Validated residual stress profiles for fracture assessments of stainless steel pipe girth welds

Defect assessments for pressure vessels and piping are increasingly used to support the economic and safe management of operating plant. Assessments of defects in welds, however, can be highly sensitive to the through-thickness residual stress profiles assumed in the calculations. This is illustrated for typical stainless steel pipe girth welds where there is a lack of consensus in structural integrity procedures about what residual stress...