A Overview on Underwater Welding
B141026, Mohammad Nayeem pasha
Student, 3rd year, AB1 213
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Rajiv Gandhi University Of Knowledge Technologies,Basar
Basar,Nirmal,Telangana-504107
Abstract— Welding demand in offshore
and marine applications is increased with
the increasing in oil and gas activities as
well as increasing in the marine
transportation and industrial
applications. In the present paper, a brief
classification of underwater welding is
made. And discussion is made over the
present conventional and some advanced
techniques used. Further Weldability of
Steel In Water Environment, Underwater
inspection, risks and problems involved
in underwater welding are discussed.
Finally the scope of furthe research has
been recommended.
Keywords— Underwater welding, Wet
welding, Dry Welding, Hyperbaric, laser,
friction, Weldability of Steel, THOR-1.
I. INTRODUCTION
The increasing demand for oil and
gas has led to increase the offshore oil and
gas activities and to move the exploration
into the deep water.The desire to build,
maintain and repair offshorestructures has
brought the need for underwater welding.
Underwater welding is the process of
welding at elevated pressures, normally
underwater. Underwater welding can either
take place wet in the water itself or dry
inside a specially constructed positive
pressure enclosure and hence a dry
environment. It is predominantly referred to
as "hyperbaric welding" when used in a dry
environment, and "underwater welding"
when in a wet environment. In underwater
1
welding the main difficulty is due to
continuous corrosion of underwater
structures, it is necessary to repair them
continuously or to replace them with
another one. Under water welding has now
become an important tool in the fabrication
industry for joining the steel on the offshore
platforms, under water structures, pipelines,
ships and in many other applications. The
underwater structures of after getting
corrode away there are chances that they
will get fail at the deeper water level and the
maximum failure is at shallow depth. So the
repair works and welding jobs at these
levels is a most technologically challenging
task.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The first ever under water welding
was carried out by British Admiralty for
sealing leaking ship rivets below the water
line In 1946 special waterproof electrodes
were developed in Holland by Vander
willigen. Underwater Welding Processes
During first Word War, an urgent need was
felt for salvaging vessels sunk into the sea
and this need raised the status of
underwater welding from almost a pipe
dream to a practical process. Moreover,
international interests to develop and
utilize ocean which covers 70% of the
earth and its resources such as
development of offshore gas and oil field,
fisheries multiplication, large offshore
construction and mineral resources, mining
in the sea bottom, etc., have led to the
development of underwater welding.
In this paper, techniques of
improved underwater welding processes
recently conducted both in this country and
abroad are discussed. it is well recognized
that a thicker molten flux must cover the
puddle at all times to reduce the cooling
effect during the underwater stick-electrode
welding process. A heavier slag forming
(waterproofed) flux-coated electrode, along
with a higher current setting and slow
welding speed, are required for underwater
stick-electrode welding. A completely dry
gas-filled environment was found necessary
for better quality underwater welds.
Underwater welded joints tend to have
lower quality and mechanical properties in
comparison with joints welded in the air. So
the problems like weld porosity, hot and
cold cracks, slag confined in welds and
change of weld deposit chemical
compositions are high in underwater
welding. Weldability of steel in water
environment is governed by its cold or hot
cracking tendency. Susceptibility to cold
cracking is main problem in welding of high
strength low alloy steels (HSLA) and
fabrication of dissimilar joints. Hot cracks
2
in the most cases are observed in weld metal
of fully austenitic stainless steels.
Commonly Materials Being Welded by
Underwater Welding Includes- Steel,
Stainless Steel, Copper, Aluminum.
III. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION IN
UNDERWATER WELDING
Electrolysis occurs and cause rapid
deterioration of metallic component, when
DC is used with +ve polarity. On account of
electrical safety and difficult to maintain an
underwater arc, AC is not used in wet
welding. The work to be welded is
connected to one side of an electrical
circuit, and metallic electrode to other side.
These two parts are brought together and
then slightly separated. The current
produced jumps the gap and creates
sustained spark (arc), which melts the bare
metal, and forms a weld pool.
Simultaneously the tip of electrode melts,
and metallic droplets are projected into weld
pool. During this operation, the flux
covering the electrode melts, and metal
droplets are projected into weld pool.
During this operation, the flux covering the
electrode melts to form a shielding gas
around the arc, which is used to stabilize the
arc column and shield the transfer metal.
The arc burns in a cavity inside the flux
covering, which is designed to burn slower
than the metal parallel of the electrode.
IV. CLASSIFICATION
Underwater welding can be
classified into two types:
1. Wet Welding
2. Dry Welding

