On the Accurate Prediction of Residual Stress in a Three-Pass Slot Nickel-Base Repair Weld by Numerical Simulations

The activities within a European network to develop accurate experimental and numerical methods to assess residual stresses in structural weldments are reported. The NeT Task Group 6 or NeT-TG6 project examined an Alloy 600 plate containing a three-pass slot weld made with Alloy 82 consumables. A number of identical specimens were fabricated and detailed records of the manufacturing history were kept. Parallel measurement and simulation round robins were performed. Residual stresses were measured using neutron diffraction via five different instruments. The acquired database is large enough to generate reliable mean profiles, to identify clear outliers, and to establish the systematic uncertainty associated with this non-destructive technique. NeT-TG6 gives a valuable insight into the real-world variability of diffraction-based residual stress measurements, and forms a reliable foundation against which to benchmark other measurement methods. The mean measured profiles were used to validate the accuracy achieved by the network in the prediction of residual stresses.