Welding quality assessment for oil and gas industry by comparison of mechanical testing properties and microstructure analysis

Abstract

WBS testing is the procedure of substantiation on material after a completed welding process to determine the material properties and behavior such as strength properties and forming properties. The conventional testing for determining strength properties of material involve parameters such as tensile strength, shear strength, toughness, brittleness and rigidity. On the other hand, the forming properties testing is performed to inspect elasticity, plasticity, ductility, malleability and hardness of the welded components. The importance of WPSs in the welding technology and how the WPSs is performed at the point around the welding procedure should be defined clearly. Thus, this project investigates the welding quality assessment in the industry by comparison of several testing methods (such as tensile and bend test) following determined acceptance criteria by American Welding Society (AWS D1.1). This research also aims to investigate the metallurgical aspects of welding joint by looking into different locations which as HAZ, weld metal and base metal. The investigated results are macro and microstructure observation, hardness distribution and also the density of the allocated area. This project will serve to develop a further understanding of welding and to find out the correlation between various testing methods that have been used. The welding quality assessment by comparison of mechanical testing properties and microstructure analysis are carried out to determine the property of the affected points. Then, the welding evaluation is determined by performing non-destructive and destructive testing methods. The comparison between the mechanical testing properties and microstructure analysis is made to determine welding quality of Shielded Metal Arc Welding. The acceptance criteria for both non-destructive and destructive testing were referred to American Welding Society (AWS) standard. Furthermore, this research is conducted to investigate the function of welding procedure specification in evaluation of welding quality assessment especially in oil and gas industry.