Materials Science & Engineering A 599 (2014) 105 115

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Materials Science & Engineering A

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Characterization of the mechanical properties and structural integrity of T-welded connections repaired by grinding and wet welding
G. Tern a,n, R. Cuamatzi-Melndez a, A. Albiter a, C. Maldonado b, A.Q. Bracarense c
a

Instituto Mexicano del Petrleo, Eje central Lzaro Crdenas 152, Col. San Bartolo Atepehuacan, Mxico D.F. CP 07730, Mxico Instituto de Investigaciones Metalrgicas, UMSNH, PO Box 52-B, 58000, Mxico c UFMG Departamento de Engeharia Mecnica Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
b

art ic l e i nf o
Article history: Received 12 November 2013 Received in revised form 24 January 2014 Accepted 25 January 2014 Available online 2 February 2014 Keywords: T-welded connection Grinding Wet weld Microstructure Porosity

a b s t r a c t
This paper presents an experimental methodology to characterize the structural integrity and mechanical properties of repaired T-welded connections using in xed offshore structures. Grinding is employed to remove localized damage like cracking and corrosion and subsequent wet welding can be used to ll the grinded material. But it is important to dene the grinding depth and prole in order to maintain structural integrity during the repair. Therefore, in this work different grinding depths were performed, for damage material removal, at the weld toe of the T-welded connections. The grinding was lled by wet welding in a hyperbaric chamber, simulating three different water depths: 50 m, 70 m and 100 m. The electrodes were coated with vinilic varnish, which is cheap and easy to apply. The characterization of the mechanical properties of the T-welded connections was done with standard tensile, hardness and Charpy tests; microstructure and porosity analysis were also performed. The samples were obtained from the welded connections in regions of the wet weld beads. The test results were compared with the mechanical properties of the T-welded connections welded in air conditions performed by other authors. The results showed that the wet welding technique performed in this work produced good mechanical properties of the repaired T-welded connection. The mechanical properties, measured in wet conditions, for 6 mm grinding depth, were similar for the 3 different water depths measured in air conditions. But for 10 mm grinding depth, the values of the mechanical properties measured in wet conditions were quite lower than that for air conditions for the 3 water depths. However a porosity analysis, performed with a Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM), showed that the level of porosity in the resulted wet weld beads is in the range of that published in the literature and some samples revealed lower level of porosity. The main resulting microstructure was polygonal ferrite, followed by ferrite with second aligned phases and ferrite with second phases not aligned in the welding bead, which are typical microstructures of wet welding of A36 steel and electrodes E6013. The results also showed that with the methodology present in this work, one can restore the mechanical properties of localized damage in offshore structures when damage occurs at different water depths. & 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction Fixed platforms have been used extensively to exploit oil and gas in shallow waters, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Mexican territory. The platforms consist of parts like T-welded connections which are built using carbon steel. Most of these platforms have been in service for many years. However, the xed platforms need maintenance to complete and/or extend their service life in order to continue producing oil and gas in shallow waters. Most of such
n

Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: gteran@imp.mx (G. Tern), rcuamatzi@imp.mx (R. Cuamatzi-Melndez), aalbiter@imp.mx (A. Albiter), cmzepeda@umich.mx (C. Maldonado), bracarense@ufmg.br (A.Q. Bracarense). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2014.01.078 0921-5093 & 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.

platforms have been in service for more than 20 years, but they were designed for a service life of 20 years [1]. Therefore, there is a concern about their structural integrity as the common defect cracking has been found in T-welded connections [2], which arise in regions with high stress concentration factor (SCF), generally at the weld toe [3]. Accordingly, in order to extend the platform service life of the platforms, it is necessary to develop techniques to repair localized damage in the weld toe of the weldedconnections (cracking and corrosion). Currently, there are several weld repair methods. One consists of removing the cracking regions by grinding the damaged material [4,5]. This technique can retard fatigue failure and extend the service life, but additional wet welding can be applied in the grinded material for a successful repair of xed platforms. The wet welding technique has been

