subsequent overlap joints.
It was found that good bonding quality can be demonstrated
only for 10- and 12-mm plug diameters [19]. Cui et al. inves-
tigated weld performances of S355 structural steel using a
developed high-power FTPW system. It was found that
defect-free welds which also showed good mechanical prop-
erties could be successfully fabricated with 7000-rpm rotating
speed and axial force of 30~50 kN [20].
Though FTPW is a promising welding method, welding
produced by FTPW has not been extensively investigated es-
pecially underwater. Considering the scarce results and exclu-
sive application to repair marine engineering structures, this
study performed FTPW in underwater wet condition on X65
pipeline steel using the Q235 and X65 steel tapered plugs,
respectively. The formation process and bonding characteris-
tics were investigated through burn-off increasing experiment,
and the importance of burn-off value in achieving defect-free
weld was firstly proposed. Then, the optimized burn-off value
was fixed and the effects of other welding parameters and plug
materials on defects, weld microstructures, and hardness dis-
tribution were studied.
2 Experimental procedure
In this study, 24-in. API 5L X65 pipeline with chemical com-
position (wt%) of 0.10C, 1.40Mn, 0.27Si, 0.001S, 0.011P,
0.042Al, 0.03Mo, 0.07Ni, 0.09Cr, and 0.04V was used to fab-
ricate dimensions of 75 mm×50 mm×30 mm X65 base mate-
rial and X65 plugs. Several Q235 carbon steel bars with
Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Fig. 3 Schematic illustration of hardness testing position

Fig. 2 Weld processed in underwater wet condition fixed and the effects of other welding parameters and plug
materials on defects, weld microstructures, and hardness dis-
tribution were investigated. The welding parameters and code
chemical composition (wt%) of 0.18C, 0.55Mn, 0.30Si,
name of the samples are listed in Table 1. During welding,
0.045S, and 0.045P were chosen to fabricate Q235 plugs.
weld torque was recorded for subsequent analysis. After
The blind hole to be filled and the tapered plug were machined
welding, the redundant parts of the plugs were cut in prepara-
in advance according to the geometrical sizes as shown in
tion for further defect and microstructure examinations as well
Fig. 1.
as hardness testing.
Before welding, the plug was fixed in the spindle of FTPW
Before conducting the metallographic examinations, the
system designed by Tianjin University in 2012, with capacity
specimens were subjected to standard grind, polish, followed
of 90-kW transmitted power, 8000-rpm rotating speed, and
by 4 % nital etching. Then, an OLYMPUS GX51 optical
maximum axial force of 60 kN. A block of X65 pipeline steel
microscope (OM) and Hitachi-S4800 scanning electron mi-
with a blind hole drilled previously was clamped in a tank
croscope (SEM) were used to inspect weld defects and micro-
with sufficient water to make sure the specimen is totally
structures. Hardness testing was performed by 432SVD
immersed to simulate underwater wet condition, as shown in
Vickers hardness tester, using a 10-kg load and 15-s holding
Fig. 2. In addition, in order to obtain high quality welds, each
time according to the testing position as shown in Fig. 3.
of the X65 block was fixed following the principle that the
blind hole is coaxially with the plug.
X65 steel plugs were used to perform burn-off increasing
(BOI) experiment to investigate formation process and bond- 3 Results and discussion
ing characteristics of underwater FTP weld. Fourteen welds
were processed with 7000-rpm rotating speed and 30-kN axial 3.1 Bonding characteristics
force but different burn-off value from 1 to 14 mm. The 14
welds were identified as BX where X means the burn-off val- Fourteen welds were obtained according to BOI experiment in
ue. After BOI experiment, the optimized burn-off value was order to exploring formation process and bonding

Table 1 Welding parameters and

specimens code Plug material Code name Rotating Axial Forging Forging Burn-off
speed (rpm) force (kN) force (kN) time (S) (mm)

Q235 Q20 7000 20 25 5 14

Q235 Q25 7000 25 30 5 14
Q235 Q30 7000 30 35 5 14
Q235 Q35 7000 35 40 5 14
Q235 Q40 7000 40 45 5 14
X65 P20 7000 20 25 5 14
X65 P25 7000 25 30 5 14
X65 P30 7000 30 35 5 14
X65 P35 7000 35 40 5 14
X65 P40 7000 40 45 5 14
X65 P45 7000 45 50 5 14
X65 P50 7000 50 55 5 14

