Post Underwater Wet Welding Heat Treatment by Underwater Wet Induction Heating

Wet welding procedures of Class A structural ship steels frequently fail to comply with the American Welding Society (AWS) D3.6M, Underwater Welding Code, in the maximum hardness criterion for the heat-affected zone (HAZ). The maximum hardness accepted in a welded joint is 325 HV for higher-strength steel (yield strength > 350 MPa). In multi-pass welds, this problem occurs frequently and is restricted to the HAZ of the capping passes. The HAZ of the root and filling passes are softened by the reheating promoted by their respective subsequent passes. This paper presents the results of exploratory research into postweld underwater electromagnetic induction heating. The objective of the research was to evaluate the ability of induction heating to soften the specific high-hardness HAZs in underwater conditions. The results showed that this technique could reduce the maximum HAZ hardness of low-carbon structural ship steel welds to values below 325 HV, which is the maximum accepted by AWS for Class A welds. The induction-heated zone reached a maximum depth of about 10 mm, which is considered adequate to treat the HAZ of cap-ping passes in underwater wet welds.