Proceedings of The Twelfth (2002) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference
Kitakyushu, Japan, May 26-31, 2002
Copyright 0 2002 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers ISBN l-880653-58-3 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set) Characteristics of TMCP steels and their welded joints used for hull structures kfasahiro Toyosada Department of Marine Systems Engineering, Kyushu University Fukuoka, Japan ABSTRACT TMCP steels were developed in Japanese steel makers about 20 years ago. They are extensively used in ship building industry and are diversifying to other industries such as marine structures, bridges and so on. Reentry European and Korean steel makers produce TMCP steel also. They have not only great merits but also possible demerits. In this paper, these merits and demerits are explained in addition to recent topics in Japan about TMCP steel. KEY WORDS: TMCP steel; low carbon equivalent; weldability; toughness; fatigue strength; softening of HAZ; distortion; residual stress INTRODUCTION For recent years, ships with extensive use of high tensile steels with tensile strength of 5OOMPa class (HT-500) have increased more and more in number in Japan for the purpose of reducing their hull weight, thus leads to reduce its material cost. This is because Thermo- Mechanical Control Process (TMCP) has been developed and TMCT steels have good weldability due to their low C,, Though Japanese steel makers developed TMCP steels that meet the extensive demand of strength and toughness for line pipe had become a center of attraction from Japanese shipbuilders. The shipbuilders have utilized various highly efficient welding technologies in their fabrication. Accordingly, a great deal of joint work among them including university professors has been carried out to put such steel and welding technology into practical use in the Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan (SR193), that has resulted in the accumulation of an abundance of useful data. This paper shows the characteristics of TMCP steels and their welded joints from the viewpoints of welding procedures, fracture toughness and fatigue strength, which is summarized mainly in the SR193 committee (1985). Moreover recent topics about TMCP steels are also explained. CLASSIFICATION AND METALLURGY OF TMCP STEEL TMCP steels are basically classified into two types: non-accelerated cooling (Non-AcC) and accelerated cooling (AcC) processes. Fig.1 shows a schematic diagram of TMCP in comparison with conventional rolled process. Time Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of thermo-mechanical control process (TMCP) (TMR: thermo-mechanical rolling, AcC: accelerated cooling, AC: air cooling) Non-AcC process consists of (1) low slab reheating temperature and (2) intensification of rolling reduction in the austenite unre- crystallized region. The controlled rolling is finished either in the region of austenite or in the intercritical region, austenite + ferrite (r+a). In AcC process, accelerated cooling is carried out after controlled rolling. Cooling rate and finishing-cooling temperature in the process are controlled depending on required properties. Maximum available thickness in AcC type TMCP steel is 100 to 200 mm at present. 385 Fig.2 Microstructural changes of austenite and subsequent transformation during TMCP Fig.2 shows the schematic metallurgical changes of TMCP steel during the process from slab reheating to final cooling. The purposes of lowering the slab reheating temperature are: (1) refining the initial austenite grain size before rolling, (2) promotion of recrystallization and expansion of the recrystallized region to a lower temperature, and (3) grain refinement of recrystallized austenite grains by rolling in the recrystallized region. Intensification of rolling reduction in the unrecrystallized region results in an increase in austenite grain boundary surface per unit volume and density of deformation band in the matrix of austenite grains. It greatly contributes to the refinement of the microstructure after transformation. In addition, accelerated cooling after controlled rolling plays a role of clogging the growth of grain size. Fig.3 shows an example of the relation between tensile strength and C,,. It can be understood that TMCP brings about further improvement in strength. The increment of tensile strength for TMCP steel comes from the refinement of the microstructure, which can be predicted by Petchs law. From the figure, we can make steels with low C,, by TMCP compared