Region-Specified Ratcheting Behavior of API X80 Welded Joint Under Uniaxial Cyclic Loading

Evaluation of mechanical performance of different regions can be difficult by using standard size samples due to the size limitation of weld metal and heat-affected zone (HAZ). At first, the microstructure of different regions was characterized and quantified by Scanning Electron Microscope, which indicate that the pipeline steel is a typical acicular ferrite steel. In this study the deformation behavior of different regions (base metal, weld metal and heat affected zone) in a welded joint of API X80 pipeline steel were studied by conducting uniaxial loading tests on miniature specimens with the cross section of 2×0.5mm and gauge length of 9mm. From the results of uniaxial tension in base metal and weld metal it is shown that the welding is overmatching. Compared to the base metal, the coarse grained HAZ exhibits a lower strength, while the fine grained HAZ exhibits a higher strength. Under near zero-to-tension cyclic stress loading, all regions of the welded joints exhibit progressive accumulation of plastic strain. Under the same stress level, the base metal shows the fastest ratcheting strain accumulation, which is the result of lower strength than other regions. This fact may indicate that the ratcheting behavior of the overall welded joint is highly dependence on that of base metal for the present case. But when under the same normalized stress level (σ = σ/σ_YS), the fine grained HAZ has the highest ratcheting strain accumulation, while the coarse grained HAZ has the lowest ratcheting strain accumulation, which reveals that the intrinsic resistance to ratcheting is yield strength dependent.