Midlands

Supercomputing for Research and Industry

HPC Midlands case study

Title

Computer modelling radically improves welding techniques

Partners

The University of Leicester leads a consortium of 11 research and industrial partners.

Nature of collaboration

The project, Modelling of Interface Evolution in Advanced Welding (MintWeld) is being run under the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) with contract number NMP3-SL-2009-229108 for Research and Technological Development.

Background

Welding is the most economical and effective way of joining metals permanently. It is a vital process for manufacturing economies and it is estimated that more than 50% of global domestic and engineering products contain welded joints. Welding is normally a smooth and effective process but, if the parts do not join perfectly, a minor imperfection can sometimes become a major crack which can potentially lead to disaster. This is particularly so in deep-sea gas and oil transportation systems where the failure of welded joints can put lives at risk; is commercially damaging due to lost production, valued in billions of Euros; and can cause environmental catastrophe due to oil and gas leaks.

explore how the welding process can be improved, using a range of state-of-the-art computer modelling techniques for which HPC Midlands is proving invaluable. The team is developing commercial software capable of modelling the welding process at the atomic scale through to microstructural and component-life prediction. Professor Hongbiao Dong of the University of Leicester who leads the project said: This project will deliver an accurate, predictive and cost-effective modelling tool that will allow manufacturers to identify elements that can be changed to strengthen the link between different atoms, paving the way for alloy combinations that are able to withstand extreme conditions. It is likely to find widespread application in the European metals industry.

The challenge

Results

With oil and gas wells becoming ever deeper, the current materials and welding methods used in pipelines have reached their limit and manufacturers are looking to develop materials and welded joints that can withstand the harsh conditions found at the sea bed. It is also critically important to be able to predict accurately the lifetime of welded joints as physical examination to detect imperfections and likely failure is a technically challenging and costly exercise. New high strength steel and nickel-based alloys have been developed, but application of these alloys in deep sea pipelines has been limited due to welded joints cracking.

Multi-scale numerical modelling is being implemented in a novel and efficient way to predict the multi-physics phenomena occurring during the welding process. The next stage is to test the model in Europes most advanced welding technological industries and welding institutions. Dr Shuwen Wen, Principal Scientist from TATA steel added: The results achieved so far show great promise in terms of the discovery of new materials and process routes to manufacture weld components with improved in-service performance which will lead to a significant reduction of cost and energy consumption. The availability of HPC Midlands has increased the computing power drastically and this could potentially speed up the delivery of the modelling solutions for advanced welding that are in urgent need by modern industry.

The approach

The MintWeld multi-disciplinary project team comprising industry experts and leading international researchers was established to

Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution made by the project partners: University College Dublin, the University of Oxford, the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Tata Steel UK Ltd, the Royal Institute of Technology Sweden, Delft University of Technology, TWI Ltd, the Institute of Welding Poland, FRENZAK Sp. Poland and Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne.