Abstract
Authors have proposed a new nondestructive method of evaluating welding residual stresses, the Bead Flush Method, and confirmed its validity for simple butt-welded plates. In this method, eigen-strain distributions are estimated from strain changes due to removal of reinforcement of the weld using the inverse analysis. Then, residual stresses are estimated by the elastic FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis using estimated eigen-strain distributions as initial strains. In this study, further development of this method was attempted for application to welded pipes. Eigen-strain distributions in welded pipes are more complicated than those of welded plates from a view point of residual stress estimation. Based on a previous research, a further formulization was attempted to overcome this difficulty and problems to be solved were made clear.
