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application/pdf, Welding in the World. 2015, 59 (4), P.589-595

Due to the rapid improvement of digital cameras, especially the pixel resolution, digital image correlation (DIC) has been introduced to measure the deformation and strain of structures. Using digital cameras for the DIC technique is an easy and fast method for obtaining structural information, represented as all the pixel points in a photo. Because a wide range of structural deformation can be obtained with high accuracy, this method has the potential to be very useful. Currently, DIC can execute a measurement with high accuracy only when the out-of-plane displacement is small. When the out-of-plane displacement is large, the deformation causes the measurement error. Therefore, a stereo imaging method using two digital cameras is proposed in this study. The proposed method can measure not only in-plane deformation but also out-of-plane deformation with high accuracy without calibration of the errors caused by the out-of-plane displacement. In this paper, the measurement accuracy of the proposed method fo...

Displacement during welding provides important information to understand the mechanisms of welding deformation and residual stress. In particular, if welding deformation can be measured sequentially and the displacement distribution over full field can be measured such as the results obtained by finite element analysis, they can be valuable information. Therefore, in this study, a 3-dimensional (3D) deformation (in-plane and out-of-plane deformation) measurement method is developed using a digital camera, which requires no special equipment. This method is a non-contact method and it can sequentially measure over the entire photographed image. Furthermore, since image analysis is based on the technique of image matching, the method is applicable even when measuring deformation is large. In addition, since it is possible to use all pixels as measuring points, the number of available measuring points at one time is the same as the number of effective pixels of the camera. This is currently more than 15 mill...

Recent progress in gene-editing technology has provided a strong impact for improved our understanding of molecular functions in living organisms. Here we describe our method to generate transgene-overexpressing mouse models, which method involves the use of tissue-specific promoters for analyzing a certain molecule (s) in special tissues. The protocol described in this chapter uses the Col2a1 promoter-enhancer, which is known for driving specific and strong transgene expression in cartilage and is based on several of our studies showing a positive role of the connective tissue growth factor (CCN2) in cartilage-bone development and maintenance of articular cartilage. These mice show strongly accelerated endochondral ossification resulting in enhanced bone elongation, as well as resistance to age-related articular degeneration. This protocol also describes how to analyze the molecular mechanisms of these phenomena by use of chondrocytes isolated from CCN2-overexpressing cartilage.

The technique that can measure the transient welding deformation directly is very important for investigating the mechanism of welding deformation. In this study, an in-situ displacement measurement method using digital camera is self developed. This system is non-contact type and it does not need any complicated optical systems but it can measure the in situ displacement over the full field high accuracy using digital image correlation technique. Therefore, it is considered to be useful and easy to apply to practical problems. The number of measuring points that can be obtained at a time is more than 10 million. It is the same as the available pixels of the digital camera. Furthermore, since the active light source is not necessary in this system, the influence of the fluctuation of the atmosphere caused by the high temperature area is small. In this study, the detail of the proposed system is given and it is applied to the transient in-plane deformation problem under very high brightness lightened by we...

A three-dimensional (3D) deformation (in plane and out of plane deformations) measurement method is developed using digital cameras, which require no special equipment. This method is a non-contact method, and it can sequentially measure over the entire photographed image. Furthermore, since image analysis is based on the technique of image matching, the method is applicable even when the deformation to be measured is large. In addition, since it is possible to use all pixels as measuring points, the number of available measuring points at one time is the same as the number of effective pixels of the camera. In this study, the proposed method is applied to the sequential measurement of displacement under strong lighting levels in arc welding. Through the comparison of the results measured by a 3D shape measurement system (LAT-3D) using a laser displacement gauge and digital caliper, the quantitative validity of the proposed method is also verified.

In temper bead welding, hardness is one of the key criteria to evaluate the tempering effect. A neural network-based method for hardness prediction in the heat affected zone (HAZ) of low-alloy steel has been investigated in the present study to evaluate the tempering effect in temper bead welding. The new hardness prediction system was constructed by using a neural network based on the experimentally obtained hardness database. On the basis of the thermal cycles numerically obtained by FEM, hardness distribution in HAZ of low alloy steel welded with temper bead welding method was calculated. The predicted hardness was in good accordance with the experimental results. It follows that our new prediction system is effective for estimating the tempering effect in HAZ during temper bead welding and hence enables us to assess the effectiveness of temper bead welding.

A new thermal cycle tempering parameter (TCTP) to characterize the tempering effect during multi-pass thermal cycles has been proposed by extending the Larson-Miller parameter (LMP) to non-isothermal heat treatment. Experimental results revealed that the hardness in synthetic HAZ of low-alloy steel subjected to multi-pass tempering thermal cycles has a good linear relationship with the TCTP. The new hardness prediction system was constructed by using a neural network taking into consideration of the tempering effect during multi-pass welding, estimated by using the TCTP. Based on the thermal cycles numerically obtained by FEM and the experimentally obtained hardness database, the hardness distribution in HAZ of low-alloy steel welded with temper bead welding method was calculated. The predicted hardness was in good accordance with the experimental results. It follows that our new prediction system is effective for estimating the tempering effect in HAZ during multi-pass welding and hence enables us to assess the effectiveness of temper bead welding.

