Numerical Simulation of In-Service Welding of a Pressurized Pipeline

Abstract

The temperature field and stress distribution for in-service welding of a flowing media, pressurized pipeline are simulated by use of the finite element method (FEM). In order to investigate the effect of flowing media on the temperature field of in-service welding, the results are compared with those of a no-flow case. It is found that the flowing media took away most of the heat effects from welding. The cooling is accelerated and the peak temperature of the inner surface of the pipe is much lower than that of the no-flow case. An experiment was performed to verify the accuracy of the numerical model. The presence of internal pressure, i.e., flowing media, in the pipeline significantly affects the postcooling axial stress distribution.