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Kenneth R. Elliott, Justin N. Pollack

Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. and NAVSEA, Office of the Director of Ocean
Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving
Underwater Dry Chamber Aluminum Welding in Support
of U.S. Navy Ship Repair Operations
(Hyperbaric Aluminum Welding)
ABSTRACT
Underwater welding and nondestructive testing
(NDT) have been a NAVSEA approved ship
repair capability for the past 28 years. Through
the leadership of the Naval Sea Systems
Commands Office of Supervisor of Salvage and
Diving Underwater Ship Husbandry Division
(NAVSEA 00C5), underwater welding has moved
beyond steel hull repairs. Aluminum welding
techniques have advanced into a ship repair
method that will prove reliable, technically sound,
cost effective, and low impact to ship
operational schedules, just as has already been
proven in the case of steel hull ships. This paper
provides a review of the brief history behind this
capability, a spotlight on the steps taken to achieve
sound welds repeatedly, a review of current
underwater aluminum welding techniques and new
procedures, and a glimpse into future hyperbaric
aluminum welding.
INTRODUCTION
A logical assumption would be that any repair
below the waterline to any ship, let alone an
aluminum vessel, would require dry-docking.
This, however, is not true. Since 1985, with the
issuance of a revision to the Naval Ships Technical
Manual Chapter 074 (Welding and Allied
Processes), the Navy officially recognized the
technical merit of underwater welding repairs in
support of Fleet requirements. This revision
included, for the first time, section 6.9
Underwater Welding which, along with the new
AWS D3.6 Specification for Underwater
Welding, established the framework for the
Navys underwater welding and NDT program.
Since that time, several organizations have
developed underwater welding procedures in
accordance with this revision. With these
procedures, NAVSEA 00C5 has led hundreds of
underwater welding repairs on U.S. Navy ships
and submarines all over the world.
Advance to 2010 when the NAVSEA 00C5
division envisioned adding aluminum to the
growing list of metals being repaired with the use
of hyperbaric welding procedures. A plan to
determine which machinery and how to configure
it soon took shape. Trials proved the concept of
GMAW aluminum welding was viable in a
cofferdam. The material could indeed be welded
under pressure.
The driving force behind the need for producing
high quality underwater aluminum welds is the
forward deployed mission profile of the LCS 2,
her sister ships and even the JHSVs, all of which
are built completely from aluminum alloys. The
task was not quite as monumental as the change
over from riveted ships to welded ships, but to the
average ship-fitter it may as well be. Aluminum
welding has a very low tolerance for moisture at or
near the weld zone. Welding in the high humidity
environment of a cofferdam under water
immediately identified the first hurdle humidity
control. Not all of the challenges were so readily
identified or so threatening to the success of the
project.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOPSIDE
ALUMINUM WELDING
Since the discovery of inexpensive aluminum
production near the turn of the 20
th
Century
aluminum found its way into components that
needed to be joined together. Aluminum welding
was probably born from the lets try this
attitude! The more efficient Acetylene generators
of the day were pumping out useful fuel gas in
local shops, enabling operators to come up with an
active flux to scrub the oxides and use Oxy-Fuel in
the very early days of aluminum welding. The
process is still in use today and has a small but
enthusiastic following in the blogosphere.

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Figure 1: OFW Welded USA Army Water Canteen
from 1918
Oxy-Fuel Welding (OFW) is fraught with
disadvantages as compared with newer processes.
It requires relatively high skill sets, has a huge
heat affected zone (HAZ), and an active flux is
needed to protect the molten weld puddle from
oxygen. Note the counterintuitive problem: the
flux requires complete removal to avoid corrosion
of the metal after welding. One other thing;
aluminum does not give a visual indication that it
is getting hot, unlike steel which turns various
shades of red. When it is hot enough to weld and
fuse together aluminum simply turns to a shiny
liquid and often ends up on the shop floor. As
aluminum use and production increased, mostly
because of a growing aeronautics industry,
welding the Miracle Metal in production became a
WWII critical path.
