Analysis of Weld Box for Structural Integrity.

Adinath Kadam
M-Tech M/c Design Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Veermata Jijabai
Technological Institute, Matunga, Mumbai.
E-mail: adinathkadam@gmail.com

Vinay Patil
FEA Consultant, Vaftsy CAE, Pune
E-mail: vgpatil@vaftsy.com , vaftsy@yahoo.com

Prof S. V. Savlekar
Professsor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute,
Matunga, Mumbai.

ABSTRACT It is a modern manufacturing method for net shaped parts

having weight in the range between 10 kg to 15 tons. The
The Weld in the contact region of High Isostatic Pressing method bases on powder metallurgy and combines some
(HIP) Furnace and its support are subjected to a of the advantages of casting technology with those of
combination of Thermal expansion forces and Fluid forging technology.
pressure, which makes their design critical. The Objective
of the project is to make a qualitative analysis of the Basic Processes involved:
region for safety and integrity purposes.
1. Manufacturing of alloy powder by gas
To protect this Weld Region an Insulation Box is created atomisation.
around the weld region called a Hot Box, depending on
the sizes of the required Net Shaped Parts to be produced 2. Powder consolidation by hot Isostatic pressing.
in the HIP furnace, the size of the HIP Furnace & hence
the Welding & Hot Box Parameters also change. Procedure:

A range of FEA analysis is conducted to know the effect 1. A container with the shape of the desired product
of various HIP vessel & Hot box parameters on the is designed and produced.
Critical Weld region. Also to enable the Welding
operators to know the exact Weld Box Parameters based 2. The container is filled with a powder of the
on the size of the typical HIP Furnace a parametrically desired alloy.
controlled FEA approach is developed.
3. Filled container is evacuated.
The objective of this paper is to know the relation between
Inner radius, Skirt Support Height and Half Length of the 4. The container is put into a hot isostatic press.
HIP Furnace.
5. The alloy powder is consolidated at elevated
Keywords: High Isostatic Pressing (HIP) Furnace, temperatures with the help of a big pressure by a
thermal expansion forces in weld region, weld box or hot sintering mechanism.
box, parametrically controlled FEA approach.
6. Pressed canister is cooled down.
INTRODUCTION
7. Container material on the surface is removed by
The concerned Pressure Vessel is used for Hot Isostatic machining.
Pressing (HIP) of near net shaped parts.

HIP Furnace:
Operating Conditions in and around the HIP furnace:
 1. Very high pressure: There are three main parameters

It’s quite evident that as the powder particles in the 1. Height of Hot Box Region (say P1)
furnace have to be compressed against each other, the
applied pressure must be sufficiently high. 2. Width of Hot Box Region (say P2)

2. Very high temperature: 3. Thickness of Skirt Support (say P3)

As sintering process is involved in the production process,

which corresponds to a temperature slightly below the
Melting Point of the metal, the temperatures to be
maintained within the furnace are very high.

Critical Function of Welding:

Seam welding is done for joining the supports to the HIP

furnace vessel. As the furnace & hence the supports & the
weld zone are subjected to temperature gradient. If the
weld zone is subjected to a temperature gradient such that,
on the furnace side it’s close to the furnace wall
temperature & on other side it’s subjected to hot air
temperature which is well below the furnace wall
temperature, then due to this large temperature gradient
weld zone is subjected to thermal expansion, which
eventually will result in a failure at the joint.

What if Failure Happens?

1. The pressure vessel under consideration is not a

storage vessel but a Process vessel. Hence if the
welding fails it will result in product failure risk
& even the installation equipment failure risk.

