DEVELOPMENT OF RESIDUAL STRESS SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENT TOOLS FOR STAINLESS STEEL PRESSURE VESSELS

摘要

In forged, welded, and machined components, residual stresses can form during the fabrication process. These residual stresses can significantly alter the fatigue and fracture properties compared to an equivalent component containing no residual stress. When performing lifetime assessment, the residual stress state must be incorporated into the analysis to most accurately reflect the initial condition of the component. The focus of this work is to present the computational and experimental tools that we are developing to predict and measure the residual stresses in stainless steel for use in pressure vessels. The contour method was used to measure the residual stress in stainless steel forgings. These results are compared to the residual stresses predicted using coupled thermo-mechanical simulations that track the evolution of microstructure, strength and residual stress during processing.