A real process breakthrough was in 1941 when
Russell Meredith, working for Northrop aircraft,
invented Heli-Arc. Although not a news flash, this
invention turned the aluminum welding industry
on like a spigot. The name stuck too, even to this
day the term Heli-Arc is recognized worldwide
even though pure helium is not always the gas
shield of choice. The new technical term GTAW,
or Gas Tungsten Arc Welding, just doesnt have
the same flair.
With this new process, aluminum could now be
joined in ever increasing configurations. The need
for protective flux with its corrosive after effects
was replaced with an extremely clean and helpful
inert shield surrounding the molten weld pool.
Production welding soared as compared to the old
days of OFW, but the process was still completely
manual and required relatively high skill sets to
master.

Figure 2: Original Patent Drawing of the First Heli-
Arc Torch
What industry needed was a faster, easier to use
welding process and the material needed it too.
More and better aluminum welds begets more and
better understanding of the material properties,
and what not to do in the welding process.
Aluminum is not just three times lighter than steel,
it conducts electricity five times better and
dissipates heat about five times faster as well.
These two lesser known facts play a key role in
what happens to the metal during welding. The
HAZ, that area of metal not melted but structurally
changed by the intense heat of welding, is often
weaker in strength than either the weld or the
unaffected base metal. The size of the HAZ is
larger and the overall heat input is greater when
using a slow welding process such as GTAW.
Wire feed welding, metal inert gas (MIG), gas
metal arc (GMAW), and a host of variations are
now the most practical aluminum joining
processes. These terms are all synonymous and
describe an incredible welding process made even
more amazing by recent advances in computerized
welding equipment. The concept is easy to
understand once seen and borrows from the steel
MIG process and Heli-Arc.

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Figure 3: The First MIG Patent Was Assigned to
Airco, January, 1949
Early in the development of GMAW shielding
gasses like Helium, Argon, Carbon Dioxide, and
even Carbon Monoxide were successful!

Figure 4: Typical GMAW Weld Configuration
Aluminum welding was forever changed.
Applications demanded different alloys and the
growing list needed to be governed. The
Aluminum Association, born of a 1933 New
Deal Congressional act, held its first official
meeting in October 1935 in New York. The
Association defined its purpose as promoting the
general welfare of the aluminum industry and its
members. Initiating a program standardizing
aluminum specifications became an important task
of the new association. The Teal Sheets were
devised as International Alloy Designations and
Chemical Composition Limits for Wrought
Aluminum and Wrought Aluminum Alloys. The
Teal Sheets are still in publication today and form
the cornerstone for many other standards.
U.S. NAVY TAKES DELIVERY OF
LCS 2, INDEPENDENCE
Delivered on December 18, 2009, the LCS is a
fast, agile, focus-mission platform designed for
operation in near-shore environments yet capable
of open-ocean operation. The sea frame can be
outfitted with reconfigurable payloads, called
Mission Packages, which can be changed out
quickly. Mission packages are supported by
special detachments that will deploy manned and
unmanned vehicles and sensors in support of mine,
undersea and surface warfare missions.
The Navy awarded contracts to Austal USA on
December 29, 2010 for the construction of up to
10 additional ships between Fiscal Year 2010 and
2015; providing for a total of 12 LCS 2 Class ships
in the fleet.
NAVSEA ASSIGNS HYPERBARIC
REPAIR PROCEDURE TASKING
With a fleet of 283 ships stationed worldwide,
conducting emergent repairs by putting a ship in
dry dock is not always an option because of high
costs even for small repairs, impacts on scheduled
maintenance of other ships, non-availability of a
suitable dry dock or the inability of the ship
needing repairs to transit to a dry dock. These
reasons are what drove the development of our
current underwater welding procedures. As the
construction of LCS 2 neared completion,
NAVSEA 00C5 identified the need to continue to
provide underwater welding support to the entire
fleet and tasked Phoenix International Holdings,
Inc. to qualify a hyperbaric aluminum welding
procedure.