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Nomenclature BM FA FSA FS GWS GBF base metal acicular ferrite ferrite with aligned second phase sideplate ferrite gravity welding system grain-boundary ferrite

HAZ HIC HV SMAW WB WPS UTS elec

heat affected zone hydrogen induced cracking hardness Vickers shielded metal arc welding welding bead welding procedure specication ultimate tensile strength electrode diameter

used in the North Sea [610] and in the Gulf of Mexico [1114]. In such research works, the authors evaluated changes in the material properties of tubular joints, such as the strength, ductility and toughness [15]. This shows that the wet welding repair technique has proved to be acceptable for offshore structural components for water depths up to 200 m [16,17]. The wet welding is traditionally carried out by the method of shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). Authors have applied wet welding with modied electrodes to reduce porosity in wet welding [1823] to obtain good mechanical properties [2427], but the modied electrodes are quite expensive. Recently, Sanchez [28] presented a theoretical description of the cracking repair procedure by performing grinding for localized cracking removal and later applied wet welding for a T-welded connection. However he has not performed research work evaluating the mechanical properties of repaired wet welded joint structures, and there is no published research work with a combination of both the repair techniques(grinding and wet welding) even though the repairs have restored life service in damaged structures. Therefore, this work presents results that combine the grinding and wet welding damage repair techniques, which can restore the mechanical properties of localized damage in xed offshore platforms. It is also shown that porosity control plays a vital role in order to obtain suitable mechanical properties. The effect of grinding and wet welding on the quality of weld repair is also examined.

which denes the number of beads to be performed based on the thickness of the structures to be welded and the beveled structures employed in the fabrications of T-welded connections used to build xed offshore structures in the Gulf of Mexico. After performing each weld bead, the beads were cleaned manually with a wire brush to remove slag, continual inspection was also done to assure good weld quality, which was necessary for subsequent work. Supercial pores and irregularities were removed by grinding. Fig. 2b shows the resulted T-welded structure. Once the T-welded connections were performed, it underwent longitudinal grinding with a rectangular grinding prole at the weld toe, which was used to eliminate localized defects like supercial and internal pores, irregularities and cracking. The grinded weld toe is shown in Fig. 2; the grinding was performed using conventional cutting disks and grinding machine. The width of the grinding prole was 4 mm, which was enough to remove localized damage. Two grinding depths of 6 mm and 10 mm were performed at the weld toe.

Table 1 Chemical composition of ASTM A36 steel. Element (%) C 0.14 Si 0.22 Mn 0.76 P 0.014 S 0.009 Ni 0.01 V 0.003 Cu 0.008 Nb 0.002 Al 0.03 Ti 0.008

2. Experimental procedures 2.1. Dry welding To begin, T-welded connections were prepared and welded in dry conditions, as seen in Fig. 1, therefore steel plates of ASTM A36 steel were employed. The chemical composition of the steel plates is shown in Table 1. The welding was done following the SMAW process with electrodes type E6013. In order to obtain good weld beads, it was necessary calibrate the welding parameters as described in Table 2. Also, two different electrode diameters were employed to perform the dry welding process to obtain good quality of the welding beads, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The welding procedure was based on the following code: AWS D.1.1/D1.1M [29]

Table 2 Variables used for dry welding. Number of weld beads 1 2 3 4 and 5 Electrode diameter (mm) 3.2 3.2 2.4 4 Current (A) 80120 80120 6090 110160 Voltage (V) 2832 2832 2832 2832 Polarity Welding speed (mm/min) DC( ) DC( ) DC( ) DC( ) 254 355 203 254

Fig. 1. T-welded connection: (a) scheme, units in mm, and (b) dry T-welded connection.