Fig. 4 Formation process of
underwater FTP weld joint
characteristics of defect-free underwater FTP weld which, in
return, may provide guidance for the optimization of welding
parameters, hence achieving better welds.
Figure 4 shows the formation process of underwater FTP
weld joint. For all the welds, there is a distinct boundary be-
tween the plug and hole. In this paper, it is defined as bonding
line (BL) for the convenience of later discussion. As shown in
Fig. 4, with BOI from 1 to 6 mm, the hole is filled gradually by
plasticized material produced at the frictional interface. OM
observations show that metallurgical bonding is not achieved
both at the sidewall and rounded transient for B1 to B5 welds.
When burn-off reaches 6 mm, the hole is almost filled
completely, but obvious lack of bond defect forms at the
rounded transient. SEM observation shows that metallurgical
bonding has been achieved both at the bottom and sidewall as
shown in Fig. 5a, b, respectively. BL at the bottom cannot be
Fig. 5 Bonding area of a bottom
and b sidewall of B6 weld
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
identified at high magnifications. However, at the sidewall,
the BL is a band with width of about 50 μm that contains a
lot of fine polygonal ferrite grains. This might be caused by
carbon loss at elevated temperature and the particular friction-
al shear process at the sidewall [12].
When burn-off increases from 6 to 12 mm gradually,
the frictional interface would rise up slowly along the
plug and further extrude the plasticized hot material at
this area out of the hole to form the weld flash. When
burn-off reaches 8 mm, the hole is completely filled, but
small lack of bond defect can still be found with naked
eye at the rounded transient as shown in Fig. 6 which is
the same case for B7, B9, and B10 welds but not for B11
to B14 welds. This indicates that, for underwater FTPW,
increasing burn-off is helpful for reducing or eliminating
lack of bond defect at the rounded transient.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 6 Root defect of B8 weld
Figure 7a is the micro-observation of defect tip as marked
by a circle in Fig. 6. It reflects that the tip of defect is charac-
terized by an intermittent bonding. That is, in some positions
along the defect path, metallurgical bonding between the plug
and base material is achieved with the regime in forming new
grains. When burn-off increased to 12 mm, lack of bond de-
fect cannot be identified by visual inspection. However, OM
observation shows that although metallurgical bonding is
achieved at most position of the BL for B12 weld, intermittent
bonding can still be found in some positions as shown in
Fig. 7b. Figure 7c is SEM image of rounded transient of
Fig. 7 a B8 defect tip. b B12
intermittent bonding. c B12
rounded transient. d Magnified
image of area as marked by an
arrow in c
B12 weld. BL in the bottom right is not clear due to grain
growth and some coarser ferrite grains develop along temper-
ature gradient direction. The intermittent bonding locates in
the top left, and Fig. 7d is a magnified image of that region.
Metallurgical bonding between the plug and base material is
achieved at the bottom right with the regime in forming new
grains which also disappears the initial interface between the
plug and hole.
Figure 8a is the rounded transient of B14 weld, and
Fig. 8b is a magnified image of bonding area marked
by a circle in Fig. 8a. The BL is clearly to be identi-
fied, as it consists of coarse ferrite grains. Compared
with the intermittent bonding of B12 weld, it is reason-
able to conclude that metallurgical bonding between the
grains that belong to the plug and base material, respec-
tively, has been completely realized due to grain growth
which also leads to the disappearance of the intermittent
bonding and the forming of these coarse grains.
For underwater FTPW, metallurgical bonding of hole bot-
tom is easy to be realized which should attribute to the intense
friction while for the rounded transient, defect is apt to appear
as a result of the intense heat dissipation at early stage. How-
ever, with the increase of burn-off value, the defect length in
the rounded transient tends to decrease as shown in Fig. 9.
This can be explained that increasing burn-off can prolong
welding time, thus enhancing energy input which is beneficial
for metallurgical bonding to be achieved, so that the defect can
be reduced or eliminated.