Tasking was carried out in 3 phases. During phase
I, testing was first conducted in a hyperbaric
chamber to validate the process of welding
aluminum in such an environment. After this
initial success, an extensive literature/industry
search was conducted to determine what
information and or equipment may already be
available to suit our needs. The Phase I report
provided NAVSEA 00C5 with an extensive list of
equipment that may be suitable for the procedure.

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In phase II, equipment was selected and purchased
for further testing. Modifications were made to
adapt the equipment for hyperbaric welding, and
testing continued now to define our essential
welding elements that would make up our welding
procedure. By completion of phase II we had
three weld procedures to cover the three
combinations of base materials that could require
repairs on LCS 2 ready for qualification testing.
The three procedures would allow for joining alloy
5083, a high magnesium marine grade material, to
itself, alloy 6061 to itself, and any combination of
the two alloys. Since NSTM 074 section 6.9 does
not include the GMAW process a test plan
detailing the nondestructive and destructive testing
required to qualify these three procedures had to
be reviewed and approved by the welding and
non-ferrous technical warrants (in NAVSEA
05P2). The time spent by the welder/divers in
phase II perfecting their techniques for cleaning
during the welding process paid off. During phase
III execution of procedure qualification testing
was successfully completed.
CALL FOR MACHINERY
Early in the project a call for welding equipment
and machinery went out to five of the leading
manufacturers nationwide. Since no one had
previously considered welding aluminum
underwater inside a cofferdam, some guidelines
had to be identified. The goal was to choose the
best, most reliable and rugged hardware available,
build a system capable of performing a welding
procedure, qualify welders, and eventually
accomplish dry chamber (cofferdam) production
welding. The idea of using a spool gun was
dismissed early on for a few reasons. Chief
among them was quality assurance and the chance
of unstable arc characteristics at fifty feet of
separation from the power source. From a
production standpoint it was deemed impractical
to package the entire welding system (power
source, wire feed unit and shielding gasses) in the
dry chamber with the welder/diver. Thus the
welding system would need to offer the greatest
distance of separation between the wire feeder and
the welding gun itself in order to access the hull,
all the way to the keel of LCS 2. The system
envisioned had to accurately display and record
the key elements of a weld program, it had to be
semiautomatic and have at least 50 feet separation
(umbilical) from the GMAW wire feeder to the
operator gun. The equipment manufacturers
engineering and technical support group needed to
be able to work closely with Phoenix in support of
system configuration, wiring diagrams and
changes thereto.
The eventual first choice in equipment was
abandoned when the manufacturer withdrew their
support for the project. The machinery they
initially specified would certainly have worked
well but as it turned out the technical support and
enthusiasm for the project rested with a departed
employee, a major figure in the aluminum welding
arena.
Choice number two from the machinery search
stepped right up to the plate, first with delivery of
a demo welding package within days of our
request for support; and secondly, with unparalled
technical input. This new power source and wire
feeder package comes as a standard product line
right off the shelf. A couple of very exciting
aspects came from the new choice; the equipment
manufacturer produces its own welding
consumables including aluminum spooled wire,
and they build WiFi enabled power sources and
maintain cloud server based support. These
attributes define a firm foothold in the current and
burgeoning technology explosion in welding.
These units store more than one hundred canned
welding programs, all of which can be upgraded
wirelessly. The manufacturer can rewrite existing
programs or design custom routines specific to our
needs. For the project requirements this system
already had a favorable welding mode built into it,
one which could be performed on old school
machinery with proper set up and monitoring.
This subtle but important aspect will allow for an
emergency repair in almost any port in the world
using off the shelf equipment while meeting
procedure parameters.
With todays computer processing speeds and
programmers customizing electrical wave forms,
designers have been able to measure wattage at the
weld. The machine regulates the amperage and
voltage, and adapts to the needs of the welder by
regulating wire feed speeds at the welding gun
with incredible precision and speed. This control
programming, called Power Mode by Lincoln

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Electric is a significant factor in the control and
weldability during dry chamber production
welding.