2. Moreover after failure due to sudden impact the
vessel subjected to high temperature & pressure
may burst.
3. Also as the products are usually of huge weight
any failure can’t be tolerated.
Hence the weld zone has to be protected from these
temperature gradients.
METHODOLOGY
Hot Box:
It’s nothing but a box created by the insulation
surrounding the weld zone. Due to the insulation provided
the weld zone is not directly subjected to hot surrounding
air temperature & hence the high temperature gradient.
Necessity to Optimise Hot Box Parameters:
Parameters:
Fig.1. Hot Box Concept
Of the three parameters the parameter which requires
analysis is the height of the Hot Box i.e. P1, because,
1. If, P1<P_optimum, then it will not serve the
purpose of the Hot Box & the welding will fail.
2. And if P1>P_optimum, then temperature gradient
will be large & hence the welding will fail.
Over a range of Pressure Vessel parameters, charts are
developed so that as per the requirement of a given
Pressure Vessel the Hot Box & other parameters can be
decided.
F.E.A. ANALYSIS
Analysis type:
FEA analysis conducted is a Thermo - Structural analysis.
It basically consists of two stages.
 1. Thermal analysis by subjecting the Pressure Fig.3. High order serendipity 8 node element.
Vessel to the Thermal Environment.
For the eight-node element shown in Figure, the element
2. Structural analysis by taking into consideration has four corner nodes and four mid-side nodes. The shape
the effect of Thermal Expansion Forces. functions in the natural coordinates for the quadratic
rectangular element are given as
* Note – Here weight of the Pressure Vessel is not
considered so that only the sole effect of thermal stresses
on the Pressure Vessel & hence on the Weld Zone can be
studied.
for corner nodes j = 1, 2, 3, 4
Elements Used:

for mid-side nodes j = 5, 7

for mid-side nodes j = 6, 8 ...(1)

where (ξj, ηj ) are the natural coordinates of node j.

Fig.2. Simple 8 node Quadratic Quadrilateral Element
Derivation of Shape Functions:
1. For Thermal analysis Plane 77 – 8 node quadratic
thermal element.
It is very easy to observe that the shape functions possess
the delta function property. The shape function is
- The element has one degree of freedom, constructed by simple inspections making use of the shape
temperature, at each node. The 8-node function properties.
elements have compatible temperature
shapes and are well suited to model curved
boundaries.

2. For Structural analysis Plane 82 – 8 node

quadratic structural element.

- It provides more accurate results for mixed

(quadrilateral-triangular) automatic meshes
and can tolerate irregular shapes without as
much loss of accuracy. The 8- node elements
have compatible displacement shapes and
are well suited to model curved boundaries.

Shape Functions by considering Serendipity type Fig.4. Construction of eight-node serendipity element.
elements: Three straight lines passing through the remote nodes of
node 1 are used.

For example, for the corner node 1 (where ξ1 = −1, η1 =

−1), the shape function N1 has to pass the following three
lines as shown in Figure 4 to ensure its vanishing at
remote nodes:

⇒ vanishes at nodes 2, 6, 3

⇒ vanishes at nodes 3, 4, 7
 ⇒ vanishes at nodes 5, 8 ...(2) where C is a constant to be determined using the condition
that it has to be unity at node 5 at (ξ5 = 0, η5 = −1), which
The shape N1 can then immediately be written as gives

...(3)

where C is a constant to be determined using the condition

that it has to be unity at node 1 at (ξ1 = −1, η1 = −1), ...(8)
which gives
We finally have
...(4)
...(9)
We finally have
which is the second equation in Eq. (1) for j = 5.
...(5)
Analysis Type:

which is the first equation in Eq. (1) for j = 1. Axis – Symmetry:

Shape functions at all the other corner nodes can be
constructed in exactly the same manner. As for the mid-
side nodes, say node 5, we enforce the shape function
passing through the following three lines as shown in
Figure 5:
Axis – symmetry analysis can be used
when the entire geometry and boundary conditions can be
recreated in a single revolve command.
In our case as we are dealing with pressure vessel
geometry with a skirt support, which can be generated in a
single revolve command and also the design temperature
and pressure is uniform through the vessel and hence it
can be considered as an ideal case of axis – symmetry.

