Assessment of Mechanical Properties, Residual Stresses and Diffusible Hydrogen of Longitudinal Weld in Electric Water Heater Tanks

• Main Authors: Julius Caesar Puoza, Xijun Hua, Adams Moro, Anthony Akayeti, Philip Baidoo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-11-01
• Series: Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing
• Subjects: plasma arc welding; weld properties; thin sheet metal; stress; micro-hardness
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-4494/1/2/19

The core technique of electric storage water heaters is the manufacture of the tanks, and the welding technique is the key technology of the tank manufacture. A company producing water heaters received feedback from its after-sales that a large quantity of water leakage from the tanks was found in the market. A follow-up on the manufacturing site by the researchers showed that the position of the water leakage defects mostly happens in the welds of the tanks. Series of experiments were conducted to investigate the mechanical properties, residual stress, and diffusible hydrogen content of the longitudinal weld of the tank. Results of the mechanical properties showed that both the micro-hardness and the tensile strength of the welds are higher than the base metal. There are higher residual compressive stresses in the weld center and the adjacent-weld zone. Vertical residual compressive stress decreases first and then increases (149 MPa–28 MPa–134 MPa) from the weld ends to the middle, whilst the transversal stress decreases continuously (332 MPa~240 MPa) from the weld center to the heat affected zone. After enameling, the longitudinal welds’ peak micro-hardness of coarse grained region reduces by 30.9 HV1, and the average micro-hardness of the HAZ reduces by 5 HV1. The average vertical residual compressive stress difference of the same test points reduces from 270.6 MPa to 20.4 MPa. It proves that enameling can improve the mechanical property of the longitudinal welds.