DOCUMENT SEARCH FOR
RELEVANT SOLUTIONS
There are many studies, journals, white papers,
and books written on the subject of welding. It is
a wide ranging science and trade all wrapped into
an industry of useful products we seemingly
cannot live without. Aluminum information and
guidelines specific to our attempt at hyperbaric
welding of this wonderful metal, however, do not
exist. The project took from what others have
discovered and applied common sense guidelines
which served as control points and sanity checks
throughout the project.
CONTAMINANTS AND
IMPURITIES
Aluminum is a bright and shiny highly corrosive
resistant material. It keeps its luster because it
forms a protective oxide film, or layer, almost
immediately upon exposure to the elements. The
oxide layer is very thin but it becomes a terrible
nuisance for the welder. One cleaning study used
freshly machine beveled surfaces (dry machining
with no cutting fluid) as a control and found that
still further cleaning with zirconium abrasives
presented better welding results (Hettes and
Ketron n.d.). Set up and process control protocols
are the key to success here. The welder must have
clean weld surfaces, faying surfaces, gun cup
(nozzle), clean welding wire, wire conduit, drive
rolls and stainless steel wire brushes at the start
and throughout the weld process; and then, prior to
striking an arc, apply a liquid cleaning solvent
designed for aluminum after all the other cleaning
is done. The material does not tolerate dirt, oil,
paint, moisture or anything on or near a welding
surface. If you fit and tack weld parts together and
do not weld them within six hours they should be
disassembled and re-cleaned prior to welding
(NAVSEA 05 Oct 2011). The protective oxide
has a melting point of about 3,700 degrees
Fahrenheit but the metal itself melts at only 1,200
degrees, so welds performed on an oxidized
surface will have impurities buried within them,
reducing the strength of the joint.
Moisture is the next worst enemy to sound welds
on aluminum. Taking the process underwater
seems counterintuitive to keeping moisture at bay,
but in practice we have an advantage over welders
on land. Hyperbaric welders (welder/divers)
create a dry bubble under the surface of the
water by constructing a cofferdam or habitat at the
work site. The atmosphere inside the habitat is
supplied by divers breathable air and each diver
enters the habitat wearing a surface supplied
divers air mask. He or she performs welding with
this mask on at all times and therefore never has to
breathe the smoky and potentially toxic welding
fumes. The habitat atmosphere is under constant
exchange by way of a supply and exhaust hose.
Open bottom habitats can simply exhaust
themselves by burping air out of the bottom but
we take efforts to minimize that by utilizing the
exhaust hose. Habitats and their associated
rigging are ill affected by constant dynamic
loading of burping and bubbling. The elevated air
pressure inside the habitat is denser than the air at
the surface and can carry more moisture in the
form of humidity, but by keeping the size of the
habitat relatively small, about 120 cubic feet, we
can dry the supply air before it goes to the habitat.
An industrial air drier is installed downstream of
the typical moisture and filter separators found on
diving compressors. So, with the diver breathing
clean air and the habitat supported with dry air, the
next hurdle is to assure the surfaces of the metal
are moisture free. This is accomplished in typical
welder fashion by using ceramic resistance pre-
heat mats and elevating the base metal to a
minimum of 125 degrees Fahrenheit before
welding. The same practice is widely used in
other welding applications and we perform this
basic step during all habitat welding no matter
what the base metal is.
The solution is not yet complete. The GMAW
welding gas itself can bring moisture directly to
the weld zone. While there are Dew Point
(moisture) limitations for compressed welding
gasses set by industry, sampling the inert gas is a
must. An inline dew point meter is used to
measure parts per million of water (PPM) while
welding. If a gas supplier cannot meet the
industry standards (most in the U.S. do), we use a
canister type gas drier designed for welding

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gasses. The inert gas delivery system must also be
kept dry and clean.
