HYDROGEN INDUSED CRACKING

HYDROGEN INDUSED CRACKING

Hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) is also known as cold cracking, delayed cracking or under bead cracking. The term hydrogen induced cracking has been introduced to designate cracking sometime encounted in pipelines or vessel as a result of hydrogen picked up in service. It is occurs in steels during steel manufacturing, during fabrication and in service. It is occur as a result of welding the cracks are sited either in HAZ of parent material or in the weld metal it self.

NORMALY HIC CAN BE SEEN IN FOLLOWING TWO REGION IN MATERIAL Cracking in HAZ Cracking in weld metal

CRACKING IN HAZ
HYDROGEN INDUSED CRACKING IN HAZ OCCURS WHEN THE CONDITION OUTLINED BELOW 1. HYDROGEN IS PRESENT TO A SUFFICIENT DEGREE This is inevitably present derived from moisture in the flux used in welding and from other sources. It is absorbed by the weld pool and some is transferred to the HAZ by diffusion.

2. TENSILE STRESS ACT ON THE WELD

These aries inevitably from thermal contractions during cooling and may be supplied by other stresses developed as a result of rigidity in the parts to be joined. 3. ASUSCEPTIBLE HAZ MICROSTRUCTURE IS PRESENT That Part Of The HAZ Which Experiences A High Enough Temperature Of The Parent Steel To Transform Rapidly From Ferrite To Austenite The Back Again Procedures Microstructure Which Are Usually Harder And More Susceptible To Hydrogen cracks, when present are Invariably Found In This Transformed Region 4. A LOW TEMPERATURE IS REACHED The greatest risk of cracking occurs when temperature near ambient are reached and cracking may thus take place several hours after welding has been completed. Cracking is unlikely to occur in structural steel above about 150oc and in any steel above about 250oc.

CRACKING IN THE WELDMETAL

Hydrogen cracking can occur in the weld metal as well as in the HAZ.Weldmetal hydrogen cracks can be oriented longitudinally or transverse to the weld length.while in the transverse orientation they can be either perpendicular or angled.typically at approximately 450 to the weld surface. The cracks may be buried or may break the weld surface.under microscope they are usually recognized as being predominantly transgranualar.although in more alloyed deposits there is an increasing proportion with intergranualat morphologies.

FACTOR RESPONSIBLE FOR CRACKING The following are factors responsible for cracking Hydrogen level Stress level Type of microstructure Temperature HYDROGEN LEVEL
During welding, hydrogen is absorbed by the weld pool from the atmosphere.

During cooling much of this hydrogen escapes from the solidified bead by diffusion but some also diffuse in to the HAZ and the parent metal. The amount of hydrogen is depends on several factors such as the original amount absorbed, the size of the weld, the decreasing solubility and the time temperature condition of cooling.

So more presence of hydrogen in the metal is the greater the risk of cracking. The main source of hydrogen is welding consumable and the base metal. The principle sources of hydrogen in welding consumable are

1) Moisture in the coating of manual metal arc electrodes, in the flux used in submerged arc welding or in the flux cored wires. 2) Any dirt and grease either on the surface or trapped in the surface layers of welding wires. 3) Hydrogen oxide (e.g. rust on the surface of welding wires) The principal sources of hydrogen from the material to be welded are

1) Oil, grease, dirt paint, rust etc on the surface and adjacent to the weld preparation, these can break down to produce hydrogen in the arc atmosphere. 2) Degreasing fluids used to clean surface before welding may likewise break down to produce hydrogen. 3) Hydrogen from parent steel,either remaining from the original casting process (particularly in the interior of heavy section)

STRESS LEVEL

1) Stresses are developed by thermal contraction of the cooling weld and these stress must be accommodated by strain in the weldmetal 2) The presence of hydrogen appears to lower the stress level at which cracking will occur. 3) In rigid structures the natural contraction stresses are intensified because of the joint. These stresses are concentrated at the toe and root of the weld and also at notches constituted by inclusion and other defects. 4) The higher degree of strain which result produce higher risk of cracking for a given microstructure it can be considered that the some risk of cracking exists but at a lower mocrostructural susceptibility. 5) The stress acting upon a weld is a function of weld size,joint geometry,fit-up,external restraint and the yield strengths of the parent steel and weld metal.

TYPE OF MOISTURE
HAZ is raised to a high temperature during welding and subsequent rapid cooling by surrounding during welding and subsequent repaid cooling by surrounding parent metal cause hardening Close to the fusion boundary, the HAZ is raised to a sufficiently high temperature to produce a corse grain size. Because of corse grain size the high temperature region is not only more hardenable but also less ductile than regions further from the fusion boundary So it is thus the region in which the greatest risk of cracking exists. For carbon-manganese and low alloy steels, the harder the microstructure the greater is the risk of cracking, soft microstructure can tolerate more hydrogen than hard before cracking occurs.

TEMPERATURE
Hydrogen Diffusion Rate Is Very High At High Temperature.

During (at high temperature) welding hydrogen is absorbed and after welding when weld metal cooling down hydrogen escape from the weld bead or base material Hydrogen embrittlement of ferritic steels occurs only at low temperature.

DETECTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF HYDROGEN INDUSED CRACKING

Hydrogen cracks are normally very fine and difficult to detect, even when they break the surface, which they often do not. For cracks, which are present at the surface magnetic particle inspection (MPI) is the preferred technique. Although dye penetrant should be used if non-ferritic filler (e.g. an austinic stainless steel or a nickel alloy) has been used. For buried cracks, ultrasonic examination is greatly preferred to radiography. Radiography is only capable ofdetecting crack has that are relatively wide and are almost parallel to the incident beam. If a crack has formed in the rootregion of a two-side multipass butt weld the residual stress pattern in the root on completion of welding will usually be such that this region is in compression and this will tend to force together the two faces of any cracks, making them very difficult to detect until the weld has been give postweld heat treatment If it is suspected that transverse 45 0 weld metal cracks may be present,it is necessary to carry out un ultrasonic examination using 450 probe in both direction along the top of the weld seam.the usual 900 probe is not capable of detecting such cracks