1. Wet Welding
Wet Welding indicates that welding
is performed underwater, directly exposed
to the wet environment. A special electrode
is used and welding is carried out manually
just as one does in open air welding. The
increased freedom of movement makes wet
welding the most effective, efficient and
economical method. Welding power supply
is located on the surface with connection to
the diver/welder via cables and hoses. In
wet welding MMA (manual metal arc
welding) is used. Power Supply type is DC
and Polarity is nagetive. When DC is used
with +ve polarity, electrolysis will take
place and cause rapid deterioration of any
metallic components in the electrode holder.
For wet welding AC is not used on account
of electrical safety and difficulty in
maintaining an arc underwater.
Figure 1: Wet Welding
The power source should be a direct
current machine rated at 300 or 400
amperes. Motor generator welding machines
are most often used for underwater welding
in the wet. The welding machine frame
must be grounded to the ship. The welding
circuit must include a positive type of
switch, usually a knife switch operated on
the surface and commanded by the welder-
diver. The knife switch in the electrode
circuit must be capable of breaking the full
3
welding current and is used for safety
reasons. The welding power should be
connected to the electrode holder only
during welding.
2. Dry Welding (Hyperbaric Welding)
Hyperbaric welding is carried out in
chamber sealed around the structure to be
welded. The chamber is filled with a gas
(commonly helium containing 0.5 bar of
oxygen) at the prevailing pressure. The
habitat is sealed onto the pipeline and filled
with a breathable mixture of helium and
oxygen, or slightly above the ambient
pressure at which the welding is to take
place. This method produces high-quality
weld joints that meet X-ray and code
requirements. The gas tungsten arc welding
process is employed for this process. The
area under the floor of the Habitat is open
to water. Thus the welding is done in the
dry but at the hydrostatic pressure of the
sea water surrounding the Habitat.
Figure 2: Dry Welding
Underwater welding in a dry
environment is made possible by
encompassing the area to be welded with a
physical barrier (weld chamber) that
excludes water. The weld chamber is
designed and custom built to accommodate
braces and other structural members whose
centerlines may intersect at or near the
area that is tobe welded. The chamber is
usually built of steel, but plywood,
rubberized canvas, or any other suitable
material can be used. Size and
configuration of the chamber are
determined by dimensions and geometry of
the area that must be encompassed and the
number of welders that will be working in
the chamber at the same time.
V. UNDERWATER WELDING
TECHNIQUES
There are many under water
welding techniques which may differ in
accordance to the surrounding environment
of the weldments. The surrounding
environment may be a wet or dry one.
1. Conventional Techniques
A. Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW)
The shielded metal arc welding also
referred to as conventional metal arc
welding or metal arc welding uses an arc
struck between work piece and the shielded
filler metal electrode. This process makes
use of either AC or DC power source. The
coated electrode facilitate the establishment
and maintenance of arc, protects the molten
metal from oxygen and nitrogen of air by
producing the shield of gas around arc and
weld pool and provide the formation of slag
so as to protect the welding seam from
rapid cooling. Shielded metal arc welding
makes the use of heavily coated electrodes
which are used to obtain high quality
weldments. Heavy coatings are composed
of: ionizing chalk, deoxidizing Aluminum,
gas generating starch, slag forming kaolin,
alloying & binding materials. Electrodes
for the shielded metal arc welding (SMAW)
are classified by AWS as E6013 and E7014.
4
Figure 3: Shielded Metal Arc Welding
B. Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) Welding
This arc welding process uses an
intense heat of electric arc between non
consumable tungsten electrode and
material to be welded. For TIG, the
nonfusing temperature resistant tungsten
electrode in addition to welding torch,
energy source and inert gas is a major
factor for obtaining optimum results. The
inert gas such as Helium or Argon or the
mixtures of both are used for the shielding
