Residual stresses in welded components can influence the lifetime significantly. Besides experimental methods of residual stress measurements numerical methods of welding simulation are an important tool to determine the whole residual stress field in a component as a basis for lifetime prediction. As examples, the residual stresses in a core shroud of a boiling water reactor (BWR) and in a cladded plate have been investigated. In case of the core shroud postulated cracks in the residual stress field of the weld have been assessed with respect to possible crack corrosion cracking. For the cladded plate, the numerical simulation of the cladding and heat treatment process was accompanied by measurements of temperature, distortions and residual stresses. In the analysis, the temperature dependent material properties as well as the transformation behavior of the ferritic base metal were taken into account. The calculated residual stresses show tensile stresses in the cladding followed by compressive stresses in the base metal that are in agreement with measurements with X-ray diffraction technique.

This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.