Influence of Post Weld Impact Treatment HFMI/PIT on

Mechanical Properties of Welded HSLA Steel with

Undermatched Filler Material

1,
Salina Binti Saidin, 1,3Dahia Andud, 1,4Khairulnizam Bin Kasim, 1,5Dendi P. Ishak

1
Mechanical Engineering
3
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia France Institute (UNiKLMFI), Bandar Baru Bangi Selangor Malaysia
4
Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdud Aziz Shah, Shah Alam
5
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

High frequency mechanical impact (HFMI) by Pneumatic Impact Treatment (PIT) is a new generation of a post weld
treatment using mechanical impact with the aim to enhance the structural life of dynamically loaded component. This
technique introduced the latest technologies which beneficial in the reduction cost of maintenance and replacements by
delaying and preventing the failure. HFMI/PIT is a higher frequency peening method to enhance the fatigue strength by
impacting particular pins pointed on the surface of the desired structure resulting in high compressive stresses with
recommendation 0.2 0.5mm depth range. The improvement of the fatigue behavior in such local areas can increase
significantly the efficiency of higher strength steel in the entire structure. This paper deals with influence of HFMI/PIT
on mechanical properties in HSLA butt welded plates to determine other beneficial of HFMI/PIT effectiveness. The
experimental investigations follows the standard AWS D1.1 tested in Universal Tensile Machine (UTM) and semi auto
Vickers Hardness tester. Further, the comparison of the tensile strength and hardness value in as welded (untreated) and
HFMI/PIT-treated specimens is to be established. The finding shows that tensile strength is improved and the fracture
location is shifted from critical weld metal to base metal area.

Keywords: HFMI/PIT, Fatigue Strength, Life Extension, Tensile Strength

1. INTRODUCTION

The new technologies always introduce a choice of modern material to manage needs from variety industries
especially heavy industries structure. Oil and gas industries are one of crucial industries, always demands a high end
material to ensure safety factor compliance and to reduce fabrication or maintenance cost due to harsh and risk
environment. Associated with that the development of High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steels has been driven by the
needs to reduce costs, the higher strength compared with conventional steel enabling thinner structures to be erected.
Normally HSLA known as modern steel which production techniques make steel grades available that perfectly fit to
these demands regarding their mechanical and functional properties. The major application for HSLA material are found
in structural applications such as building, tower, bridges, shipbuilding and the latest is offshore structures. The modern
HSLA steel produced by a various metallurgy production techniques which also influences the final demands on
mechanical and functional properties of the steel.

HSLA steels are also known as Microalloyed (MA) constitutes an important category of steels estimated to be
around 12% of total world steel production. These steel presented an enhanced mechanical properties and better
resistance to the harsh atmospheric compared with common rolled steels. The HSLA steels purposely produce by a low
carbon element which is around 0.05 to 0.25% to produce good formability and weldability. This steel also consists of
various arrangements elements of manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, copper, nitrogen, vanadium, niobium,
titanium, and zirconium [1]. The latest and advance delivery condition of HSLA material is produced by a
thermomechanical rolling process which known as Thermo-mechanically Controlled Processed (TMCP) steel. This
process refines the grain structure and lock strengthening to increase yield strength of microalloyed steels, maintaining
required points of ductility and weldability [2].

In this paper, HSLA steel produced by TMCP has been chosen for the research. The steel
grade S460G2+M particular in the European Standard and type as alloy special steel. This European norm standard
EN10225 was designed for an offshore structure application in harsh environments such as wave and sea water [1]. The
technical delivery condition state +M are shown that thermomechanical rolling process has been carried out on final
deformation in certain temperature ranges to achieve a fine grain material condition. The TMCP steel not only offers the
best safety and reliability, the steel also provides the basis for an excellent fabrication efficiency due to their good
weldability and formability. Thus, these steels can be engaged for highly efficient welding procedures necessary for the
serious production of offshore structure. The benefits of using HSLA steel in structures compared to normal strength steel
in the size of cross section reduced as follows [3]:

A decrease of the dead weight of the structure, from which the substructure and the erection profit,
Reduced cross section of welded joints by which fabrication and inspection costs can be reduced and higher
clearance heights under overpasses can be ensured.
Saving fabrication time and costs by smaller welds.

The welding of HSLA steels have a few issue regarding structural integrity encountered in fusion welding. The
issue are cracking, residual stresses, distortion and fatigue damage. These are the problems of HSLA steels, the heat
affected zone (HAZ) is prone to failure due to the possibility of hydrogen induced cracking and only way to weld such
steels is to use low hydrogen ferritic steel filler wire and matching with the strength of base metal [4]. The preheat and
interpass temperatures require are relatively low unless the amount of carbon and alloy content increases and with
increasing of steel thickness.