effect. Argon is more widely used than
Helium because it is heavier gas producing
better shielding at lower flow rate.
Shielding gas prevents the contamination of
weld metal against Oxygen & Nitrogen
present in the air. When filler metal rod is
used, it is usually fed manually into the
weld pool. Electrodes used in this process
are made from Tungsten & their alloys only
to generate the arc. Torch used in this
process directs the shielding gas and
welding power to arc and holds the
electrode. A constant current welding
power supply produces the energy which is
conducted across arc through the column of
highly ionized gas & metal vapors called
plasma.
Inert gas supplied to weld area
through the water cooled electrode holder
provides the protective shield around arc.
This type of welding is commonly used for
welding thin sections of: S.S, & nonferrous
metals such as Al, Mg & Cu alloys.
C. Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW)
Flux cored arc welding is a semi-
automatic or automatic arc welding
process. This process requires continuously
consumable tubular electrode containing
flux, constant current welding power supply
& externally supplied shielding gas is often
used. Flux is used to generate the necessary
protection from the atmosphere. This
welding produces the flux that must be
removed. The advantage of this type of
welding process are: smooth, uniform welds
having good contour, flexibility, good
quality of welds & high welding speed. Also
the use of stick electrodes used in SMAW is
unnecessary. This process is used for
welding of Mild & Low alloy Steels, S.S,
High nickel alloys.
2. Advanced Techniques
A. Friction welding (FRW)
Friction welding is a solid state
welding in which heat required to join the
two metal parts is obtained by friction
between ends of the parts are abruptly
braked. The parts to be joined. This process
consists of the following steps:-
• Here two parts are axially aligned
to each other whose one of the part to be
welded is rotated at about 3000 RPM.
• The second part is made advanced
to the rotating part to rub against it.
• To cause the friction between
two parts, slight axial pressure is
applied between two parts. Due to this
the temperature at the interface will
increase allowing them to soften &
5
hence formation of forged joint.
• After the sufficient heating has
taken place, the power drive is
disconnected & the axial pressure is
increased to forge the two parts
together.
By this type of process, high
quality welds can be obtained and there
are no chances of distortion or warping.
Even semiskilled operators can also be
employed.
B. Laser Welding
Laser as a source of coherent
and monochromatic radiation,has a
wide scope of application in materials
processing. Laser assisted welding,
because of the sheervolume/proportion
of work and advancement over the
years, constitutes the most important
operations amongthe laser joining
processes. Argon shroud removes heat
and prevents undueoxidation and
displaces water. The relative position of
the laser focus determines the quality
and configuration of the weld. The
focused laser beam is made to irradiate
thework piece or joint at the given level
and speed. A shroud gas protects the
weld pool from undue oxidation
andprovides with the required oxygen
flow. Laser heating fuses the work piece
or plate edges and joins once thebeam
is withdrawn. In case of welding with
filler, melting is primarily confined to the
feeding wire tip while apart of the
substrate being irradiated melts to
insure a smooth joint. In either case, the
work piece rather than thebeam travels
at a rate conducive for welding and
maintaining a minimum heat affected
zone (HAZ).
There are two fundamental
modes of laser welding depending on
the beam power/configuration and its
focuswith respect to the work piece.
They are conduction welding and
keyhole or penetration welding.
C. Robot Welding and Robotic Spot
Welding
A welding process that contain
repetitive task on similar pieces might
be suitable for automation. Here the
welding is performed and controlled by
the robotic equipment. Robotic spot
welding is a cost effective choice
compared to manual spot welding.
Robotic spot welding can reach difficult
weld areas with the consistent reliability.
By the advent of robotic spot welding, a
valuable floor space will be saved.
During the welding process by use of
robots, the cables & hoses used for
current and air tend to limit the
