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    Hydrogen Cracking

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    monitorsamsung

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Hydrogen Cracking It is also known as hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC), hydrogenvassisted cracking (HAC), cold cracking (CC), H== cracking is probably the most talked-about failure mechanism associated with the welding industry nent (HE). delayed cracking (DC), under bead cracking (UBC), and hydrogen embriti HISTORY Hydrogencracking of welds became ‘8 major concern during the first par cf the 20% century. Psior to that time, industries experimented with welding, ‘but it was not used in normal produc- tion. A few transmission pipelines were built using gas welding, and are weld: ing was being tsed in shipbuilding on limited basis, World War 1 and World War Il hastened theadvancement of manufac: turing technology and made welding @ common manufacturing method. L Dering wartime, itis very important Ise 1° Fdrogen crack at root ofasngle pass GHAW weld tomanufactuze quickly and efficiently Improvernents in welding technolo, helped a great deal to win the wars. But as welding was taking place in large volumesin many different manu- facturing and fabricating industri vrelding defects were also materializ ing, Lack of penetration, lack of fusion, porosity slag inclusions, and cracking were seme of the more-common de- fects. Cracking was especially prob- lematic because the eracks sometimes were visible on the surface of the weld and sometimes they were either under the weld beads or did not appear for several hours after the weld was com- pleted, The under-bead and delayed g were especially dangerous these cracks easily could go undetected, Once @ welded partis in service, an undetected crack can 1Un Figure 2: The Schenectady suffered catastrophic failure while still in the harbor ETIN SUAeR 2017 NATIONALBOARD ORG: B Nami “under stress and lead to eatastrophie failure. Underbead and delayed cracking ave typial forms of HC. Some of the morefamous weld failures occurred on the Liberty ships in World War Il. Instead of the riveted construction of older ship hulls, many of the Liberty ships had hulls welded {nto one continuous plate of steel When acrack occursina viveted plate, ‘the crack rus to the edge of the plate and then stops. When aerack happens ina welded plate, it runs across that plate, through theweld connectingitto ‘the next plate, through that plate, and soon untiltheentiteship breaksin two. ‘This type of catastrophic failure prompted a large-scale effort to de- termine wiy the weldments cracked. ‘Over the yeats, hundreds of research papers have been published to deter- ‘mine why varioussteels crack and the rolethat hydrogen playsin the cracking mechanism of carbon steel. As farback ‘as 1875, it was noted that hydrogen had a detrimental effect on carbon stools, making them brittle. During the welding operation, there was high solubility of hydrogen in the molten ‘metal, high residual stress from the cooling metal, and fast cooling rates, forming undesirable microstructures that led to hydrogen cracking. cause After a review of articles ancl re- search paperspublished overthe years, the one common conclusion is that for hhydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) to ‘oceus, three conditions must be pres- cent: the critical amount of hydrogen, 2 susceptible microstructure, and a citical amount of stress, In recent years some researchers have included a fourth: sufficiently low temperature, Figure 3 Hydrogen, stress and microstructure mut all be present to cause Indrogen cracking ‘The important concept to under- stand is that if any one of the four conditions Is not met, HIC will not ‘occur. The weldment may still crack or fail, but it will not be Because of HIC. Sowhatcriticalamountothydrogen «causes cracking? The answer depends onthe microstructure, sess, and tem perature Ifthe material microstructure ismartensitiifitisstressed tonearthe yield point, and ifthe welement is at 20°F, then very low levels of hydrogen will cause HIC. On theotherhand: ifthe microstructure is pearlitig, if there ae ‘very low stress levels, andifthe steel is at 250°F, then high levels of hydrogen, can be tolerated without erecking. COneofthebest waysto prevent HIC {sto remove the hydrogen. In orcer to do tis, the sources of hydrogen need to.be understood. Once these sources are removed or greatly reduced, then welding can be performed without hydrogen being introduced into the molten weld metal SOURCES OF HYDROGEN Hydrogen in the Steel The first source of hydrogen to be considered is that in the steel before the welding or fabricating process is started. At some point in the making of steel, it was molten, Molten steel basa very high solubility offydzogen, whetheritisinsteelmakingorthe weld pool. Depending on the steelmaking process and exposue to hydrogen, the final steel product ean have var ous levels of hydrogen in it. Also, the subsequent stepsof processing thesteel intoits fina form can reduce rinerease the level of hydrogen in the steel. Heat tceating hot zoling, forging, or any of the heatee! processes would tend to inerease the diffusion rate and lower the overall hydrogen level. Pickling, chemically cleaning, or heat treating in hydrogen atmospheres would tend to increase the love of hydrogen in the steel. kis very