with conventional process. As for ship structures and offshore structures, 320, 360 and 400 MPa yield strength class HT-500 steels, which have experience to be used for actual ship hull. Obviously, AcC type TMCP steel has quite 6oo- I 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 C,, = (C+Mn/6+Si/24) [%] Fig.3 Relationship between C,, and strength less C,, than conventional steel. Since TMCP steel is characterized by its low C,, (or low C) and its fine microstructure, some merits and demerits are considered to bring up as follows. MERITS OF TMCP STEELS Since its low C,, and low C characterize TMCP steel, the hardn- ability and cold cracking susceptibility of HAZ of TMCP steel are expected to be improved compared with conventional steels. 600 z Ei : 500 I & 2 2 400 B F u ii 1 300 5 E X 9 200 0 50 100 150 Bead length lmml Fig.4 Relationship between maximum hardness numbers and bead length Fig.4 shows the results of maximum hardness test for HT-500 steels with yield strength of 320MPa (YP320) and 360MPa (YP360) classes in accordance with JIS maximum hardness testing. As seen in the figure, the maximum hardness decreases as C,, is lowered and bead length becomes large. Since it has the possibility of generation of micro- cracking in the HAZ if the maximum hardness becomes larger than 400Hv or more, JSQS (Japan Ship Quality Standard) exhibits the short bead with length less than 50mm for conventional HT-500 steel. From the figure, short bead with length greater than 1 Omm can be applied for YP320 and YP360 AcC type TMCP steels of which C,, is generally less than 0.36% \z?-TMCP YP32d . YP360 steel Plates 0 Bead length [mm] Fig. 5 Relationship between H,,, and welded bead length 386 Fig.5 (Machida et al, 1988) is the relation between the maximum hardness in the HAZ and bead length for YP320 and YP360 AcC type TMCP steels. The YP400 class steels are nearly equal with the Non- AcC type TMCP manufactured YP320 and YP360 steels as regards the hardening of HAZ. This may be because the C,, upper limit remained almost same. From the viewpoint of maximum hardness being not in excess of 400Hv, bead length may be allowed up to 30mm for YP400 AcC type TMCP steel, and YP320 and YP360 Non-AcC type TMCP steel. I I , 100 P 0 t -1 0% Q 00 L I I 0.26 0.3 0.34 0.38 C,, (WES)=C+Si/24+Mn/6+Nil40+Cr/5+Mol4+V/14 [%] 01 ' I ' ' ' 1 0 10 20 30 40 50 Heat input [MJ/m] Fig.7 Relationship between heat input and HAZ toughness at fusion line in comparison with AcC and non-AcC type of TMCP steel plates and conventional steel plates While many methods of cold cracking test have been proposed, JIS small Y-groove cracking test is used here for summarizing the data on the cold cracking susceptibility of the HAZ for HT-500 steels. Fig.6 shows the effect of C,, on the critical preheating temperature to prevent cold cracking of conventional steels and AcC and Non-AcC type TMCP steels by using small Y-groove cracking test. As the small Y-groove cracking test specimen has very large constraint, the critical preheating temperature to prevent cold cracking in the small Y-groove cracking test is higher by about 75C than that applicable to welded joint in general steel structures. Therefore it can be said that in actual welding operation using low-hydrogen electrodes, preheating may be unnecessary at the ambient temperature of over 0C. Moreover the application of medium hydrogen electrodes becomes possible as shown in Table 1. - NO 3M-1 3M-2 1M-3 - ,M-4 - Table 1 Weld cracking susceptibility of TMCP steels - stee - - iH36 - IH36 - H36( - N no crack rhdaess [mm1 14 35 Hydrogen content [rn/lOOg] 4 20 20 20 (**) (I) At startmg end (II) At mddle (III) At timshmg end The reduction of the C,, served effectively for toughness improvement of the HAZ, particularly when high heat input welding is used. This is generally proved by the fact that the welded joint toughness of mild steels is superior to that of high tensile steels. This is due to the formation of fine ferrite by the lowered hardenability as well as reduced volume fraction of island martensite and also reduced amount of cementite. However, the reduction in C,, generally brings about a reduction in strength of the plates. Therefore, in conventional manufacturing methods such as as-rolled or as-normalized processing, efforts were made to adjust the MnK ratio or to replace C by Ni or Cu 387 to suppress C,, as low as possible. By these techniques, however, no substantial reduction of C,, would be achieved to improve HAZ toughness. As mentioned previously, the reduction of C,, can be