Residual stress distributions in a P91 steel-pipe girth weld before and after post weld heat treatment

In this study the residual stresses in a pipe girth weld in a ferritic-martensitic power plant steel were measured by neutron diffraction and compared with the corresponding metallurgical zones in the weld region. It was found that, in both the as-welded and post-weld heat treated condition, the highest tensile stresses resided near the outer boundary of the heat-affected zone (HAZ), and towards the weld root region. Substantial tensile direct and hydrostatic stresses existed across the HAZ, including the fine-grained and intercritically annealed regions, where premature type IV creep failures manifest in 9–12 Cr steel welds. Compressive stresses were found in the weld metal coinciding with the last weld bead to be deposited. Constrained cooling tests on test coupons illustrated that these compressive stresses can be explained in terms of the influence that solid-state phase transformations have on the accumulation of stress in welds.