IMPROVED PROPERTIES IN WELDED HY-80 STEEL FOR AUSTRALIAN WARSHIPS

In the construction of naval ships and submarines, it is important that the welded hull plate have maximum resistance to damage by shock loading, such as can be caused by exploding mines or torpedos. The aim of the present work was to qualify Australian HY80 steel for use in warship construction for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Achieving this objective required the development of welding procedures and the selection of welding consumables for manual shielded metal arc (SMA) welding of HY-80 plate to produce properties sufficient to survive explosion bulge testing. The SMA welding process was chosen for the investigation because it is widely used in shipbuilding, and yet tends to be the process that limits the mechanical performance of a hull. This is because operator variability precludes their attainment of consistently high levels of toughness provided by the semiautomatic and automatic processes. In addition, because it is often used for fit-up work, for regions of difficult access, and for repairs, SMA welding tends to end up in the joints that are most highly stressed and most vulnerable to cracking. Overall, the results showed that only the Code F electrode met the benchmark requirements for mechanical properties so that, given a soundly devised welding procedure, there was reason to believe that such a weld would survive the explosion bulge test.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Welding J., 66 (1987), p. 33 (Mar.) [12 pp., 18 ref., 4 tab., 9 fig., 6 phot.]
• Authors:
  • Rotter, J C
  • Dixon, B F
• Publication Date: 1987

Language

• English

Subject/Index Terms

• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00691720
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: British Maritime Technology
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 14 1995 12:00AM