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2.2. The wet welding procedure In order to simulate different water depths, a hyperbaric chamber was employed to ll the ground material by wet welding. The wet welding was done at the Laboratory of Robotics, Welding and Simulation of the Federal University of Mines Gerais of Brazil. In the hyperbaric chamber, three different water depths of 50 m, 70 m and 100 m were simulated. Fig. 3(a) shows the hyperbaric chamber employed in the analysis. The hyperbaric chamber had a capacity to simulate up to 200 m of water depth, therefore the simulated water depths were below the equipment limit. A gravity welding system (GWS) was used to apply the wet weld bead, which is broadly employed in the SMAW process, see Fig. 3(b). Therefore, the GWS was installed inside the

Fig. 2. Grinding at the weld toe for T-welded connection.

hyperbaric chamber, as shown in Fig. 3(c). Fig. 3(d) schematically shows the wet welding process. This simple welding process allows varying the angle of the electrode during deposition of the welding beads. In this welding process it is also possible to control the weld beads length and the internal deposition angle [20]. The developed wet weld beads length was in the range of 27 28 cm for electrodes with a diameter of 3.2 mm, while for the electrodes with a diameter of 2.4 mm they were in the range of 1920 cm. The internal angle between the electrode and the displacement guide was 601. The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 3(c). The velocity of the weld passes was also controlled by the GWS. Therefore, the speed of the electrodes was calibrated by trial and error. Then, the chamber was closed and pressurized with water simulating the three different water depths: 50 m, 70 m and 100 m (the applied pressures were 5, 7 and 10 atm, respectively). Once the chamber was pressurized, it proceeded to perform the welding passes; seven and three wet weld beads were created for the T-welded connection lled with grinding depths of 10 mm and 6 mm, respectively. For each grinding and water depth conditions, after each wet weld bead pass, the welded connections were taken out of the hyperbaric chamber and cleaned manually with a wire brush for the following bead pass, in order to remove slags and accumulated fusion gases presented after each weld pass. The electrodes employed in this research work were electrodes type E6013 with diameters of 2.4 mm and 3.2 mm. The length of the electrodes was 350 mm. The electrodes were coated with vinilic varnish. The smaller diameter electrodes were used in the corner

Fig. 3. (a) Hyperbaric chamber, (b) gravity welding system (GWS), (c) GWS located within the chamber and (d) welding process scheme.

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root regions. The calibrated welding parameters are described in Table 3. Fig. 4 shows an example of the wet welded structures T-welded connection by combining the grinding and wet welding techniques. A T-welded connection lled by wet welding with 10 mm and 50 m depths is shown in Fig. 4(a). Fig. 4(b) shows a magnied image of the weld bead by wet welding. An excellent morphology and good appearance are observed. These characteristics are typical in wet welding employed electrodes E6013 [18]. 2.3. Laboratory test analysis Samples for porosity analysis and standard specimens for hardness, tensile, and Charpy tests were prepared from the T-wet-welded connections to carry out the mechanical characterization of the wet-weld-repaired connections. Tensile tests were performed in a servohydraulic MTS Tinius Olsen Super L model 120/602 machine. The load was applied at a rate of 1.8 mm/min, following the recommendation of ASTM E23 [30]. The measured mechanical properties values are in the range of those published in the literature. The tensile and Charpy tests were performed at a test temperature of 20 1C, which correspond to the average temperature in the Gulf of Mexico. Therefore, most of the xed platforms operate at this temperature [32]. Because Charpy energy values can be used to relate the toughness properties of the structure with the microstructure of the weld joint, Charpy tests were performed for subsequent analysis in a Charpy machine model 74, with a capacity of 0.0274 ft lb following the recommendation of ASTM E23 [31]. The Vickers hardness tests were performed as recommended by ASTM E381 [33]. The microstructure analysis was carried out in the thickness direction of the T-welded connections to obtain a better representation of the microstructures (as seen in Fig. 5). Therefore, samples were prepared, polished and etched with Nital at 2% to reveal the microstructures. The material characterization also
Table 3 Variables used for wet welding. Applied current (A) 160 190 Electrode working angle Electrode diameter (deg) (mm) 60 55 2.4 and 3.2 2.4 and 3.2 Water depth (m) 50 and 70 100

included microstructure and porosity. To obtain the microstructures, a scanning electronic microscopy model Philips XL30 ESEM 25KV was employed. The weld porosity size was measured using an optical microscopy model Olympus GXSI, which has a digital image acquisition system. It has a magnication from 5 to 50 . The image analysis for weld porosity was evaluated as the relation between the pores area and the weld bead area. The pores size and porosity level were evaluated for each working condition. Fig. 5 schematically shows how the specimens and samples were obtained from welded connections.