achieved by applying TMCP. Fig.7 shows an example of the relationship between heat input and HAZ toughness at fusion line in comparison with AcC and Non-AcC type TMCP steel plates and conventional steel plates. AcC type TMCP, in particularly, brings about further improvement in toughness and makes possible to be applied for very high heat input welding. It is natural that the improvement of HAZ toughness leads to increase fracture toughness such as critical CTOD and Kit for the welding joints. F HAZ ::<I I Base metal fusion HAZ line bondary a) Afler single thermal cycle g------ f,,, I I I I I I ./I- I I I I I I I I j I I coarse : : grain I fine grain I I realm I rwon ; 1 A,, fusion HAZ line bondary t .It- li L I IP - -Lnt ion.1 steel . intercritical region fusion line HAZ bondary a) Afler single thermal cycle + HAZ :j: + HAZ :j: I TMCP steel i I grains and intercritical region is the second deteriorated part. On the other hand, in the TMCP steel treated by adjusting microalloying and gaseous elements, typical deterioration is not observed after single thermal cycle. However after 2nd thermal cycle, new deteriorated microstructure generally generates in the intercritical region for 2nd thermal cycle at the coarse grain HAZ due to the first thermal cycle. This sudden deterioration is caused by the formation of the substructure named martensite-austenite constituent (M-A) or martensite islands. This deteriorated area is very small and is scattered around in the HAZ near the fusion line. Succeed thermal cycle of which peak temperature is over about 400 degree decomposes martensite islands, and then the toughness recovers. Although there are deterioration parts in toughness in the HAZ of TMCP steel, the HAZ toughness of TMCP steel is further high compared with that of conventional steel as shown earlier in Fig.7. - Base metal Temperature 1 / TK [x 1 Om3 K] Fig.9 Comparison of crack arrestability Moreover it is observed that Non-AcC type TMCP steel plates, especially the plate manufactured by TMCP which the controlled rolling is finished in the region in the intercritical region ( y + a ), have excellent brittle fracture arrestability through the refinement of grains as shown in Fig.9. Fig.8 Schematic illustrations about changes of fracture toughness in HAZ near the fusion line By the way, it is well known that many different microstructures generate in HAZ depending on thermal cycles due to welding and chemical composition of steel. Fig.8 shows the typical schematic changes of toughness in HAZ near the fusion line considered from the Charpy test results for the plate with simulated welding thermal cycle. Fig.Sa) shows the schematic changes of toughness after single thermal cycle. Generally speaking, HAZ near the fusion line is the most deteriorated part in conventional steel due to the generation of coarse Microstructure in Mid-thickness Mmostructure in Surface Layer with Ultra-Fine grains (SIJF) Photo 1 Microstructure of SUF steel 388 By the way, temperature at the layer close to plate surfaces rises after stopping AcC with high intensity of cooling. Grains of microstructure after rolling in the intercritical region under temperature rising process become finer than under temperature cooling process. Then Rolling technique after finishing AcC had been studied and plates with layer with quite fine grains of 1 to 3 b m close to the surface, as shown in photo 1, are then developed. They are called SUP steel plate and show ultra high arrestability for brittle crack propagation (Ishikawa et al, 1997) POSSIBLE DEMERITS OF TMCP STEELS Since TMCP steels obtain sufficient strength and toughness without heat treatment, the problems in strength will mainly create due to reheating such as by hot working and PWHT. Although some countermeasures for the problems due to hot working and PWHT have been already prepared, the explanation about these is intended to delete here because hot working and PWHT are usually not applied for ship hull structures. TMCP steel plates, due to their low C,,, tend to decrease their welded joint strength through the softening of HAZ caused by high heat input welding with heat input greater than about 70kJ/cm. On the contrary the softening of the HAZ does not appear in the normal steel because of reinforcement by alloying elements. However, the decreased HAZ strength stays at a level of about 90% or more of that of the base plate and the width of the softened HAZ is less than about 70% of the plate thickness, even when the very high heat input welding, say 300kJ/cm, is applied. This comes from the restriction of lower limit of C,, as shown in Table 2. Table 2 Range of C,, for HT-500 steel Therefore, no problems will arise in securing the required strength. Moreover if the width of the tensile test specimen is 10 times the specimen thickness, the joint strength is far greater than that of the standard small width specimen as shown in Fig.10. I AcC type iMCP steel 5~0 (AH320. C,,=O 25%. t=25mm) Solid marks Flush ~ 520 a ;5001 +-----? 