The Finite Element Method (FEM) is a powerful tool to predict welding residual stresses and distortions. However, it is impossible to analyse the hot cracking with a simple thermal-elastic-plastic FEM code, since the conventional FEM models only volumetric behaviour. Based on the interface element proposed for the cracking propagation problem, a three-dimensional FEM with a temperature dependent interface element has been developed. The proposed method is applied to the analysis of the pear-shaped bead cracking under narrow gap welding as one example of hot cracking in welding. Both the pear-shaped bead cracking and the surface cracking along the welding line can be simulated using the proposed method. Also, it is found that the heat input, the groove width, and the constraint under the solidification are the essential causes of the pear-shaped bead cracking.

To prevent primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC), water jet peening (WJP) has been used on the welds of Ni-based alloys in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Before WJP, the welds are machined and buffed in order to conduct a penetrant test (PT) to verify the weld qualities to access, and microstructure evolution takes place in the target area due to the severe plastic deformation. The compressive residual stresses induced by WJP might be unstable under elevated temperatures because of the high dislocation density in the compressive stress layer. Therefore, the stability of the compressive residual stresses caused by WJP was investigated during long-term operation by considering the microstructure evolution due to the working processes. The following conclusions were made: The compressive residual stresses were slightly relaxed in the surface layers of the thermally aged specimens. There were no differences in the magnitude of the relaxation based on temperature or time. The compressive residual stresses induced by WJP were confirmed to remain stable under elevated temperatures. The stress relaxation at the surface followed the Johnson–Mehl equation, which states that stress relaxation can occur due to the recovery of severe plastic strain, since the estimated activation energy agrees very well with the self-diffusion energy for Ni. By utilizing the additivity rule, it was indicated that stress relaxation due to recovery is completed during the startup process. It was proposed that the long-term stability of WJP under elevated temperatures must be assessed based on compressive stresses with respect to the yield stress. Thermal elastic–plastic creep analysis was performed to predict the effect of creep strain. After 100 yr of simulated continuous operation at 80% capacity, there was little change in the WJP compressive stresses under an actual operating temperature of 623 K. Therefore, the long-term stability of WJP during actual operation was analytically predicted.

Heavy thick steel plate is used for pipes and also ship structures, and multi-pass welding is usually adopted for the welding. Because of the heavy thickness, residual stress plays an important role, particularly in crack propagation. Implicit Finite Element Method (FEM) is often used as a welding analysis method to examine the residual stress of the welded plate, but it is not easily applied to multi-pass welding problems with tens of thousands of degrees of freedom, because of the huge computational time and memory consumption. Alternatively, it is possible to simulate the residual stress in shorter time with lower memory consumption by using Idealized Explicit Finite Element Method developed by the authors. Moreover, the computational time can be shortened by using Idealized Explicit FEM using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). In this research, Idealized Explicit FEM parallelized using a GPU is applied to the analysis of the residual stresses of the multi-pass welding joint of a pipe structure made of heavy thick steel plate. As the result, the residual stress simulated by the Idealized Explicit FEM corresponds to the measured residual stress. Furthermore, it is found that the grouping method may affect to the residual stress distribution.

Heavy thick steel plate is used for pipes and also ship structures, and multi-pass welding is usually adopted for the welding. Because of the heavy thickness, residual stress plays an important role, particularly in crack propagation. Implicit Finite Element Method (FEM) is often used as a welding analysis method to examine the residual stress of the welded plate, but it is not easily applied to multi-pass welding problems with tens of thousands of degrees of freedom, because of the huge computational time and memory consumption. Alternatively, it is possible to simulate the residual stress in shorter time with lower memory consumption by using Idealized Explicit Finite Element Method developed by the authors. Moreover, the computational time can be shortened by using Idealized Explicit FEM using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). In this research, Idealized Explicit FEM parallelized using a GPU is applied to the analysis of the residual stresses of the multi-pass welding joint of a pipe structure made of heavy thick steel plate. As the result, the residual stress simulated by the Idealized Explicit FEM corresponds to the measured residual stress. Furthermore, it is found that the grouping method may affect to the residual stress distribution.

Highly precise fabrication of welded materials is in great demand, and so microstructure and distortion controls are essential. Furthermore, consideration of process mechanics is important for intelligent fabrication. In this study, the microstructure and hardness distribution in multi-pass weld metal are evaluated by computational simulations under the conditions of multiple heat cycles and phase transformation. Because conventional CCT diagrams of weld metal are not available even for single-pass weld metal, new diagrams for multi-pass weld metals are created. The weld microstructure and hardness distribution are precisely predicted when using the created CCT diagram for multi-pass weld metal and calculating the weld thermal cycle. Weld distortion is also investigated by using numerical simulation with a thermal elastic-plastic analysis. In conventional evaluations of weld distortion, the average heat input has been used as the dominant parameter; however, it is difficult to consider the effect of molten pool configurations on weld distortion based only on the heat input. Thus, the effect of welding process conditions on weld distortion is studied by considering molten pool configurations, determined by temperature distribution and history.