Evaluation of Welding Consumables and Procedures for Submarine Construction

摘要

This report provides a summary of three developments in the welding of BIS 812EMA and HY 590 high strength steels for the new RAN Collins Class submarine. Firstly, the established benchmark properties for Charpy energy, dynamic tear energy and elongation in the tensile test have been reviewed in the light of data collection from US, Australian and Swedish sources. A new set of benchmarks is proposed which takes into account the interrelationship between notch toughness, elongation and explosion bulge performance. Secondly, the influence of welding procedures (notably heat input) on weld toughness is discussed and heat input and preheat ranges are recommended which ensure that unrealistic welding parameters are not used simply in order to pass the explosion bulge test. Thirdly, a detailed microstructure and hardness survey on a weldment which marginally satisfied the requirements of explosion bulge testing is described. The results suggest that welding electrodes and procedures which were designed for the more traditional quenched and tempered steels such as HY 100 can also be used on the new BIS 812 EMA steels. Explosion bulge test, Welding, Weldment zones Weld deposits, Heat input.