According to DIN 8528 Part 1, weldability of a material is determined by three outer variables which are the
material to be welded, the influence of the manufacturing process and the design of the material to be welded. Every
welding criterion in the DIN 8528-1 is of equal importance and must be put into consideration [5]. A good weld
preparation and avoidance of defects which are likely caused by the welding operator such as lack of penetration or
fusion can lead to sound weld for all common structural steels. Some of the difficulties in achieving good welds in some
steels are as a result of extremes in heating, cooling and strains which come as a result of the welding process.

Special treatment how to improved strength normally introduce in the making process of the steels and controlled
that paramaters of the welding process. Other than that, the post weld heat treatment and modify the local geometry of
the weld toe might be the optional method. There are a lot of method to improve fatigue strength introduce in the steels
industries and not for tensile strength. But, the fatigue behaviour on welded structure details is strongly dependent on the
initiation of a crack, basically located at the weld toe or at the weld root, followed by crack propagation. The number of
cycles required to initiate a crack depends on applied stress, weld geometry and material properties. Crack nucleation at
the weld joint is related to the fatigue strength of the base material because the presence of the welded joint acts as a
notch [6].

The fatigue resistance of welded structures limits the use of higher strength steel in dynamically loaded
constructions. The principle of the fatigue resistance on welded structure is performed approximately same under the
normal conditions for normal mild steel and for higher strength grades. Therefore this theory shows, the construction on
dynamic loaded application are not influenced by a high strength grades on static loaded. The fatigue resistance of high
strength steel can be improved by reducing the notch effect of the weld details. An improvement of weld procedure give a
good quality of weldment and local stress concentrations as a comprehensive post weld improvement technique (e.g.
High frequency mechanical impact) and the option to enhance the fatigue strength of the structure.

High frequency mechanical impact (HFMI) is a common method to support technologies for improving the
fatigue strength of welded structures by locally modifying the residual stress state using ultrasonic or pneumatic
technologies. HFMI makes use of cylindrical indenters which are accelerated against a component with high frequency.
This method is known by many names: ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT), ultrasonic peening (UP), ultrasonic peening
treatment (UPT), high frequency impact treatment (HiFiT), pneumatic impact treatment (PIT) and ultrasonic needle
peening (UNP) [7]. These equipments are very trendy in the structural industries. In line with current technology, new
equipment has been created to deal innovate on the existing method such as pneumatic impact treatment (PIT) [8]. In
this study, the HFMI/PIT shall applied on the weld metal area in order to convert the tensile stress to compressive
stress, which is an important criteria to enhance the structural fatigue life resistant.

The main effectiveness of enhancement fatigue life by HFMI/PIT is focusing on the notch of stress concentration
area especially at weld toe. By reducing the stress concentration at the weld toe, the local hardness shall be increased and
compressive residual stresses are induced [9]. The treated steel surface toe area is severely deformed which undergoes
important work hardening. This leads to a high hardness of the treated zone, indicated by high hardness test values. There
are three factors in HFMI/PIT treatment which affect the fatigue strength: geometry of the toe, compressive stresses and
work hardening. [10] Therefore, the improvement of the fatigue behavior in such local areas can increase significantly
the efficiency of higher strength steel in the entire structure. [11,12]

Mechanical testing are carrying out to determine the mechanical properties of the steel that probably used for
design calculation, control of the material properties by the supplier, or as material welding procedure and welder
qualification programme. The most important purpose of the mechanical testing is to provide limiting values for that
structure material which can withstand without failure. The most significant mechanical test is tensile testing, hardness
test and charpy impact test. For this paper, tensile test and hardness test will be focus because this two testing have close
relation to determine the quality of the welding process properties and influences of HFMI/PIT application on HSLA
welded material.

Tensile test is most of common mechanical stress-strain tests; it is performed in tension load direction. The
specimen is subjected to deform until fracture with a gradually increasing tensile load which applied unaxially along the
long axis specimen [13]. The results from the test are important in design strength calculation and to select a suitable
material for an application, for quality control, and to predict how a material will react under other types of forces. The
results also govern on safety factor to prevent failure on application. There are a few properties that can directly
measured through a tensile test such as are yield stress, proof stress, ultimate tensile strength, maximum elongation and
reduction in area. In this research, the tensile tests was performed on as welded material which the specimens was
prepared as rectangular flat type. A tensile test specimens is a standardized cross section sample.

