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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Microstructure evolution of Al/Mg butt joints welded by gas tungsten arc with Zn filler metal

Based on the idea of alloying welding seam, Gas tungsten arc welding method with pure Zn filler metal was chosen to join Mg alloy and Al alloy. The microstructures, phases, element distribution and fracture morphology of welding seams were examined. The results indicate that there was a transitional zone in the width of 80-100 {mu}m between the Mg alloy substrate and fusion zone. The fusion zone was mainly composed of MgZn{sub 2}, Zn-based solid solution and Al-based solid solution. The welding seam presented distinct morphology in different location owning to the quite high cooling rate of the molten pool. The addition of Zn metal could prevent the formation of Mg-Al intermetallics and form the alloyed welding seam during welding. Therefore, the tensile strengths of joints have been significantly improved compared with those of gas tungsten arc welded joints without Zn metal added. Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Mg alloy AZ31B and Al alloy 6061 are welded successfully. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Zinc wire is employed as a filler metal to form the alloyed welding seam. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer An alloyed welding seam is benefit for improving of the joint tensile strength.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Characterization of microstructure and texture across dissimilar super duplex/austenitic stainless steel weldment joint by super duplex filler metal

In the present paper, microstructural changes across an as-welded dissimilar austenitic/duplex stainless steel couple welded by a super duplex stainless steel filler metal using gas tungsten arc welding process is characterized with optical microscopy and electron back-scattered diffraction techniques. Accordingly, variations of microstructure, texture, and grain boundary character distribution of base metals, heat affected zones, and weld metal were investigated. The results showed that the weld metal, which was composed of Widmanstätten austenite side-plates and allotriomorphic grain boundary austenite morphologies, had the weakest texture and was dominated by low angle boundaries. The welding process increased the ferrite content but decreased the texture intensity at the heat affected zone of the super duplex stainless steel base metal. In addition, through partial ferritization, it changed the morphology of elongated grains of the rolled microstructure to twinned partially transformed austenite plateaus scattered between ferrite textured colonies. However, the texture of the austenitic stainless steel heat affected zone was strengthened via encouraging recrystallization and formation of annealing twins. At both interfaces, an increase in the special character coincident site lattice boundaries of the primary phase as well as a strong texture with <100> orientation, mainly of Goss component, was observed. - Graphical abstract: Display Omitted - Highlights: • Weld metal showed local orientation at microscale but random texture at macroscale. • Intensification of <100> orientated grains was observed adjacent to the fusion lines. • The austenite texture was weaker than that of the ferrite in all duplex regions. • Welding caused twinned partially transformed austenites to form at SDSS HAZ. • At both interfaces, the ratio of special CSL boundaries of the primary phase increased.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1970

Improved welding of Rene-41

Gas-tungsten arc welding with a filler of Rene-41 produces strong welded joints. When Rene-41 is used, resistance to strain-age cracking is greatly increased by post-weld solution annealing in an inert atmosphere. Mechanical properties of Rene-41 and Hastelloy-W are compared.

Nunez, S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Oxygen-Free Welding Contact Tips

Contact tips for gas/metal arc welding (GMAW) fabricated from oxygen-free copper. Prototype tips tested in robotic welding, for which application intended. Reduces electrical erosion, increases electrical conductivity, and reduces mechanical wear. Productivity of robotic welding increases while time during welding interrupted for removal and replacement of contact tips minimal. Improves alignment of joints and filler metal, reducing rate of rejection and repair of unacceptable weldments. Utility extends beyond aerospace industry to mass production of various types of hardware, including heavy off-highway construction equipment.

Pike, James F.↗
DOE OSTI2010

Irradiation-Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking of Austenitic Stainless Steels in BWR Environments

The internal components of light water reactors are exposed to high-energy neutron irradiation and high-temperature reactor coolant. The exposure to neutron irradiation increases the susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels (SSs) to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) because of the elevated corrosion potential of the reactor coolant and the introduction of new embrittlement mechanisms through radiation damage. Various nonsensitized SSs and nickel alloys have been found to be prone to intergranular cracking after extended neutron exposure. Such cracks have been seen in a number of internal components in boiling water reactors (BWRs). The elevated susceptibility to SCC in irradiated materials, commonly referred to as irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC), is a complex phenomenon that involves simultaneous actions of irradiation, stress, and corrosion. In recent years, as nuclear power plants have aged and irradiation dose increased, IASCC has become an increasingly important issue. Post-irradiation crack growth rate and fracture toughness tests have been performed to provide data and technical support for the NRC to address various issues related to aging degradation of reactor-core internal structures and components. This report summarizes the results of the last group of tests on compact tension specimens from the Halden-II irradiation. The IASCC susceptibility of austenitic SSs and heat-affected-zone (HAZ) materials sectioned from submerged arc and shielded metal arc welds was evaluated by conducting crack growth rate and fracture toughness tests in a simulated BWR environment. The fracture and cracking behavior of HAZ materials, thermally sensitized SSs and grain-boundary engineered SSs was investigated at several doses (≤3 dpa). These latest results were combined with previous results from Halden-I and II irradiations to analyze the effects of neutron dose, water chemistry, alloy compositions, and welding and processing conditions on IASCC. The effect of neutron irradiation on the fracture toughness of austenitic SSs was also evaluated at dose levels relevant to BWR internals.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Effect of Weld Metal Composition on Microstructural and Mechanical Properties of Dissimilar Welds Between Monel 400 and Inconel 600