1 iYl a, = 2 480 P : a ________________________________________------ 0 NK rule ( 490 [MPa] for YP320 steel ) 460 ________________________________________---------------------------- Tensile strength of softened HA2 NK rule ( 490 [MPa] for YP360 steel ) I. I-. I. I. I I 0 100 200 300 400 Specimen width , W [mm] Fig. 10 The effect of plate width on the tensile strength of welded joint The softened HAZ may affect the buckling strength as well as the tensile strength. However if the softened HAZ is located away from highly strained zone such as plastic hinge lines that are located in the transverse direction in the middle of the panel plate, the reduction of the bucklina strenath due to the softened zone is nealiaiblv small. CO, sm-automatic CO, Gas shlelded Arc Process 0.1 IO4 IO5 IO6 IO' Number of cycles to fracture : N, Fig. 11 S-Nf curves (Base metal, butt welded joints) 0 Stress intensity factor range : A K [MPa m] Fig. 12 Relationship between crack growth rate and stress intensity factor range The existence of the softened HAZ in case of high heat input welding is also considered to decrease its fatigue strength. Fig. 11 shows an example of fatigue test results obtained from YP400 AcC type TMCP steel and its butt welded joints by CO2 gas shielded arc welding and FCB welding. The heat input for the FCB welding was 149kJ/cm. The vertical axis in the figure represents a dimensionless stress range obtained by dividing the cyclic nominal stress range oR by the base metal tensile strength oB. The solid line and the dot dash lines show the mean fatigue strength and the range of data scatter for CO2 gas 389 welded joints and FCB welded joints of conventional HT-500 steels respectively. Similar results were obtained for YP320 and YP360 TMCP steel welded joints. It is obvious that the effect of softened HAZ on fatigue strength for TMCP steel is almost the same as that for conventional steel with the same tensile strength. Fig. 12 shows the test results of fatigue crack propagation rate in the softened HAZ for AcC type TMCP steel. These joints were prepared by very high heat input welding as shown in the column in the figure. In this figure, the data for conventional steel welded joint is also included. From the figure, it can be also said that the fatigue crack propagation rate in the softened HAZ is almost the same as that in the HAZ for conventional steel. As explained above, the effect of the softened HAZ on fatigue strength of the joint is negligibly small. However it is well known that the fatigue limit of high tensile steel does not increase depending on its static strength at highly stress concentration area. So we must take care of this factor when high tensile steel is used. From the point of view, when high tensile steel, especially YP400 steel, is used, designers must carry out the detail stress analysis such as 3-D FEM and higher grade of detail design standards must be applied to reduce stress concentration of local areas where considered critical, such as (1) bracket end of bottom transverses, (2) openings, holes, cut-outs, (3) radius comers at connections, (4) toes of tripping brackets, and (5) tapering of faces in transition arrears. In the manufacturing process of AcC type TMCP steel plate, if the uniformity of temperature within the plate can not be maintained, flame cutting a plate into strips releases residual stress, thus leading to distortion as shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 13 An example of deflection after plate stripping To prevent this, high finishing cooling temperature is usually applied in addition to uniform cooling by controlled water pouring distribution for width direction of steel plate. This technique has been already established. But engineers in assembly sections on shipbuilding factories have been feeling empirically and vaguely that TMCP steels have larger scatter of distortion after thermal processes such as flame cutting and welding than conventional steel. Cold leveler with high press are developed for removing residual stress in TMCP plates after compressive yielding in almost half zone of