The ultimate tensile strength is the maximum amount of tensile stress that it can achieved before breaking. While
yield strength or yield point is a not sharply defined point which the stress of the material begins to plastically deform
and the specimen can endure without maintained the condition permanently. Yield point defines material properties point
which specimen deform elastically and returned to its original condition when the stress applied is transferred. The yield
strength is the mainly important property that the designer require to use or identify especially to determine the SN
analysis for fatigue design on cyclic load application and vibration.

2. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS

2.1 Specimen Preparation

In this experiment, the 10mm thickness plate of high strength low alloy, grade S460G2+M is used. The mechanical
properties and chemical composition criteria of the S460G2+M material used are according to EN10225 standard and
presented in table 1 and 2, respectively.
The plate has been welded by Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) process with ER70S filler material on 1G/flat
position. Refer to the AWS D1.1 classification for filler material SFA 5.28, ER70S are not advocated for the S460G2+M
steel due to the low yield strength, 400MPa and tensile strength 515 MPa minimum value. The recommendation filler
material for S460G2+M steel grade is SFA 5.28 ER80S according to the AWS D1.1 and ASME B31.3 standard. The
purposed of the filler material ER70S grade selected in this experimented are to study the undermatched filler material on
HSLA welding plate properties. To choose a suitable filler material for welding process, it is grounded on the base
material mechanical property specification such as tensile strength, yield strength and chemical composition. During the
welding process, a few parameters have been monitored to capture a full quality of weldment which affect on the tensile
strength, yield strength and hardness value. The test specimen in this research were separated into three classes which are
base metal, as welded and HFMI/PIT- treated. The root and cap of the welded specimen have been ground flushed and
the dimensions of the test specimens refer to the AWS D1.1 standard.
The HFMI/PIT treated has been performed on the four pieces of butt-welded specimen at the HAZ and weld
metal area where the residual stress is high and considered as critical hot spot area. The hot spot region is weaknesses
area which potential as starting point to initiate fatigue fracture.

Table 1: Mechanical properties of S460G2+M

Properties Specification for S460G2+M Grade

Yield Stress (YS), MPa 460
Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), (MPa) 540 700
Elongation, Lo (%) 17
YS/UTS (MPa) 0.93
V-Notch Charpy Impact (Joule) 60 J@ -40C
Carbon Equivalent Value (CEV) , Max 0.43
 Table 2: Chemical Composition of S460G2+M

Element (wt %)
C Si Mn P S Cu Mo Ni Cr V Nb
S460G2+M
0.15-
0.14 1.65 0.020 0.007 0.30 0.25 0.70 0.25 0.080 0.040
0.55

2.2 Post Weld Treatment : HFMI/PIT

HFMI/PIT has been performed on three pieces of ground flushed weld metal cap and root butt weld specimens. The
objectives of experiment are to dismantle others advantages of HFMI/PIT towards the mechanical properties of butt weld
which normally known HFMI/PIT is created to enhance the fatigue life of the structure. The HFMI/PIT principle is
compress the residual stress and modifies the stress distribution near the weld. This principle will produce beneficial
residual compressive stresses and modify the local geometry of the weld toe which to eliminate initial defects and
decreases local stress concentration [9] . Therefore, the specimens on this experiment have been flushed out the cap and
root of the weld before treated by the HFMI/PIT. The treated area have been experienced of excessive plastic
deformation which leading the specimen to work hardening and introduced a compressive stresses to improve fatigue
life. The figure 1 shows the Pneumatic Impact Treatment (PIT) equipment.

Figure 1: Pneumatic Impact Treated (PIT) equipment [ 9]

2.3 Experimental Procedure

All the experiments was performed at accrediated laboratory by using the universal tensile machine (UTM), and
semi auto microhardness Vickers Tester machine.

Tensile test have been performed on the two raw material specimens to determine the actual value of tensile
strength and verify the mill certificate value of S460G2+M material used. The raw material result value used as
guidanced and referenced for the experiment. Then the two as welded specimen was taken to carried out the tensile test
and the values have been recorded. A set of HFMI/PIT-treated consist of four specimens have been prepared and tested
too. The tensile tests were conducted by using a Hung Ta servo- hydraulic machine, model HT-8501 and the maximum
capacity machine is 50 tonne. All the tests were performed at room temperature and specimens were prepared according
to the ASTM A370-14 and AWS D1-2015 standard. The size of specimen is prepared with size L (length of specimen)
and Lg (gauge length). Figure 2 show the schematic dimension of the tensile test specimen.
 Figure 2: Schematic dimensions of the tensile test specimen

