Weld residual stresses (WRS) have a large influence on the behavior of cracks growing under normal operation loads and on the leakage flow from a through-wall crack. Accurate prediction on weld residual stresses is important to make proper decisions when cracks in weld joints are detected. During the latest years, there has been a strong development in both analytical procedures to numerically determine WRS and experimental measurements of WRS. The USNRC (United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has formed a program for validation of WRS predictions through comparison of numerically calculated residual stress fields in dissimilar welds measured by different methods. The present report describes the results of the project with special focus on the contribution from Inspecta Technology.
The principal objective of the project is to compare different WRS predictions for a dissimilar pipe weld with careful measurements on a mock-up weld. The results of the project will make it possible to make recommendations on computational procedures for WRS in dissimilar metal welds.