With all this discussion about moisture it is really
the hydrogen in the water that causes most of the
weld porosity problems. There exists a certain
amount of hydrogen in almost everything we see,
build, use and throw away. Aluminum welding
exhibits more gas solubility than predicted by
Sieverts's law, which in physical metallurgy is a
rule to predict the solubility of gases in metals.
Under the intense heat of arc welding, aluminum
can absorb large quantities of the gas very rapidly.
Experiments found that the maximum standard
solubility of hydrogen was about 20 ml/100g of
aluminum at 3722 F. Since weld pool temperatures
of this magnitude, and even higher, exist in
aluminum welding, it can be seen how very high
weld metal hydrogen contents could arise even if
contamination levels in the welding system are
quite low. Fortunately there is a way to mitigate
this physical reality, too.
Since temperatures directly under the welding arc
bring the metal almost to its boiling point, gas
solubility is almost nonexistent in the center of the
weld pool. It is in the cooling process where the
liquid metal can trap hydrogen, and that happens
at the periphery of the molten pool first and to a
higher degree (Woods March 1974). In single
pass welding the hydrogen absorption is less of a
problem than in multi-pass welding. There can be
an accumulative effect by welding over previous
layers of high hydrogen induced porosity as seen
in x-ray results. Very clear x-rays were observed
by removing the crown (top 1/16 inch) of each
weld pass and then wiping the weld with cleaning
solvent. These effects are the same for surface
welding as well as for hyperbaric welding.
SHIELDING GASSES
A primary concern from the outset of this project
was choosing the correct shielding gas. Often
times it is the weld alone which dictates the
shielding gas selection; some material
combinations can only be joined while using a
specific gas or blend of gasses. Aluminum
GMAW works best with only a few gas variables:
pure argon, pure helium or a mixture of the two in
a variety of percentages. We chose to design the
welding parameters around the gas choice if
possible, and that choice was argon from the
beginning. The rationale is pretty straight
forward: argon is far cheaper than helium or
mixtures. Once the procedure has been welded and
tested the shielding gas is an essential element and
cannot be changed. In foreign ports the proper gas
mixture may not be available (think back to the
LCS forward deployed mission profile); and
finally, argon has a long history of producing
excellent weld properties.
The ionization potential of argon is much lower
than that of helium. Ionization potential is the
voltage required to move an electron from an
atom, thereby turning the atom into an ion.
Comparison of ionization potentials gives an
indication as to the relative ease with which the
shielding gas forms the plasma; the higher the
ionization potential, the more difficult it is to
initiate an arc. High ionization potentials can also
result in poor arc stability; helium, therefore,
welds with a less stable arc and requires an
increase in voltage to help smooth out the arc.
The increase in voltage can change the metal
transfer mode from globular to spray. Transfer
modes will be discussed in more detail later.
Thermal conductivity is important because a gas
with good thermal conductivity will help to
conduct heat into the work piece. It can affect the
shape of the weld bead and the condition of the
HAZ metal next to the weld. Helium's high
thermal conductivity relative to that of argon is
one reason why welds made with helium show a
broader and flatter weld puddle. The density of
helium is one tenth that of argon so higher flow
rates are required when welding with helium
(Reichelt, Evancho and Hoy 1979).
For our application, Argon has many advantages
over helium. Argon has excellent cleaning action;
helium on the other hand provides no cleaning. A
higher arc voltage associated with helium results
in greater heat input and supposedly deeper
penetration. This greater heat input with Helium
also permits welding at higher speeds. The main
advantage associated with the high heat input is
the broad weld root width. Although the greater
heat input is a major advantage for helium, this gas
also has several disadvantages. Its high ionization
potential results in difficult arc initiation and poor
arc stability, though modern machinery can

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overcome these deficiencies in most cases. A
greater gas flow rate is also required with helium
because of its lower density.