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Metallographic and porosity analysis Fig. 6 shows the specimens used for the microstructures analysis; the gure also shows the grinded material region and weld bead passes number. It is observed that the levels of porosity are more severe for the 10 mm grinding depth. Fig. 7 shows the obtained macrographs, which were used to perform the porosity analysis and to measure pores size for the different water depths and grinding conditions. The analysis results are described in Table 4, where it can be seen that the higher level of porosity was found for the higher grinding and water depth. Fig. 8 shows the main values of porosity for both grinding depth in relation to water depths; it also shows that the percent of porosity increases with an increment of water depth. It is also observed that the pore size increases as the water depth increases, as shown in Table 4. In the microstructure analysis, different phases were identied: ferrite with second aligned phases (FSA), sideplate ferrite (FS), and primary grain-boundary ferrite (GBF). These microstructures are typical of these welding structures [17]. An example of the described microstructures is shown in Fig. 9. As stated by others, the acicular ferrite is formed in the wet welding process only by the addition of special elements in the welding metal, like titanium, boron and with suitable quantity of oxygen and manganese content in the welding metal [17]. But in the preset work, no such metals were added in the coating of the electrode. Therefore, only FSA, FS, and GBF were obtained at all working conditions. Some authors [17] showed that the distribution of GBF microstructure, in wet welds, remains in the range of

Fig. 4. T-welded connection: (a) grinding and lled with wet welding and (b) close view of the weld bead.

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Fig. 5. Schematic showing how the specimens were extracted from the T-welded connection.

Fig. 6. Samples of T-welded connections for different working conditions.

4750% for depths greater than approximately 50 m, which correlates with the value obtained in this work for the different grinding depths (6 mm and 10 mm) with electrodes coated with simple vinilic varnish. It was also observed that the content of FS

increased, from 12% to 16% with an increment of water depth along with a decrease of the percent of GBF, but for different grinding depths it remained almost constant (from 40% to 41%) for a water depth of 50 m. But for a water depth of 100 m, the GBF is

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Fig. 7. Cross-section macrographs for different welding and water depth conditions.

Table 4 Metallographic and porosity analysis for the different working conditions. Welding depth (m) Grinding depth (mm) Microstructure Average porosity (%) Average pores size (m) L 3 5 10 2 4 8 356 459 506 437 453 517 H 255 264 476 370 453 398

GBFa FSb FSAc 50 70 100 50 70 100 L Length. H Height.

a b c

10 10 10 6 6 6

48 49 50 47 48 50

12 13 15 12 13 16

40 38 35 41 39 34

GBFgrain boundary ferrite. FSsideplate ferrite. FSAferrite with aligned second phase. Fig. 8. Porosity variation as a funtion of depth and grinding.

3.2. Porosity formation mechanism around 35% and 34% for 10 mm and 6 mm grinding depths, respectively. This behavior can be attributed to the higher pressure for higher water depths, where the decomposition of H2O during the recrystallization of the microstructure promotes the development of such microstructures in the fusion of the electrodes at 1000 1C. Then, the oxygen in the weld beads remains constant, producing a constant rate of oxidation [17]. Table 4 shows the percent of porosity for the different working conditions. The pore size is around those reported in the literature [1820,22], as seen in Fig. 10. But in such research work, the authors employed modied electrodes (electrodes E6013 and rutile base electrodes), with special coated and aggregated materials, which is more expensive than the coated electrodes employed in this work, to

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reduce porosity formation. The analysis of porosity is shown in Fig. 10, where it can be seen that the porosity level is in the range of that reported in the literature, but using cheap electrodes coating. As noted, when the water depth increased from 50 m to 100 m, porosity also increased. This is because the gases produced during the welding process (H2, CO2 and CO) [17] are trapped in the wet weld beads [18]. It is also noted that larger pores were localized in the middle of each weld bead, as shown in Fig. 11. One mechanism of pore formation is the capture of gases in the wet weld beads, where the gases have to break the hydrostatic pressure and the high speed rate of cooling in the weld pool. The measured levels of porosity for the three water depths of 50 m, 70 m and 100 m at

Fig. 9. Micrograph of wet weld.