The current work was carried out to characterize welding of Inconel 600 superalloy and Monel 400. In the present study, gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) with four types of filler metals (ENiCu, ENiCu-7, ENiCr-3 and ENiCrFe-3) was utilized. The filler metals were categorized into two groups based on the presence of Cr and Nb in their chemical composition. This paper describes the selection and application of welding consumables in manufacturing dissimilar metal combinations. It was found that (Nb/Cr) ratio and Fe content can affect on the size and amount of carbides. During solidification of ENiCr-3 and ENiCrFe-3 filler metals, Nb leaves dendritic cores and is rejected to inter-dendritic regions because of its high tendency for segregation. However, No brittle Laves phase was detected in the welds. The interface between weld metal and base metal and gradual changes in alloying elements were also investigated by scanning electron microscopy. EDX analysis was also applied for different samples. Microhardness measurements and tensile test were performed on the joints. The average hardness value in the weld metal obtained from ENiCrFe-3 is higher than the other welds. ENiCu-7 weld exhibited the highest tensile strength of 540 MPa and percent elongation of 53% in contrast to ENiCrFe-3 weld with the lowest tensile strength (518 MPa) and percent elongation (39%).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Role of Computational Parameters on Predicting Self-Consistent Residual Stress and Distortion during Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Production of three-dimensional metallic parts through integration of an articulated robot and gas metal arc welding, also known as wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), can produce large-scale components with moderate geometrical complexity. This technology is particularly appealing due to its high deposition rates, scalability, and cost-effective feedstock compared to other AM processes. Despite its advantages, WAAM adoption is hindered by challenges in ensuring geometric conformity without extensive distortion, defect-free structures, and consistent mechanical properties. Finite element analysis (FEA) is often used to address the challenge of geometrical conformity. As the size of parts increases, the best practices for mesh size and temporal resolution known in the literature become computationally unviable. This research examined the effects of mesh and time-step resolutions during transient FEA of a large-scale (248 layers) metallic part. The impact of computational parameters on the thermal history, displacement, and residual stress distributions were evaluated. The results showed that predicted distortion was consistent across resolutions, while time-step length significantly affected predicted thermal history, and mesh size influenced residual stress distributions. To investigate this relationship further, directionally biased meshes were considered and analyzed. The results indicated that increasing mesh resolution perpendicular to the welding path yielded stress predictions that aligned closely with higher-resolution models while offering substantial computational savings. In conclusion, the significances of this research are related to verification and validation of WAAM models for widespread industrial adoption and pragmatic guidelines for optimizing computation parameters for balancing computational efficiency and predictive accuracy of residual stress and distortion.

Solsbee, Brandon [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, T↗
DOE OSTI2021

Produce ZrH Moderator Material

This reports complete Milestone M2.2.3 Produce zirconium hydride moderator material. In this milestone, we report the successful fabrication of FeCrAl alloys cladded zirconium hydride moderator. Different types of crucible designs were presented, including the basic design with bar cladding material, basic design with tube cladding material, and crucible design with position holding function. Mo and FeCrAl were used as the trial cladding materials. The welding techniques and procedures were reported and discussed. Totally three welding techniques were adopted in the development of moderator cladding, and they are electron beam welding (EBW), laser welding (LW), and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). After welding, all cladded crucibles were evaluated with two kinds of leak testing, the helium leak test for minor leakage and the bubble test for major leakage. Due to the concern of the poor neutronics performance, Mo was not ideal for future moderator cladding application. Therefore, detailed characterization of the Mo cladded zirconium hydride was not pursued. Instead, the characterization of FeCrAl cladded zirconium hydride was performed. We discussed two material conditions (i.e., as machined and pre-oxidized conditions) prior to the cladding process, evaluated thermal stability of cladded zirconium hydride moderator through directly measuring hydrogen release, and characterized the zirconium hydride following the thermal desorption measurement. The results showed pre-oxidized FeCrAl is capable of efficiently preventing hydrogen release from the moderator assembly.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1971

Bend ductility of columbium alloys WC3015 and Cb752.