The tensile test results for the overall specimens are meeting the S460G2+M requirements but the location of
the fractured specimen for as welded are not meet AWS D1.1 specification. The as welded specimens have been fractured
at weld metal as shows in figure 3 and 4. The results were happened due to undermatched filler material used and lacked
of welder skill . The fracture surface area shows incomplete fusion at weldment inter-pass and the poor quality of
weldment. Then, the same test coupon have been treated by HFMI/PIT to study the influences and found the treatment
have shifted the weakness hot spot stress from weld metal to base metal. The tensile test experiment results shows the
HFMI/PIT-treated specimen was fractured at base metal on three of four test specimens tested and one specimen
fractured at HAZ. The example of PIT specimen fractured at base metal indicated in figure 5.This results proved that the
HFMI/PIT treatment also influenced the tensile strength by modified the geometry which eliminated the defects of the
weld and compress the stress on the weaknesses area such as weld metal. The summary of tensile strength analysis test
results as shows on Table 3.

The visual examination has been done on all the tensile tested specimens and the fractured location for each
tested specimen were recorded. From the visual examination, the mode of a fractured surface shows an approximated
value of tensile strength and the quality of the welding procedure. A good HSLA material have ductile fractured surface
and the best quality of weldment were fractured at base metal not supposed to be at weld metal area.

Table 3: Tensile test of S460G2+M results

Tensile Strength Average

Condition ID Position of Fracture
(MPa) (MPa)
T1 585.65 Base Metal
Raw Material 584.20
T2 582.75 Base Metal
T1 603.76 Weld Metal
As Welded 598.09
T2 592.42 Weld Metal
T1 584.08 HAZ
T2 630.93 Base Metal
PIT Treated 609.11
T3 589.15 Base Metal
T4 632.27 Base Metal

Figure 3: Specimen as welded after tensile testing break at weld metal

 Figure 4: Specimen HFMI/PIT- treated after tensile testing

Figure 5: Specimen HFMI/PIT-treated after tensile testing break at base metal

The same coupon of as welded and HFMI/PIT-treated have been taken and perform hardness test on the cross
section location. Vickers microhardness was measured using a semi-auto Mitutoyo microhardnes tester, model AVK-C1,
with load of 10 kgf (HV10).

The Vickers micro-hardness measurements were made on macro etched specimens and taken at the cross section of
the welds. The hardness measurements performed on as welded and HFMI/PIT-treated specimens at 1.5mm from cap and
root area, as indicated on the schematic hardness indentor profiles in figure 6 and macrohardness photograph as shows in
figure 7 and 8. The micro-hardness analysis results were presented in chart 1 and chart 2. The hardness results showed
the typical HSLA material hardness value for all location measurement. There are no specific hardness value
requirements for the S460G2+M material and even AWS D1.1 standard.

In order to compare the micro-hardness results, the cap and root hardness value were analysed to verified the
influenced of HFMI/PIT on the specimens. Refer to the chart below, the location cap and root for HFMI/PIT-treated
specimen shown an increased hardness value and more constant compared as welded specimens. The increment of
hardness value obviously shown at base metal and heat affected zone (HAZ) area. The increasing of hardness value are
due to the HFMI/PIT concept which modified the local geometry and deformed the plastically material by work
hardening.

Line 1 (cap) 1.5 mm

Line 2 (root)
1.5 mm

Figure 6: Schematic hardness test profile

Figure 7: Micro-Hardness photo for as welded specimen

Figure 8: Micro-Hardness photo for HFMI/PIT-treated specimen

250

200

150

As Welded (Cap) HFMI/PIT (Cap)

100

50

Chart 1: Hardness test value at cap for as welded and HFMI/PIT-treated specimens

205

200

195

190

185

180
As welded (Root)
175 HFMI/PIT ( Root)

170

165

160

155

Chart 2: Hardness test value at root for as welded and HFMI/PIT-treated specimens
3. CONCLUSION
An attempted was made to identify the influences of HFMI/PIT post weld treatment on butt weld HSLA material by
measuring the mechanical properties included weld metal tensile strength and microhardness value. From this
experiment, the following important conclusion is derived:

i. The overall location of tensile test specimen fracture has been shifted to base metal from weld metal and fusion
line after applying HFMI/PIT on the test specimen due to modification of the geometry on weld surface and heat
affected zone (HAZ). The HFMI/PIT performs on the weld metal and HAZ at the cap and root of tensile test
specimen. The HFMI/PIT proved that the modification and compression of the stress on the treated area which
can improve the weakness of the hotspot area to untreated areas.
ii. These experiments demonstrate that the HFMI/PIT post weld treatment also can enhance the poor welding quality.
iii. The tensile test values have increased 1.8% after applied post weld treatment with HFMI/PIT compared with as
welded specimen value.
iv. This paper also shows the hardness test value increased and provide a consistent value by treating with HFMI/PIT
especially on base metal and HAZ area.

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