10 mm of grinding are 3%, 5% and 10%, respectively. And for 6 mm of grinding depth and water depths of 50 m, 70 m and 100 m the levels of porosity are 2%, 4% and 8% respectively. It can be seen that although each weld bead was cleaned for the subsequent pass, there were slag and pores in the weld beads, as shown in Fig. 11. As mentioned, porosity was caused by the gases captured in the wet weld matrix material (H2, CO and CO2) formed in the chemical reactions during melting of metal in wet welding [19]. In these conditions, the pores contain about 96% de H2, 0.4% of CO and 0.06% of CO2 in volume [17]. The slag by itself tends to reach the top of the weld bead because of its lower density; however, because of the hydrostatic pressure, they cannot reach the top and are retained forming porosity. Slag is also trapped in the weld beads, as shown in Fig. 11. This gure also shows that as the grinding depth increases, the porosity is more severe because pores size increases in a larger area of the weld beads. Figs. 12 and 13 show the plot of length porosity vs. height distributions respectively. Fig. 12 shows that the pore size distribution is similar for all the described conditions, except for 50 m of water depth where the pores are larger. An explanation of the mechanisms that create larger voids has been described previously, where the generated gases tend to move to the top of the grinding, and the pores have to overcome the hydrostatic pressure and escape from the weld pool. Similar behavior is shown in Fig. 13, as the peak value of the normal distribution is higher compared to the pore length. This can be attributed to the tendency of the gases to escape to the top of the wet weld pass and remain trapped in elliptical shapes. Then, under these criteria, the porous shape depends strongly on the height of the weld deposited material for the T-welded connections in each pass in an elliptical shape. Also it can form spherical shapes for the pores formed.
0.005

20 18 16 14 Porosity (%) 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 Depth (m)

Fig. 10. Porosity comparison with other authors.
0.000 0 0.001
ROWE-2002, Fe-Mn ROWE-2002, Ti-B, Fe-Mn ROWE-2002, Rare earth metal, Ti-B, Fe-Mn PREZ-2003 PESSOA-2007 SANTOS-2010 TERN-2013, 10mm of grinding TERN-2013, 6mm of grinding

0.004
Normal Distribution

50m, 10mm 70m, 10mm 100m, 10mm 50m, 6mm 70m, 6mm 100m, 6mm

0.003

0.002

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
Pore size ( m)

Fig. 12. Distributions of porosity height size.

Fig. 11. Pores formation mechanism and slag in the weld bead.

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0.005 50m, 10mm 70m, 10mm 100m, 10mm 50m, 6mm 70m, 6mm 100m, 6mm

0.004
Normal Distribution

0.003

0.002

0.001

0.000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200

Pore size ( m)
Fig. 13. Distributions of porosity length size.