Fig. 8 a Bonding area of
rounded transient of B14 weld. b
Magnified image of area marked
by a circle in a
3.2 Weld torque and energy input
Figure 10 gives the variation of weld torques during welding
process in different parameters both in Q235 and X65 plug
welds. Before the initial contact of the plug and hole bottom,
the spindle is running unloadly with a torque of 23 Nm and
moving downward with a stable speed of 2 mm/s. When the
plug begins to make contact and then friction with the hole
bottom, the plug consuming and hole filling process performs.
In this stage, weld torque fluctuates violently and the first peak
torque usually occurs because a stable welding process is not
established. With the welding process continued, weld torque
tends to decrease gradually and then maintains at a generally
stable value called stable torque. When the set burn-off is
achieved, the motor will stall immediately producing the sec-
ond peak torque. Torque curves reflect that welding time re-
duces with increasing axial force for both plugs which is the
universal rule of FTPW [12]. Besides, weld torque tends to be
higher with higher axial force especially at the early stage. It
should be pointed out that when the first peak torque is higher
than the maximum value that the motor can offer, the spindle
would stall resulting in an incomplete welding process when a
too high axial force is used.
Fig. 9 Defect length as a function of burn-off value
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
During FTPW process, heat generated by the work of weld
torque is a critical factor for the plug material to soften, flow,
and realize bonding with the base material under axial force.
By means of torque curves, weld power and energy input can
be calculated using the following equations:
 . 
Weld power ¼ 2πn 60 ðM–M iÞ ð1Þ
t . 
Energy input ¼ ∫0 2πn 60 ðM –M iÞ : dt ð2Þ
where n=rotating speed (rpm), M=weld torque (Nm), Mi=
initial torque (Nm), and t=time when rotation ceases (s).
Figure 11 gives the welding time and energy input of Q235
and X65 plug welds in different axial force. Welding time
decreases with increasing axial force for both plugs. This
can be explained according to Eq. 1 that higher axial force,
as mentioned earlier, results in higher weld torque, thus pro-
ducing higher weld power which accelerates softening, flow,
and deposit of the plug. Under the same axial force, welding
time of X65 plugs is two times longer compared with that of
Q235 plugs. This indicates that it takes more time of thermal-
mechanical process to form an X65 weld.
The influence of axial force on energy input is not very
obvious for Q235 plugs; however, energy input tends to de-
crease slightly with increasing axial force for X65 plugs. It is
mainly because that, with increasing axial force, the weld
Fig. 10 Torque curves of Q235 and X65 plug welds
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 11 Welding time and energy
input of Q235 and X65 plug
welds in different axial force
power would increase caused by the increase of weld torque,
although the welding time would decrease to some extent. The
comprehensive result is that energy input fluctuates at 250 kJ
and changes little for Q235 plugs. As for X65 plugs, due to the
generally longer welding time, contribution of welding time
on energy input is highlighted, thus resulting in energy input
larger than that of Q235 plugs and decreases slightly with
decreasing welding time which is resulted from increased ax-
ial force.
3.3 Macrostructure and defect analysis
Figure 12 presents macrostructure of all the welds except P20
and P25 in which, due to the low axial force and the accom-
panying low weld power, the set burn-off cannot be achieved,
causing welding process that cannot be finished automatically.
For the rest welds, OM observations show that all X65 plug
welds are defect-free while defect exists with all Q235 plug
welds at the rounded transient. Compared with X65 plug
Fig. 12 Macrostructure of welds in different parameters
welds, the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of Q235 plug welds is
smaller especially around the rounded transient. Figure 13 is a
detail view of Q30 defect. The width of HAZ in the rounded
transient is very narrow, and it is the same case for other Q235
plug welds, which indicates that energy input is insufficient.
For Q235 plug welds, due to the intense heat dissipation at
early welding process, thermal process of rounded transient is
insufficient compared with sidewall, as can be reflected from
HAZ size. This should be the reason why defect occurs at the
rounded transient instead of the sidewall. For X65 plug welds,
as a result of the longer thermal-mechanical process and larger
energy input, HAZs even around the rounded transient are
evident, demonstrating a more sufficient thermal process. This
should be the reason why all X65 plug welds are defect-free.
3.4 Microstructure
In order to evaluate the influence of plug materials on weld
microstructures, Q30 and P30 welds were selected to perform