movement of robot wrist. Here the robot
can repeatedly move the welding gun to
each weld location & position it
perpendicular to the weld seam. Spot
welding robots have 6 or more axes of
motion & capable of approaching the
points in work envelope from any angle.
This permits the robot to be flexible in
positioning a welding gun to weld an
assembly. Generally for robot welding,
GMAW is most preferable.
VI. WELDABILITY OF STEEL IN
WATER ENVIRONMENT
Underwater welding is more
difficult in comparison to that performed at
open air because of: higher pressure,
hydrogen content in weld metal and higher
cooling rates. It has been proved that
increased pressure makes welding arc
6
unstable and the presence of diffusible
hydrogen and brittle microstructures in the
welds can be the reasons of cracks
formation. In the most cases underwater
welding is used for joining carbon steels,
low alloy steels austenitic and duplex
stainless steels. Weldability of steel in water
environment is governed by its cold or hot
cracking tendency. Susceptibility to cold
cracking is main problem in welding of high
strength low alloy steels (HSLA) and
fabrication of dissimilar joints. Hot cracks
in the most cases are observed in weld
metal of fully austenitic stainless steels.
Unfavorable structure transformations in
HAZ can be avoided by controlling of
cooling rate of welded joint by the use of
special insulation on surface of the welded
plate and apply high heat inputs. Welding
practices that reduce residual stresses in
the joints include: the use of small weld
deposits and consumables with compatible
coefficients of thermal expansion with base
material and the selection of edge
preparations which reduce weld deposit.
The strength of the steel used for the deep-
water structures is very important factor,
because high strength steel (yield strength
over 350 MPa) is required at greater
depths. High strength steels usually have
carbon equivalents greater than 0.4% and
show worse weldability.
VII. UNDERWATER WELDING
PROBLEMS
There is rapid quenching of the weld
metal by the surrounding water. Although
quenching increases the tensile strength of
the weld, it decreases the ductility and
impact strength of the weldment and
increases porosity and hardness.
Hydrogen Embrittlement– Large
amount of hydrogen is present in the weld
region, resulting from the dissociation of
the water vapour in the arc region. The H 2
dissolves in the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ)
and the weld metal, which causes
Embrittlement, cracks and microscopic
fissures. Cracks can grow and may result in
catastrophic failure of the structure.
Pressure Effect– The value of
pressure, which under water is practically
always higher than atmospheric,
significantly affects the character of a
welding process. The value of pressure is
decisive for the following:
• Underwater welding stability (an
increase in pressure narrows the
range of parameters ensuring
process stability)
• Size of losses caused by weld
deposit spatters, arc diameter (an
increase in pressure decreases the
arc diameter)
• Method of metal transfer in the arc
(an increase in pressure increases
the number of short circuits)
• Electrode melting efficiency (an
increase in pressure decreases
melting efficiency)
• Weld deposit chemical composition
• amount of diffusion hydrogen in the
weld deposit (an increase in
pressure decreases weld deposit
hydriding)
VIII. RISKS AND INSPECTION OF
UNDERWATER WELDING
Risks– There is a risk to the welder/
diver of electric shock. Precautions include
achieving adequate electrical insulation of
the welding equipment, shutting off the
electricity supply immediately the arc is
extinguished, and limiting the open-circuit
voltage of MMA (SMA) welding sets.
Secondly, hydrogen and oxygen are
7
produced by the arc in wet welding.
Precautions must be taken to avoid the
build-up of pockets of gas, which are
potentially explosive. The other main area
of risk is to the life or health of the
welder/diver from nitrogen introduced into
the blood steam during exposure to air at
increased pressure. Precautions include the
provision of an emergency air or gas
supply, stand-by divers, and decompression
chambers to avoid nitrogen narcosis
following rapid surfacing after saturation
diving.
For the structures being welded by
wet underwater welding, inspection
following welding may be more difficult
than for welds deposited in air. Assuring