On the other hand, Fig. 14 shows how the gases escape from the rectangular grinding and U-shape to the weld top when gases were developed during the metal fusion. From Fig. 14(a), it can be seen that for 4 mm of grinding width, the gases cannot escape as fast as possible in order to eliminate the possibility to create a high level of porosity. Therefore, one of the disadvantages of the technique developed in this work is that this type of grinding does not provide enough space for the gasses to escape during the electrode melting. Because of the limited width of the grinding (4 mm) and the diameters of the employed electrodes (2.4 mm and 3.2 mm), a different grinding shape may be more suitable to repair xed offshore platforms combining the grinding and wet welding techniques. Also a U-shape or circular grinding prole, with a grinding width of at least two times the diameter of the electrode employed (2elec), may be more appropriate for repair, as described by TERAN [3], as shown in Fig. 14(b). Such grinding prole may allow the gases to have enough time and space to escape to the weld surface reducing the level and pore size. Currently, there is still research work on developing coated electrodes for wet welding with low levels of porosity for water depth higher than 50 m. But such electrodes are not in the market as they are special electrodes. Also research work is in progress to develop criteria for dening proper width and grinding depths, lled with wet welding with the objective to get low level of porosity and small slags with vinilic varnish, which is cheap. 3.3. Tension, Charpy impact toughness and hardness tests Table 5 shows the mechanical properties of the T-welded connection for the described working conditions. Taking a mean value of 450 MPa as reference (air condition), for a grinding depth of 6 mm, it can be observed that the UTS for 50 m and 70 m of water depths are slightly higher to the reference value. While for a water depth of 100 m, the UTS decreased, this was probably caused by the higher porosity developed in this condition as the pressure has a strong inuence on the gases release rate. The UTS values are shown in Fig. 15, which shows that for 10 mm of grinding depth, the UTS decreased for the three water depth conditions, and it is more severe for the higher water depth as the repair was done at 50% of the thickness of the T-welded connections (the thickness of the plates is 20 mm). As described above, the mechanical properties are in the range of those published by others, showing that both the techniques applied are acceptable for T-welded connections repaired. The fracture surfaces of tensile specimens were also analyzed to characterize the fracture mechanism of the wet welding material. The analysis showed slag associated with the porosity

Fig. 14. Generated gases during the fusin and deposition of the welding: (a) rectangular prole and (b) U-shape grinded prole.

Table 5 Mechanical properties values for the different working conditions. Welding depth (m) 0 0 0 50 50 50 70 70 70 100 100 100 50 50 50 70 70 70 100 100 100 Grinding depth (mm) 0 0 0 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 UTS (Mpa) 448 450 452 440 427 456 404 417 399 337 400 388 474 465 483 467 382 465 426 411 462 Charpy at 20 1C Hardness (J) Vickers 232 339 329 19 19.7 25.1 19 19.7 15.6 10 12.5 10 16 18 18.5 16 12.5 9 19 16 14 169 159 159 216 205 195 294 228 216 228 216 216 228 272 238 458 302 210

600 550
Ultimate tensile strength (MPa)

500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Depth (m)
Fig. 15. UTS values comparison with other authors.
West-1990 Zselagoski-1992 Zselagoski-1998 Grubbs-1998 Rowe-2002 Perez-2003 Pessoa-2007 Teran-2013, 10mm of grinding Teran-2013, 6mm of grinding

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Fig. 16. Fracture surfaces of tensile specimens.

30 25 Charpy Impact Toughness (J) 20 15 10 5 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 Depth (m)

Fig. 17. Absorbed Charpy energy values for the wet weld material.

10 mm of grinding depth 6 mm of grinding depth

level. Therefore, slag was found trapped in the weld beads, as shown in Fig. 6. It was also observed that the porosity and slag are more severe for water depth increment for both grinded depths (6 mm and 10 mm). Higher level of porosity, associated with slag, resulted in lower UTS Fig. 16. Fig. 17 shows the impact Charpy energy values obtained for the different working conditions, where a decrease can be seen in the energy values with an increment of water depth. This behavior is caused by the higher level of porosity found inside the specimens and to the percentage of different microstructures, GBF, FS and FSA. The acicular ferrite (FA) is the microstructure that provides high toughness resistance to the material [17].