a plate in thickness direction (Tani et al, 2001). Fine control of alloying elements, rolling timing and cooling rate in TMCP is of cause achieved for the purpose of getting sufficient strength, toughness and weldability. Fig.14 (Tani et al, personal communication) is an example of testing results of deflection after flame gas heating on lines parallel to the diagonal of 16mm thick steel plate with 2500mm width and 3000mm long. Heating pitches of 300mm were applied for both of normal AcC type TMCP steels and above developed TMCP steels. Heating conditions are the same. It is seen that scatter of deflection is very small each other in the developed TMCP steel after the reinforced cold leveler in comparison with usual TMCP steel. This steel is now under development with expectation of realization for block construction with high accuracy-of its shape and scale. loo- F .k 60 E .- P g 40 80 20 0 I - Steel 1 Steel 2 Steel 3 Steel 4 Steel 5 I I I I Usual TMCP Developed TMCP Fig. 14 Comparison of measuring deflection after flame line heating 100 100 z z . 2 . 2 g 50 g 50 mm 5 5 6 6 0 0 8 0.4 8 0.4 7 7 &- &- .P E .P E 540.2 540.2 $E $E mE mE (I)- (I)- 0 0 z 200 z 200 B B 5 5 5 5 -0 100 -0 100 2 2 b b 2 2 Q Q 0 0 -100 -100 0 0 100 100 2 2 IO Tempetture [Deg] Fig. 15 Results of V-notch Charpy impact test The last possible demerit is concerning about separation. Because of the enhanced strength of TMCP steel by controlled rolling, so-called separation or splitting is often observed in the fractured specimens taken from the longitudinal or the transverse direction of steel plates, especially in steel plate controlled rolled in the intercritical temperature region. Cracks called separation propagate in planes perpendicular to the main fractured surface and parallel to the plate surface during the final fracture process due to restriction force exposed in the thickness direction. Separation starts from an origin such as micro-orientation texture boundary or an elongated non-metallic inclusion such as MnS, 390 which would be formed or elongated during TMCP rolling. Separation is particularly observed in the fracture surface of V-notch Charpy impact specimens. Separation index is usually used for the purpose of quantifying the degree of separation, which is defined by SI =Cei/A (end> (1) where SI: separation index (mm/mn?), !, : Each separation length (mm), A: Area of main fracture surface. Fig. 15 shows an example of Charpy transition and separation index curves for a Non AcC type TMCP steel. Separations are observed only in the transverse or the longitudinal directional specimens. Separation depends clearly on the difference of toughness transition phenomena between transverse (or longitudinal) and plate thickness directions. The separation index indicates a maximum value at a temperature where the difference in toughness between in transverse (or longitudinal) and in plate thickness direction becomes evident as shown in Fig. 15. 5 H 0 F .g 8 -5 6 I t? t -10 g -15 O- O- O- O- OL -100 -50 0 50 TsCC02( L - Direction ) [Deg] Fig.16 shows the comparison between the plate thickness directional toughness and longitudinal directional toughness in CTOD tests. The horizontal axis and vertical axis in the figure show a temperature where the critical CTOD becomes equal to 0.2mm for the longitudinal and thickness direction in CTOD tests respectively. The small triangle marks are for AcC type TMCP steels of which V notch Charpy specimens showed no separation. The small circular marks are for conventional HT-500 steels. Ductility in the plate thickness direction has a mutual relation with sulfur content. So in the figure, the range of sulfur content of steels used is also shown. It is obvious from the figure that maximum separation index does not depend on sulfur content. It can be also seen that the degree of the deterioration in critical CTOD in plate thickness direction compared with in longitudinal direction for TMCP steels is almost the same as that for conventional steels except for the steel having excessively high maximum separation index of 0.6-0.7mm/mm2. Then it comes to conclusion that clean steel with a maximum separation index of 0.5mm/mm2 or less may not create any problem in its practical application. CONCLUDING REMARKS TMCP steels are excellent in terms of steel properties and ease of fabrication as compared with conventional steels. However there are some possible demerits. Then we must use these steels with carefully consideration about these demerits. 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