Contrast Argon, because of its low ionization
potential, demonstrates good arc initiation
characteristics and excellent arc stability. With its
higher density, argon provides a more effective
shield from the environment at lower flow rates
than helium, another cost savings. The main
disadvantage attributed to argon is the narrow
weld root width (Reichelt, Evancho and Hoy
1979). However, welder technique and machine
set-up can easily mitigate this disadvantage. The
lower heat input of argon may be an advantage
when welding on high magnesium (marine
grade) alloys. Heating 5000 series aluminum
alloys between 150F and 450F for a prolonged
period of time can result in the metal becoming
sensitized and susceptible to stress corrosion
cracking.
A PRACTICAL BEGINNING
While the investigation into machinery, methods
and measures was ongoing an inexpensive trial
proved the GMAW process with aluminum could
work in a hyperbaric environment. In a one day
trial at our test tank, using a 12 volt spool gun,
the future looked bright for aluminum. Fillet
break coupons, T-plates, made from 5083 H116
(Bushfield and et.al. 2004), were welded on the
bench and then again in the habitat 17 feet
underwater, the equivalent draft of LCS 2. The
process worked, it was smoky, the puddle did the
same things, and the penetration, fusion and
porosity all looked about equal to surface welds.
All welding changes to some degree under
elevated pressures; the depth or atmospheres of
pressure play the biggest role. The most obvious
effect is that the molten weld puddle becomes
slightly constricted as depth increases. More
troublesome is the shrinkage of the gas shield
protecting the puddle. None of these adverse
effects were observed in this down and dirty
experiment so we were excited for the real trials to
commence.
Some preliminary efforts in cold working
(peening) on multi-pass groove welds, which were
made using a programmable pulse welding unit,
showed promise. Pulse welding in the cofferdam
also showed promise, but both efforts were
shelved for later, more thorough, examination.
The target remained, keep it simple and
repeatable.
NARROWING THE FOCUS TO
HIGH END TECHNOLOGY
Tank trials got under way using the demonstration
equipment provided by the manufacturer. This
time the fillet break results confirmed it was time
to shift to welding on multi-pass groove plates for
bend testing. It was still too early in the process to
warrant the expense of x-rays as in house bend
testing and acid etch tests would reveal enough
information to the welders to guide them through
setting weld parameters.
Power Mode, a proprietary control technology,
compensates for arc length fluctuations four times
faster than traditional CV (Constant Voltage) or
CC (Constant Current) machines. Faster response
times require less drastic compensation to
maintain control. The process helps aluminum
welding when using pure Argon; the weld
penetration, wetting, and surface appearance is
improved and more consistent.

Figure 5: Power Mode Voltage and Current
Control Yields Constant Power at the Arc
The graph in Figure 5 represents the voltage and
amperage response to increases or decreases in arc
length using constant power. Arc sensing reports
approximately a 5 volt change (V) in arc length,
forcing an imbalance in the power. The current
compensates slightly (25 A, I) to get the power
relationship balanced to the set-point. Note that
the current response is much less than if a typical
constant voltage procedure had been used (Frank

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Armao, Director Application Engineering; The
Lincoln Electric Company n.d.).
What this all means to the welder is that he or she
can now concentrate more on the weld profile and
less on the technique. The machine adjusts for
welder inconsistencies in arc length; therefore, an
unsteady moment or extreme out of position welds
are quickly adapted to.
The term Push-Pull refers to synchronization
between the wire feed drive roll (push) and the
welding gun (torch) drive roll (pull). In aluminum
welding the delivery system (the mechanics which
move the welding wire from the spool to the gun)
have to depend on the column strength of the wire.
Aluminum is a soft material and not much force is
required to part (or kink) the welding wire. Very
clever engineering and machinery manufacturing
allows us to push-pull this wire through a conduit
over distances up to fifty feet. This is no small
feat; some welding wires are as small as 0.35
inches (or smaller) in diameter and feed rates
might exceed 650 inches per minute (IPM). Fifty
feet is presently the industry maximum and is just
enough to meet the requirements for welding
anywhere under LCS 2 or in the thruster tunnels.
Everything leading up to the actual weld is critical.
