The Effect of Pipe Thickness on Residual Stresses due to Girth Welds

This paper addresses the question of what effect the pipe thickness has on weld residual stresses in 304 stainless steel piping. Two diameters are considered. These are nominal 4-in. and 10-in. diameters. Four pipe wall thicknesses corresponding to schedules 10, 40, 80, and 160 are examined for each pipe. The focus is on residual stress distributions on the pipe inner surface because this is a primary site for intergranular stress corrosion cracking in 304 stainless steel pipes. The trends in residual stress values are toward more compressive stresses at the pipe inner surface for thicker pipes with the same nominal diameter. Residual axial stresses for the thick 10-in. schedule 160 pipe were found to be compressive while those for the thinner schedule 80 pipe were tensile. X-ray residual stress data for a 6-in-dia schedule 160 pipe fall between the results for the 4-in. and 10-in. schedule 160 pipes and support the findings of the study.