the integrity of such underwater welds may
be more difficult, and there is a risk that
defects may remain undetected.
Inspection– Underwater inspection
includes the visual photographic
examination of the various underwater
structures and repairs and NDE such as
Magnetic Inspection (MI), Ultrasonic
Inspection (UI) and Radiographic
Inspection (RI). In the typical underwater
inspection the underwater inspector is
equipped with the light and camera. In
order to carry out the proper visual and
NDT check, blast cleaning has to be carried
out to remove all the seawater organisms
that grow on the underwater structure.
Latest development in the underwater
inspection is the use of ROV’s. These
machines are operated by an ROV pilot .
IX. FUTURE SCOPE OF RESEARCH
Wet MMA is still being used for
underwater repairs, but the quality of wet
welds is poor and is prone to hydrogen
cracking. Dry Hyperbaric welds are better
in quality than wet welds. Present trend is
towards automation. THOR – 1 (TIG
Hyperbaric Orbital Robot) is developed
where diver performs pipefitting, installs
the trac and orbital head on the pipe and
the rest process is automated.
Developments of driverless Hyperbaric
welding system is an even greater challenge
calling for annexed developments like pipe
preparation and aligning, automatic
electrode and wire reel changing functions,
using a robot arm installed. This is in
testing stage in deep waters. Explosive and
friction welding are also to be tested in
deep waters.
Considerable research effort has
been made to improve process performance
and control strategies for the various
underwater welding processes over the last
half century. However, there are still many
problems to overcome. The major efforts on
research and development should be
focused on the following topics:
• Automation of the underwater
joining and inspection of the welded
structures.
• Mechanized underwater welding for
actual usage of very large floating
structures.
• Investigation of the potential of
using a robot manipulator for
underwater ultrasonic testing of
welds in joints of complex geometry.
• Application of advanced welding
technique, like friction, laser
welding and understand the
behavior of materials after the
welding and process optimization.
• Invention of new welding techniques
and explore the possibility of its
8
application in underwater welding.
X. CONCLUSION
Modern techniques of underwater
welding give possibility of obtaining joints
with sound welds that meets requirements
of classification societies. Recent
improvements in underwater welding have
led to the increased use of wet and dry
hyperbaric welding for marine applications.
But more spread application of wet welding
methods is limited due to common opinion
of low quality of welds performed by this
method. The general acceptance of
underwater welding processes has been
further advanced by the standardization of
methods, procedures, and certification
requirements provided by the American
National Standards Institute and American
Welding Society. In spite of many successful
applications and results of investigations,
underwater welding requires new research
and development to achieve its full
potential.
XI. REFERENCES
[1]. Anand, A., and A. Khajuria. "Welding
processes in marine application: A review."
International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering and Robotics Research 2.1
(2015): 215-225.
[2]. Brown, R. T., and K. Masubuchi.
"Fundamental research on underwater
welding." Welding Journal 54.6 (1975):
178s-188s.
[3]. Fydrych, Dariusz, et al. "Weldability of
S500MC steel in underwater conditions."
Advances in Materials Science 14.2 (2014):
37-45.
[4]. Fydrych, Dariusz, Jerzy Łabanowski,
and Grzegorz Rogalski. "Weldability of
high strength steels in wet welding
conditions." Polish Maritime Research 20.2
(2013): 67-73.

[5]. Łabanowski, Jerzy, Dariusz Fydrych,

and Grzegorz Rogalski. "Underwater
welding-a review." Advances in materials
Science 8.3 (2008): 11-22.

[6]. Majumdar, Jyotsna Dutta.

"Underwater welding-present status and
future scope." Journal of Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering 3.1
(2006): 38-47.

[7]. Raghavan, V. Vijay. "Application of

Underwater welding process for subsea
pipeline welding repairs."

[8]. Verma, Ketan, and Harish K. Garg.

"Underwater welding-Recent trends and
future scope." International Journal on
Emerging Technologies 3.2 (2012): 115-
120.