difficult to quantify the NATIONALROARD.ORG. SUMMER 2017 NATIONAL BOARD BULETIN. hydrogen levelsin steel. Theimportant thing to sememberis that there is prob- ably somelevel ofhydrogen in thesteel before welding or processing of the ‘material is started Moisture “Most hot-olled stwel is supplied ‘with black oxide on the surface, This oxide tendstobehygroscopicand holds moisture, Even ifthe oxides removed, and the plate is shot blasted, ground, ‘or machined to a bright clean surface, thereis normally moisture present from ‘the humidity in the ait. This moistureis easily removed by preheating to over 2125F before welding, Organic Compounds ‘Organic compoundsand hy roca ‘bons should be removed or reduced to very low levels These incluso, but are snotlimited tools, greases, paints, and ccuing Fluids, Tf these contaminants are welded over, they break down in the welding arc and supply atomic hydrogen to the molten metal, where it isteadily absorbed. Steels to be welded. need to be cleaned thoroughly to re ‘move any ofthese organic compounds thatcontain hydrogen, Careneeds tobe taken in the cleaning process to make sue that in the removal of one organic ‘compound, itis nat being replaced with another, such as by cleaning off grease with paint thinner. ‘Welding Process and Consumables “The last and mostimportant source of hydrogen is the welding process ‘and consumables. Some welding pro- ‘esses may actually reduce the inherent Ihydrogen in the material and weld. Electron beam welding (EBW) isone of those processes. In EBWY, the parts tobe welded are placed in a vacuum cham bber and are welded under vacuum, 10 NATIONAL 80480 BULLETIN summeR 2017 which degasses the weld metal and ceffuses hyerogen from the base metal EBWisanexpensive,arcly used wold {ng process forcarbon stels, but itdoes reduce hydrogen Comman welding processesinelude SMAW (shielded metal arc welding), GMAW (gasmetal arewelding), GTAW (gas tangsten arc welding), FCAW (flux cored are welding), and SAW (sub- ‘merged arc welding), Of these, GTAW has the lowest hydrogen levels, Thisis because the consumables have a very Jow hydeogen content and the welding, process has a high heat input, giving, any hydrogen present time to diffuse. ‘Thesolid wire used as weld filler mate- sali typically very clean ane has very low levels of hydrogen. The shielding _gnses also have very high purity lovels and very low moisture content, s0 there isverylttlehydrogenpresentin the are GMAW has the second-lowest hy- drogen level of the common welding, processes. Like GTAW, it uses a solid ‘wire with @ shielding gas, which has very low hydrogen levels. However, since the solid wire goes through @ ‘wire feeder and gun, there are some- times additional Tubricantsonthewire, which are hydrocarbons, and will add tothe hydrogen levelin the areand the resulting weld metal. GMAW typically ‘has a lower heat input than GIAW so the hydrogen that is present does not have at much time to diffuse from the meta, resulting in higher weld metal hydrogen levels FCAW typically has higher hydro- gen levels than GTAW or GMAW. It ruses the same low-hydrogen shield- ing gasses as GTAW and GMAW, but the wire is quite a bit different. It is 4 fabricated wite sather than a solid wire, The granulated flux is placed in ‘a"U"-shaped steo strip, which then is rolled closed to result ina tube with a ‘granulated Duxon the inside. Drawing the tube down to its final diameter r= quires several steps with hubricantand may requize multiple annealing opera- tions depending on the manufecturer and the drawing techniques used. The igranulated flux can have components that contain hydrogen as well as be- ing somewhat hygroscopic. The tube generally has an open seam that cam get drawing lubricants squeezed into it ‘These are typically hydrocarons that can add considerable hydrogen to the ‘axe, Therefore, depending on the flux- ‘cored wire manufacturing technology (the types of drawing lubricants, anc how often the wire is annealed), some wires may be relatively low in hyelro= gen and some othersmay be quite high. ‘Thetypeofslagsystem inthe FCAW ‘wire hasa large eect on the hydrogen levelofthe weld metal. Rutile, TA, slag, systems have rutile (T1O,) asthe main ingredient, They have high operator appeal afast-freezing slag, low spatter, andean be used outof-position. Butthe rutile slag systems tend tohave higher ‘weld metal hydrogen levels than the basic slag systems, The basic, 75, slag, systems have lime (CaQ) as the main {ngwedient. The lime tends to lower the hydrogen level ofthe weld metal, but does nothave high welder appeal, has higher spatter levels, and cannot be used out-of position. SaWeanhavehigherorlowerlevels ‘of hydrogen depending on the slwve/ slag system and how the luxhas been treated and stored. The wire in SAW is generally solid and fed through an automatic or machine-type welding system, Occasionally, tubular wites or semiautomatic systems are used, but this is not common. The solid wire in SAW is similar to that in GMAW and. GTAW and adds very little hydrogen totheare. NATIONALBOARD.O8G. The flux in SAW isa loose granular product that easily can add hydrogen if nothandled properly. Theze are basi- cally two types of SAW flux: bonded (agglomerated) and fused. The bonded fluxes are powders bonded together witha binder typically sodium silicate. These fluxes are the most popular, but fend to be hygroscopic and require baking to drive