Bend angles for columbium-base alloys, WC3015 and Cb752, at temperatures between -300 F and +500 F are reported. WC3015 exhibited a bend transition temperature well below -100 F, but was severely embrittled by silicide coatings. Cb 752 exhibited a bend transition temperature below -300 F, and the silicide coating application did not influence bend angle of the substrate. However, coating failure on both alloys was observed at less than 60 deg bend, even at 500 F. The effect of electron beam welding and gas tungsten-arc welding on the properties of WC3015 and Cb752 are also reported. Both techniques are shown to produce a marked reduction in the bend angle of WC3015. Unlike WC3015, ductility is restored in Cb752 after a suitable postweld anneal. Microstructural and hardness tests results for both alloys are reported and discussed.

Tavassoli, A. A.↗
NASA NTRS1972

State-of-technology for joining TD-NiCr sheet.

At the current state-of-technology there are many joining processes that can be used to make sound welds in TD-NiCr sheet. Some of these that are described in this report are electron beam welding (EBW), gas-tungsten arc welding (GTAW), diffusion welding (DFW), resistance spot welding (RSW), resistance seam welding (RSEW), and brazing. Roll welding (RW) and explosion welding (EXW) have not been developed to the point where they can be used to make sound welds in TD-NiCr. Joining work that has previously been done on TD-NiCr by various organizations, both privately supported and under Air Force and NASA contracts, is described in this summary. Current work is also described that is being done at General Dynamics/Convair (under NASA contract) and at NASA/Lewis to develop and evaluate DFW, RSW, RSEW, and brazing. Preliminary comparisons of joining processes are made for typical applications. A brief description of the manufacture of TD-NiCr sheet by a recently standardized process (under NASA contract) also is given.

Holko, K. H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Internal wire guide for GTAW welding

A welding torch for gas tungsten arc welding apparatus has a filler metal wire guide positioned within the torch, and within the shielding gas nozzle. The wire guide is adjacent to the tungsten electrode and has a ceramic liner through which the wire is fed. This reduces the size of the torch and eliminates the outside clearance problems that exit with external wire guides. Additionally, since the wire is always within the shielding gas, oxidizing of the wire is eliminated.

Morgan, Gene E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Electrode carrying wire for GTAW welding

A welding torch for gas tungsten arc welding apparatus has a hollow tungsten electrode including a ceramic liner and forms the filler metal wire guide. The wire is fed through the tungsten electrode thereby reducing the size of the torch to eliminate clearance problems which exist with external wire guides. Since the wire is preheated from the tungsten more wire may be fed into the weld puddle, and the wire will not oxidize because it is always within the shielding gas.

Morgan, Gene E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Effect of thermal exposure, forming, and welding on high-temperature, dispersion-strengthened aluminum alloy: Al-8Fe-1V-2Si

The feasibility of applying conventional hot forming and welding methods to high temperature aluminum alloy, Al-8Fe-1V-2Si (FVS812), for structural applications and the effect of thermal exposure on mechanical properties were determined. FVS812 (AA8009) sheet exhibited good hot forming and resistance welding characteristics. It was brake formed to 90 deg bends (0.5T bend radius) at temperatures greater than or equal to 390 C (730 F), indicating the feasibility of fabricating basic shapes, such as angles and zees. Hot forming of simple contoured-flanged parts was demonstrated. Resistance spot welds with good static and fatigue strength at room and elevated temperatures were readily produced. Extended vacuum degassing during billet fabrication reduced porosity in fusion and resistance welds. However, electron beam welding was not possible because of extreme degassing during welding, and gas-tungsten-arc welds were not acceptable because of severely degraded mechanical properties. The FVS812 alloy exhibited excellent high temperature strength stability after thermal exposures up to 315 C (600 F) for 1000 h. Extended billet degassing appeared to generally improve tensile ductility, fatigue strength, and notch toughness. But the effects of billet degassing and thermal exposure on properties need to be further clarified. The manufacture of zee-stiffened, riveted, and resistance-spot-welded compression panels was demonstrated.