Model Changes:

Half – Model:

Since we are interested only in the weld

Fig.5. Construction of eight-node serendipity element.
Three straight lines passing through the remote nodes of
node 5 are used.
⇒ vanishes at nodes 2, 6, 3
⇒ vanishes at nodes 1, 8, 4
⇒vanishes at nodes 3, 4, 7
The shape N5 can then immediately be written as
region, it makes no sense in modelling the top end of
pressure vessel. Therefore we shall model only the vessel
up to the half tan to tan line e.g, if total length of pressure
vessel is 8000mm then only half length i.e.4000mm will
be considered & symmetry condition can be applied at the
end of the half length.
Meshing Method - AESIZE:
The Ansys command used while
programming is ‘AESIZE’, which allows control over the
element sizing inside any area or on the face(s) of a
volume.
...(6)
SIZE controls element size on the
interior of the area. For any line on the area not having its
own size assignment and not controlled by keypoint size
...(7) assignments, it specifies the element size along the line as
well, so long as no adjacent area has a smaller size, which
would take precedence.
PARAMETRIZATION

In this paper main focus is given to know the relation

between Parameters like Inner Radius (R), Skirt Support
Height (H) and Half Length of HIP Vessel (L). 6. Outside Bulk Temperature 24 °C

Based on the sizes of the parts to be produced in the HIP

Furnace, the above stated parameters vary over a large 7. Equivalent Film Coefficient 7.9
range. If, in such a case, to know the maximum stress W/mm2°C.
values, their location and other such quantities, large no.
of analysis have to be carried out which makes the whole
process time consuming & hence adding to cost. Ansys Results:

Analysis Inputs:

1. The Inner Radius (R) to Skirt Support Height (H)

ratio is kept constant (Typically 5/6).

2. R is varied from 500mm to 10000mm in steps of

500mm.

3. H is varied from 50mm & then 100mm to the

optimum value in steps of 100mm.
Fig.7. Pressure Vessel under thermal conditions.
4. Hemispherical End, Shell and Skirt support are
glued together.

Readings Taken:

1. Maximum Stress σ-max Value.

2. Maximum Stress Value σ-max at the Weld Zone.

3. Maximum Deformation δ-max Value.

TABLE – I

Conditions for a typical Analysis

Fig.8. Temperature distribution in the pressure vessel.

Sr. No. Parameter Dimension

1. Half Length 500 mm

2. Inner Radius 1000 mm

3. Skirt support height 1200 mm

4. Inside temperature 500 °C Fig.9. Structural stress distribution.

5. Bulk Temperature at the bottom 35 °C

 8 4000 700
9 4500 600
10 5000 600
11 5500 600
12 6000 500
13 6500 500
14 7000 400
15 7500 400
16 8000 400
17 8500 400
Fig.10. Structural stress distribution in the Weld Zone 18 9000 400
which is the area of concern. 19 9500 400
20 10000 400

Graph:

Graph.1. Stress values (on Y-axis) v/s Half Length of

Pressure Vessel on (X-Axis) for a fixed Inner Radius &
skirt support Height.

Observations for the typical configuration:
1. Beyond a half length of 1400 mm the increase in
stress is not exceeding 1% of the preceding
value.
Graph.2. Stress values (on Y-axis) v/s Half Length of
Pressure Vessel on (X-Axis) for a fixed Inner Radius &
skirt support Height.

2. The maximum stress is observed just near the Conclusions:

weld zone.
1. For a given Inner Radius (R) & skirt support
TABLE – II Height (H) the % increase in Maximum Stress
for increase in Half Length (L) beyond its
Variation between Inner Radius (R) & Half Length (L) optimum value is well below 1%. (Graph 1)

Sr. No. Radius
1 500
2 1000
3 1500
4 2000
5 2500
6 3000
7 3500
Optimum Half Length 2. While designing the system for a given R, H &
L, it will be just sufficient to check whether the
1100
Half Length L is beyond the optimum value. If
1400 it’s so then the analysis used for optimum value,
1400 which is readily available can be taken.
1300
1200
3. From graph 2, it can be concluded that beyond an
Inner Radius of 7500 mm Half Length has no
1000 more influence on the Maximum Stress Value i.e.
800
 Inner Radius becomes dominant in the maximum
stress value & hence in the design.

References:

1. The Finite Element Method: A Practical Course

by G. R. Liu & S. S. Quek.

2. Fundamentals of Finite Element Analysis

byDavid V. Hutton.

3. Ansys-12 Manual.

4. Hot Isostatic Pressing Rejuvenation Technology

John E Radavich School of Materials Engineer
ing Purdue University and Pramod D. Desai
MIAC/CINDAS June 1994 Contract.