Adding special metals in the coating of the employed electrodes, like nickel [34] can result in the generation of high percent of FA formation, which can improve the mechanical properties of the wet welding material, but the employed electrodes in this work did not have special added metals. But with the methodology presented in this work, good mechanical properties were obtained. The fracture surfaces of the fractured Charpy specimens are shown in Fig. 18, which show slag and pores elongated with no strain distributed throughout the weld beads. The surfaces also show limited ductility which is related to the presence of slag associated to porosity, giving brittle properties to the welding material. In some fracture surfaces, cracks were observed which propagated through the elongated pores. As for the tensile specimens, for the smaller grinding depth, the pore size was smaller and therefore, the impact energy was quite higher. The hardness properties of the wet welding material were also analyzed in order to make a comparison with those published in the literature. It can be observed that the Vickers values increased with increment of water depth for both grinding depths. Being higher for 10 mm of grinding depth, this can be attributed to the fact that as water depth increases, higher percent of GBF, FS and FSA is generated in the welding metal which has a characteristic of having lower toughness values, and thus, the Vickers hardness values are higher. While in the heated affected area (HAZ), defects like hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) and martensitic microstructures can be obtained, because of the fast quenching process [17]. From Fig. 19, it can be observed that Vickers values, for 10 mm grinding depth, are higher for the 3 water depths (50 m, 70 m and 100 m); because of this condition, more weld beads (WB) are required to lled the grinding groove and the HAZ microstructure at the bottom of the weld metal is modied. While at 6 mm of

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Fig. 18. Porosity on the fracture surfaces of Charpy specimens.

550 500 450 400

Hardness Vickers

350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 0

SZELAGOSWKI-1992 SZELAGOSWKI-1998 ROWE-2002, Ti-B ROWE-2002, Ti-B, Fe-Mn PEREZ-2003 SANTOS-2010 TERAN-2013, 10 mm of grinding TERAN-2013, 6 mm of grinding

shown in Fig. 14. Therefore, more space will be available for the fusion gases to escape to the top of the weld beads. Also a U-shape grinding prole can also be used for the deposition of the weld beads as the bottom corners of the grinding will not be present (which can cause problems of wet welding lling at the corners). Therefore, with a better weld deposition in the bottom of the grinding, there will be a better weld material, which can sustain higher levels of stress. The Vickers's values were in range of that published by other authors. However, Charpy energy values are quite low for all working conditions; this behavior can be attributed to slag trapped in the weld beads.

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90 100 110

Depth (m)
Fig. 19. Hardeness Vickers values comparison with other authors.

4. Conclusions The mechanical properties of T-welded connections, employed in the construction of offshore xed platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, were restored combining grinding and wet welding using electrodes with a coat of vinilic varnish, which is cheap and easy to apply. The mechanical properties of the wet welding material were found to be in the range of the mechanical properties published in literature where the employed electrodes had a coating of special metals. Also, the mechanical properties obtained in the present work, are slightly higher compared to those measured in dry conditions. Homogeneous mechanical properties, good welding appearance and good morphology of the wet welding material were obtained in the longitudinal direction of the weld beads. Finally, the authors suggest performing a U-shape or circular grinding prole in the bottom of the grinding for a better wet welding repair of T-welding connections. A grinding width of at least about two times the diameter of the applied electrodes (2elec), can be suitable to allow the gases to escape during the fusion of the electrodes, reducing the level of porosity.

grinding depth, less weld metal is needed and between the weld metal and the HAZ there is a higher cooling speed, which contributes to the development of brittle cracks. Fig. 20(a) shows a crack originated by AIH between the bottom of the WB and the HAZ. From the gure it is observed that all the cracks are located between the HAZ in the lower part of the rst wet bead pass. Therefore, cracks can originate by the rapid solidication of the microstructure which show that some grains do not solidify after developing cracks, as shown in Fig. 20(b). The results showed that combining grinding and wet welding techniques, and calibrating properly the welding parameters, it is possible to restore the mechanical properties of localized damage in T-welded connections. As a consequence, the low level of porosity was more homogeneous than that reported by others. It was identied that in order to obtain low level of porosity, a grinding width of about two times the diameter of the bigger electrodes used in the present research work was performed, as

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Fig. 20. (a) Cracking in the HAZ region, and (b) cracking in the WB and HAZ interfaces.

Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank the research and postgraduate program of the Mexican Institute of Petroleum for the nancial support received in this research work, the Federal University of Mines Gerais of Brazil and the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas Hidalgo for experimental support. References
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