Fig. 13 Detail view of Q30 root defect
OM observations. Four typical zones of the welds
namely base material (BM), HAZ, weld zone (WZ),
and bonding line (BL) of the sidewall were selected as
shown in Fig. 12. Figure 14a is a microstructure of
Q235 plug which consists of coarse polygonal ferrite
and pearlite. Figure 15a is a microstructure of X65 steel
which consists of fine polygonal ferrite and pearlite.
HAZ of Q30 weld is mainly composed of upper bainite
as shown in Fig. 14b. Lath bainite ferrite nucleates and
grows parallel from the prior austenite grain boundary,
with aligned intermittent carbide precipitating in be-
tween [21]. Weld zone of Q30 weld consists of coarse
Widmanstatten structure as shown in Fig. 14c as a result
of both the low alloy elements containing of Q235 car-
bon steel and the strong cooling condition underwater.
The production of Widmanstatten structure in the weld
Fig. 14 Microstructure of Q30
welds: a Q235 carbon steel, b
HAZ, c weld zone, and d
bonding line
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
zone may bring adverse effects on the mechanical prop-
erties especially impact toughness of the welds. Micro-
structure around the BL of Q30 weld is presented in
Fig. 14d. BL is evident due to the distinct microstruc-
ture at both sides. Microstructure in the left side is
mainly bainite that is similar to HAZ while microstruc-
ture in the right side is mainly polygonal ferrite with
width of approximately 50 μm. Moving right to the
stud center, microstructure gradually changes from acicular
ferrite to Widmanstatten structure just like presented in
Fig. 14c.
Microstructure of HAZ and weld zone of P30 weld is gen-
erally homogeneous that mainly consists of coarse upper bai-
nite as shown in Fig. 15b, c, respectively. The upper bainite is
similar to that of Q30 weld but with coarser grains due to
longer welding time and larger energy input [22]. Figure 15d
is the BL of P30 weld. The BL is a band with width of about
75 μm that contains a lot of fine polygonal ferrite grains which
is consistent with that of B6 and Q30 weld, revealing a
common phenomenon of underwater FTPW process.
The left part of the band is weld zone, and the right
part of the band is HAZ. It is evident that some lath
bainite directly nucleates at polygonal ferrite, indicating
that a sufficient metallurgical bonding is achieved both
between the ferrite-plug interface and ferrite-base mate-
rial interface. The fine polygonal ferrite band serves as
the bridge between the plug and base material and may
relieve the disadvantageous effect of coarse upper bai-
nite on strength, plasticity, and toughness.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 15 Microstructure of P30
weld: a X65 steel, b HAZ, c weld
zone, and d bonding line
3.5 Hardness
Figure 16 gives the hardness of Q235 and X65 plug welds in
the upper and lower transverse in different axial forces. The
hardness of Q235 carbon steel and X65 steel is about
150HV10 and 200HV10, respectively.
For Q235 plug welds, hardness is slightly higher than base
material in upper HAZ while slightly lower than base material
in lower HAZ. This is a result of the different thermal process
in the two regions, as in the upper HAZ, the base material
undergoes bainite transformation while in the lower HAZ,
Fig. 16 Hardness results of Q235
and X65 plug welds
base material mainly undergoes grain growth due to the gentle
thermal process. In upper weld zone, hardness tends to de-
crease with increasing axial force. This is because that with
increasing axial force, the final frictional interface is getting
further to the top surface of X65 base material as can be seen
in Fig. 12, so that thermal cycle becomes gentle in upper weld
zone. The maximum hardness of Q235 plug welds is
267HV10 in upper weld zone at a distance of 2 mm from
the BL. In lower weld zone, the influence of axial force on
hardness seems to be irregular. Under 20-kN axial force, the
hardness is the lowest which maintains at about 150HV10.

When axial force increases to 30 kN, hardness increases too,
but when axial force rises to 40 kN, hardness tends to fall in
between.
For X65 plug welds, from base material to the plug center,
the hardness in the upper transverse tends to increase gradu-
ally, peaking around the BL, and then decreases gradually
with maximum value of 273HV10 at a distance of 0.5 mm
from the BL in the plug material. The lowest hardness value is
200HV10 which equals the base material, at a distance of
1 mm from the plug center under 50-kN axial force. In the
lower transverse, from base material to plug center, hardness
tends to increase with maximum value of 290HV10 at a dis-
tance of 0.5 mm from plug center under 40-kN axial force.
Microstructure evolution is responsible for the increased hard-
ness in the welds.
4 Conclusions
In this study, welding parameters and bonding characteristics
of FTPW on X65 pipeline steel by using Q235 carbon steel
and X65 steel as the tapered plug, respectively, in underwater
wet condition were investigated. The main conclusions are
summarized as follows:
1. Metallurgical bonding of bottom and sidewall is easy to
be realized, but defect is very likely to appear at the round-
ed transient. Increasing burn-off can prolong welding
time, thus enhancing energy input which is beneficial
for reducing or eliminating the defect.
2. Low axial force results in low weld power and slow plug
consumption rate. The set burn-off value may not be
achieved when too low axial force is used.
3. Using X65 plug can produce defect-free welds since the
energy input is adequate. However, when Q235 plug is
used, lack of bonding is commonly found as a kind of root
defect in FTP weld owing to the insufficient energy input.
4. The weld zone microstructure mainly consists of upper
bainite in X65 plug weld, but Widmanstatten structure
in Q235 weld. In HAZ, the microstructure is found as
upper bainite in both X65 and Q235 plug welds.
5. The hardness distribution of underwater FTP welds ex-
hibits heterogeneous features. The maximum hardness is
267HV10 in upper weld zone at a distance of 2 mm from
the BL for Q235 plug welds and 290HV10 in lower weld
zone at a distance of 0.5 mm from plug center for X65
plug welds.
Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the financial support of
Tianjin Applied Basic and Frontier Technology Research Key Project
(14JCZDJC38800). Great thanks are given to Jun Cao and Wei Xu from
Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd. of China for supporting the experi-
ment and positive suggestions.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
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