UNDERWATER WELDING

Presented by
Suresh Beera
12ETMM11
M.Tech/Ph.D
Materials Engineering
4/30/16
SEST, UoH

Outline

Importance Of Underwater Welding

Principle Of Operation
Classification
Wet/Dry Underwater Welding
Advantages& Disadvantages
Risk Involved & Safety
Applications
Future Scope
References

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what is an Under water welding???

Many of us won't have heard of under water

welding but it's actually a very important thing in
many industries. Underwater welding includes a lot
of different processes that join steel on offshore oil
platforms, pipelines & ships etc. under water. At
present, underwater welding becomes more
sophisticated and can be done deeper. GTAW has
been used to weld pipes at depths of 200 ft (61 m)
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Principle of Operation
The welding circuit must include a positive type of switch,
usually a knife switch operated on the surface and commanded
by the welder and is used for safety reasons.

When DC is used with +ve polarity, electrolysis will take place

and cause rapid deterioration of any metallic components in the
electrode holder.
Waterproof Electrode
Power Supply

_-

Holder

+
electrode

work

Knife switch

For wet welding AC is not used on account of electrical safety

and difficulty in maintaining an arc underwater
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Underwater welding is classified

into two categories
1.Welding in-the-wet environment
2.Welding in-the-dry environment

Dry welding
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Wet welding
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Welding in the wet environment

As the name implies, underwater wet welding is done

in an environment where the base metal and the arc

are surrounded entirely by water. In wet welding MMA
(manual metal arc welding) is used.

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
8 the diver/welder via cables

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Advantages

cheapest and fastest method

tensile strength is high
easy of access the weld spot
no habitat, no construction,
no waste of time
Disadvantages

Rapid quenching decreases impact

strength, ductility

Hydrogen embrittlement,cracks
Poor visibility in water
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Hyperbaric(dry) welding
Hyperbaric welding is a welding in which a chamber is
sealed around the structure to be welded and is filled with
breathable gas(commonly helium containing 0.5 bar of
oxygen) at the prevailing pressure. at which the welding
is to take place. This method produces high-quality weld
joints

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

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Dry welding

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Advantages of Dry welding

Welder/diver safety
Good quality welds
Surface monitoring
Non destructive testing

Disadvantages

Higher cost of
process,training,etc.,.

Large quantity of costly and

complex equipments.

More deep,more energy is

required

Cant be weld,if weld spot is at

unreachable places

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Risk Involved &

safety
Electric shock Explosion.
Precautions include achieving adequate electrical insulation

of the welding equipment, shutting off the electricity supply

immediately the arc is extinguished, and limiting the opencircuit voltage of MMA (SMA) welding sets

Hydrogen and Oxygen are produced during welding.

Precautions must be taken to avoid the build-up of pockets

of gas, which are potentially explosive

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
Inspection of welds.

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 Application of Underwater
Welding

Offshore construction for tapping sea

resources,

Temporary repair work caused by

ships collisions or unexpected
accidents.

Salvaging vessels sunk in the sea

Repair and maintenance of ships
Construction of large ships beyond
the capacity of existing docks.

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 Scope for further developments

Wet MMA is still being used for underwater
repairs, but the quality of wet welds is poor
and are 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,.

Developments of driverless Hyperbaric

welding system is an even greater challenge
in developments like pipe preparation and
aligning, automatic electrode.

This is in testing stage in deep waters.

Explosive and friction welding are also to be
tested in deep waters.

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Friction welding (FRW)

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REFERENCE
Underwater

Welding Present Status And Future

Scope.Jyotsna
Dutta
Majumdar.Department
Of
Metallurgical And Materials Engineering, Indian Institute
Of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

Underwater

Welding Amit Mukund Joshi (Mechanical

Engineer)
,Junior
Research
Fellow
Mechanical
Engineering Department ,Indian Institute Of Technology
,I.I.T Bombay
Annon, Recent Advances In Dry Underwater Pipeline
Welding, Welding Engineer, 1974.
Lythall, Gibson, Dry Hyperbaric Underwater Welding,
Welding Institute.

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THANK YOU

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