off the moisture. Fused fluxes are made by melting the ux ingredients under an electric ae, chill ing it, and then crushing it into a fine granular product, They are more glass- like, more expensive, not hygroscopic, and do not requite baking, but are not as popular. Also, the componentsin the fuxcanhelplower the hydrogen levels. Some of the SAW fluxes are more basic (CaO), similar to FCAW, and produce welds with lower hydrogen levels. SMAW has a very wide range of hydrogen levels, depending on the ux coating on the outside of the electrode and how the electrode has been stored and handled. The electrodes with EXX10 and EXX11 designations have cellulose in the fax to put hydrogen in the aze, High hydzogen makes the arc very fiorce, aggressive, and penetrat- ing. These high-cellulose electrodes will give the most penetration, which is why they are used commonly for root passes. On the other hand, the cloctsodes with the EXXIS, EXXI5, and EXX18 designations are formulated for very low hydrogen levels, They typical- ly havea basic slag system (CaO) and no lux ingredients that produce hydro- igen. The handling ofthese electrodes is vvecy impostant because they will pick ‘upmoistureand need tobe stored inan oven after the original manufacturer's packaging has been opened. Even though the welding consurn- ables and process can be sources of hydrogen, this can be controlled. If a NATIONAIBOARD.ORG igure 5 Hydrogen difusng out ofa E7018 weld in a mineral ol bath ‘material that has a high susceptibil- ity to hydrogen cracking needs to be welded, the welder has the option of selecting a low-hydzogen process and Jow-hydrogen consumables In carbon stools, a whole variety of microstructures can exist, Generally, the harder, more brittle microstructures are moresusceptible to hydrogen cracking. ‘The microstructures, listed with high cst susceptibility through lowest, ae: ‘martensite, bainite, pealite, and ferit, FF ony austenite exists after cooling, It also has a very low susceptibility to hydrogen cracking. ‘So what causes martensite to form? Rapid cooling rates and higher carbon fr alloy content will tend to form martensite. Bat if martensite leads to hydrogen cracking, then what can be donetopreventit?Justtheopposite: use ow-carbon, low-slloy steels, and slow cooling rates. The slower a weld cools, the higher the tenclency to form peat!- ite and ferrite, Preheating the material before welding and maintaining an interpass temperature during welding are good ways toslow the weld cooling rate. Heat treating immediately after suasiek 2017 Nat " BULLETIN| reATuRE the weld is complete is also effective, ‘but cate must be taken not to let the ‘weld cool before the post-weld heat treatment begins. CRITICAL AMOUNT OF STRESS Good, low-cost design dictates us- ing the steel effectively and efficiently. ‘This means using the thinnest material allowed by codes anel standards to take the maximum stress developed in the service ofthe vessel orstructure,Sohow can the overall stress of the weldment be lowered? ‘Theoverall stress isthe combination ofthe design stress of the weldmentand the residual stresses of cold working, ining, and welding, Excess mate tial can be used to lower the design stress, butthisadeds extra cost The weld: ‘ment also can be heat treated after cold working, machining, and welding, but thiscan sometimes lead to dimensional instability and can also add cost fits possible, removing welds or making them smaller will reduce the residual stress of welding. Also, stress can be lowered by making weldments less ‘estrained! soonce the weld has cooled, thematerialcanmove,thuslowering the final stress in the weldment. SUFFICIENTLY LOW TEMPERATURE “The rate that hydrogen diffuses is dependent on the temperature of the ‘material, Therefore, if the material is ‘operating ata temperature greater than 300° the excess hyctrogen will yener- ally effuse out of the material. On the other hand, ifthe material is operating at-20°F or lower, any hydrogen present from the welding operation tends to get trapped in the material. The lower temperatues also tend to promote the formation of martensite and Keep re sidual stresses from being relieved. 12 NATIONAL BOARD HULETIN SUMMER 2017, MICROSTRUCTURE-CRACKING ‘MECHANISM Why daeshydrogen in carbon steels cause cracking? From 2 metallurgical point of view there areat easthalfadoz- cen different theories, but none of them is completely conclusive. Most of the theories involve the weld metal being, saturated with hydrogen. Thishappens because the high-temperature molten ‘weld metal has a very high solubility of hydrogen following Sieverts Lave. The soures of hydrogen (moisture, oils, oF ‘welding consumables) break down in the welding arc and form monatomic hydrogen (H) that is absorbed readily into themolten weld pool. Thehydrogen atoms go nto interstitial sites inthe iron latticeas opposed to substitutional sites, as some elements do, Once the weld cools, thesolid, room-temperature weld, ‘metal no longer has the nigh solubility of hydrogen, This hydrogen-saterated {weld metal isunstable and thelydrogen starts diffusing to reach lowerhyydrogen concentration in the adjacent matetal ‘Thisis where the various theories differ as to what eauses the cracking. ‘Oneof the most widely accepted the- oriests the planar pressure theory, accord ing to which the monatomic hydrogen,

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