Effects of the Process Parameters on Beads by Plasma Arc Welding of the Membrane for LNG Ships

The membrane, which forms the primary barrier of the cargo tank onboard LNG carrier, is made of corrugated sheets, angle pieces and sealing caps and so on. These components are manufactured from SUS 304L sheets of 1.2mm thickness and assembled by the plasma welding. There are several welding defects such as overlap, excessive convexity, excessive concavity of weld and incomplete inclusion in the plasma welding. These unacceptable portions of the weld should be removed and repaired in order to prevent propagation of the defects. So a study is undertaken to determine the optimum process parameters such as the welding current, traveling speed, gas flow rates and frequency in the plasma lap welding process for LNG ships in order to prevent these defects. The polished and etched surface of the welded membrane sheet is examined if the cross section shows a properly made weld. And the tensile tests are conducted to consider if the tensile strength is less than the minimum required for the parent metal of the membrane sheet.