UNDERWATER WELDING
GUIDED BYMR. RANJIT KU. AMANTA (HOD) MR. SABYSACHI PRADHAN
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PRESENTED BYDILIP KUMAR RANA MECHANICAL ENGINEERING REGD No-1001346081
Outline
Importance Of Underwater Welding Principle Of Operation Classification Wet/Dry Underwater Welding Advantages& Disadvantages Risk Involved & Safety Applications Future Scope References
Thursday, March 20, 2014
what is an Under water welding???
Many of us won't have heard of under water welding but it's actually a very important thing in many industries. Underwater welding includes a lot of different processes that join steel on offshore oil platforms, pipelines & ships etc. under water. At present, underwater welding becomes more sophisticated and can be done deeper. GTAW has been used to weld pipes at depths of 200 ft (61 m)
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Principle of Operation
The welding circuit must include a positive type of switch, usually
a knife switch operated on the surface and commanded by the welder and is used for safety reasons.
When DC is used with +ve polarity, electrolysis will take place
and cause rapid deterioration of any metallic components in the electrode holder.
Waterproof Electrode Power Supply Holder
+ electrode
work
Knife switch
For wet welding AC is not used on account of electrical safety
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and difficulty in maintaining an arc underwater
Underwater welding is classified into two categories [Link] in-the-wet environment [Link] in-the-dry environment
Dry welding
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Wet welding
Welding in the wet environment
As the name implies, underwater wet welding is done
in an environment where the base metal and the arc are surrounded entirely by water. In wet welding MMA (manual metal arc welding) is used.
A special electrode is used and
welding is carried out manually just as one does in open air welding.
The increased freedom of
movement makes wet welding the most effective, efficient and economical method.
Welding power supply is located
on the surface with connection to the diver/welder via cables
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Advantages
cheapest and fastest method tensile strength is high easy of access the weld spot no habitat, no construction, no waste of time
Disadvantages
Rapid quenching decreases impact strength,
ductility
Hydrogen embrittlement,cracks Poor visibility in water 9
Hyperbaric(dry) welding
Hyperbaric welding is a welding in which a chamber is
sealed around the structure to be welded and is filled with breathable gas(commonly helium containing 0.5 bar of oxygen) at the prevailing pressure. at which the welding is to take place. This method produces high-quality weld joints
The gas tungsten arc welding process is employed for
this process. The area under the floor of the Habitat is open to water. Thus the welding is done in the dry but at the hydrostatic pressure of the sea water surrounding the Habitat
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Dry welding
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Advantages of Dry welding
Welder/diver safety Good quality welds Surface monitoring Non destructive testing
Disadvantages
Higher cost of process,training,etc.,. Large quantity of costly and complex
equipments.
More deep,more energy is required Cant be weld,if weld spot is at
unreachable places
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Risk Involved & safety
Electric shock Explosion. Precautions include achieving adequate electrical
insulation of the welding equipment, shutting off the electricity supply immediately the arc is extinguished, and limiting the open-circuit voltage of MMA (SMA) welding sets
Hydrogen and Oxygen are produced during welding. Precautions must be taken to avoid the build-up of pockets
of gas, which are potentially explosive
risk is to the life or health of the welder/diver from
nitrogen introduced into the blood steam during exposure to air at increased pressure. Precautions include the provision of an emergency air or gas supply, stand-by divers, and decompression chambers to avoid nitrogen
Inspection of welds.
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Application of Underwater Welding Offshore construction for tapping sea
resources,
Temporary repair work caused by
ships collisions or unexpected accidents.
Salvaging vessels sunk in the sea Repair and maintenance of ships Construction of large ships beyond
the capacity of existing docks.
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Scope for further developments
Wet MMA is still being used for underwater
repairs, but the quality of wet welds is poor and are prone to hydrogen cracking. Dry Hyperbaric welds are better in quality than wet welds. Present trend is towards automation. THOR 1 (TIG Hyperbaric Orbital Robot) is developed where diver performs pipefitting,.
Developments of driverless Hyperbaric welding
system is an even greater challenge in developments like pipe preparation and aligning, automatic electrode.
This is in testing stage in deep waters.
Explosive and friction welding are also to be tested in deep waters.
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Friction welding (FRW)
REFERENCE
Underwater Welding Present Status And
Future [Link] Dutta [Link] Of Metallurgical And Materials Engineering, Indian Institute Of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India Annon, Recent Advances In Dry Underwater Pipeline Welding, Welding Engineer, 1974. Lythall, Gibson, Dry Hyperbaric Underwater Welding, Welding Institute.
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ANY QUERIES ?
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THANK YOU
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