Kennedy, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Self-Reacting Friction Stir Welding for Aluminum Alloy Circumferential Weld Applications

Friction stir welding is an innovative weld process that continues to grow in use, in the commercial, defense, and space sectors. It produces high quality and high strength welds in aluminum alloys. The process consists of a rotating weld pin tool that plasticizes material through friction. The plasticized material is welded by applying a high weld forge force through the weld pin tool against the material during pin tool rotation. The high weld forge force is reacted against an anvil and a stout tool structure. A variation of friction stir welding currently being evaluated is self-reacting friction stir welding. Self-reacting friction stir welding incorporates two opposing shoulders on the crown and root sides of the weld joint. In self-reacting friction stir welding, the weld forge force is reacted against the crown shoulder portion of the weld pin tool by the root shoulder. This eliminates the need for a stout tooling structure to react the high weld forge force required in the typical friction stir weld process. Therefore, the self-reacting feature reduces tooling requirements and, therefore, process implementation costs. This makes the process attractive for aluminum alloy circumferential weld applications. To evaluate the application of self-reacting friction stir welding for aluminum alloy circumferential welding, a feasibility study was performed. The study consisted of performing a fourteen-foot diameter aluminum alloy circumferential demonstration weld using typical fusion weld tooling. To accomplish the demonstration weld, weld and tack weld development were performed and fourteen-foot diameter rings were fabricated. Weld development consisted of weld pin tool selection and the generation of a process map and envelope. Tack weld development evaluated gas tungsten arc welding and friction stir welding for tack welding rings together for circumferential welding. As a result of the study, a successful circumferential demonstration weld was produced leading the way for future circumferential weld implementation.

Bjorkman, Gerry↗
DOE OSTI2016

Influence of deformation on structural-phase state of weld material in St3 steel

The structural-phase condition of the weld material subjected to the plastic deformation was investigated using the translucent diffraction electron microscopy method. The investigations were carried out near the joint of the weld and the base metal. The seam was done by the method of manual arc welding without artificial defects. The St3 steel was taken as the welded material. Influence of the plastic deformation on morphology, phase composition, defect structure and its parameters of weld metal was revealed. All investigations were done at the distance of 0.5 mm from the joint of the weld and the base metal at the deformation degrees from 0 to 5% and after destruction of a sample. It was established that deformation of the sample did not lead to qualitative changes in the structure (the structure is still presented by ferrite-pearlite mixture) but changed the quantitative parameters of the structure, namely, with the increase of plastic deformation a part of the pearlite component becomes more and more imperfect. In the beginning it turns into the destroyed pearlite then into ferrite, the volume fraction of pearlite is decreased. The polarization of dislocation structure takes place but it doesn’t lead to the internal stresses that can destroy the sample.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Characterization of microstructure and texture across dissimilar super duplex/austenitic stainless steel weldment joint by austenitic filler metal

The evolution of microstructure and texture across an as-welded dissimilar UNS S32750 super duplex/UNS S30403 austenitic stainless steel joint welded by UNS S30986 (AWS A5.9 ER309LMo) austenitic stainless steel filler metal using gas tungsten arc welding process was evaluated by optical micrography and EBSD techniques. Due to their fabrication through rolling process, both parent metals had texture components resulted from deformation and recrystallization. The weld metal showed the highest amount of residual strain and had large austenite grain colonies of similar orientations with little amounts of skeletal ferrite, both oriented preferentially in the < 001 > direction with cub-on-cube orientation relationship. While the super duplex stainless steel's heat affected zone contained higher ferrite than its parent metal, an excessive grain growth was observed at the austenitic stainless steel's counterpart. At both heat affected zones, austenite underwent some recrystallization and formed twin boundaries which led to an increase in the fraction of high angle boundaries as compared with the respective base metals. These regions showed the least amount of residual strain and highest amount of recrystallized austenite grains. Due to the static recrystallization, the fraction of low degree of fit (Σ) coincident site lattice boundaries, especially Σ3 boundaries, was increased in the austenitic stainless steel heat affected zone, while the formation of subgrains in the ferrite phase increased the content of < 5° low angle boundaries at that of the super duplex stainless steel. - Graphical abstract: Display Omitted - Highlights: • Extensive grain growth in the HAZ of austenitic stainless steel was observed. • Intensification of < 100 > orientated grains was observed adjacent to both fusion lines. • Annealing twins with Σ3 CSL boundaries were formed in the austenite of both HAZ. • Cub-on-cube OR was observed between austenite and ferrite in the weld metal. • Weld metal had the lowest texture intensity and ratio of low angle and CSL boundaries.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1988

A Generalized Method for Automatic Downhand and Wirefeed Control of a Welding Robot and Positioner

A generalized method for controlling a six degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot and a two DOF positioner used for arc welding operations is described. The welding path is defined in the part reference frame, and robot/positioner joint angles of the equivalent eight DOF serial linkage are determined via an iterative solution. Three algorithms are presented: the first solution controls motion of the eight DOF mechanism such that proper torch motion is achieved while minimizing the sum-of-squares of joint displacements; the second algorithm adds two constraint equations to achieve torch control while maintaining part orientation so that welding occurs in the downhand position; and the third algorithm adds the ability to control the proper orientation of a wire feed mechanism used in gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding operations. A verification of these algorithms is given using ROBOSIM, a NASA developed computer graphic simulation software package design for robot systems development.

Fernandez, Ken↗