There are still more choices to consider when it
comes to depositing the welding consumable (the
wire) onto the base material. In fact, there are five
metal transfer modes. Of the five, only three
lend themselves to our process and machinery:
Spray molten metal is propelled axially across
the arc in small droplets; Pulsed Spray power
source provides two output levels (a steady
background level and a pulsed high-output level
which causes melting of droplets from the
electrode that are then transferred across the arc);
and Globular characterized by transfer of molten
metal in large droplets across the arc. The transfer
mode takes place when current and voltage are
between short-circuiting and spray transfer.
The transfer mode is another essential element to a
welding procedure, so careful deliberation went
into the final selection. The globular metal
transfer mode was chosen for its high deposition
rate, the fact that it can be achieved on nearly any
machine platform, and because it does not require
helium in the shielding gas. Globular transfer is
sometimes looked at as a transition between short
circuit transfer, where the electrode actually comes
into contact with the molten puddle and the spray
transfer mode. In Power Mode we are able to
maintain the globular transfer near the threshold of
spray transfer and achieve good penetration,
fusion, wetting, and bead appearance.
Every generational change in welding technology
has the potential to change the norm. The past
twenty years or so of computerization of
seemingly everything welding related is truly a
paradigm shift. Programmers are able to
customize electrical wave forms for every welding
process from stick (SMAW) to laser beam welding
(LBW). Machines can now wirelessly link up to a
PC or the internet and store entire weld profiles to
a file. Welding parameters can be viewed in
process and monitored from half way around the
world if desired. The internal calculations of
Joules heat input are far more accurate than what a
human could produce by watching output signals
(analog or digital) and computing HI = (60xVxI)/s.
Where HI = heat input in Joules per unit length, V
= arc voltage, I = arc current, and S = travel speed
in a unit length per minute. The data sampling of
the machine is faster and more accurate than ever
before.
TANK TRIALS WITH HIGH END
MACHINERY
In an effort to cut x-ray costs we used welder
qualification sized double bevel coupons (10
inches long by 12 inches wide) rather than
procedure qualification coupons (26 inches long
by 12 inches wide) in this set of trials. The aim
was to repeatedly produce MIL-STD-2035,
Nondestructive Testing Acceptance Criteria, Class
1 x-rays with the newly purchased welding
package.
The 50 foot long push-pull umbilical was housed
in a 1 1/2 inch fire hose for protection against the
water and a plastic waterproof box for the welding
gun was adapted to the fire hose. The hose and
box were pressurized to 5 psi over the water
pressure inside the habitat allowing the
welder/diver to transport the welding gun into the
dry habitat without fear of getting the gun wet.
Inside the habitat, the welder/diver secured the air
flow to the gun box and then removed the gun for
use.

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A very small wire lubrication pad, a sort of gauze
pad designed to clamp onto the welding wire, was
used just ahead of the drive rolls in the gun. This
pad, without the use of lubricants, serves as a
wiper to clean the wire while welding and as a
filter to keep contaminated habitat atmosphere
from entering the small annulus between the
welding wire and its conduit. Remember, the
habitat atmosphere is greater than atmospheric
pressure (surface pressure) so the wire conduit
from the gun inside the habitat leading to the wire
feeder on the surface is a path for the habitat air to
escape to the surface. Although it is a very small
pathway, the air in the habitat, after welding
begins, is contaminated with welding fumes, dust,
and debris. Without a wiper/filter the inside of the
conduit, and therefore the welding wire, would
soon become contaminated and cause adverse
effects in the weld. Similarly, a very small check
valve (0.33 psi cracking pressure) was installed in
the inert gas delivery hose.
With all aforementioned work leading up to the
welder/divers pulling the trigger and applying their
trade skills, we began to produce Class 1 weld x-
rays. We received compliments from the local x-
ray lab as they were the first to see the results.
The welder/divers reviewed the x-ray films
alongside the laboratory ASNT Level III inspector
and any time a failure to meet Class 1 occurred a
full investigation into the cause took place. We
began to produce repeatable Class 1 results in 2G
(horizontal) 3G (vertical upward progression) and
4G (overhead) welding positions and decided that
the system was up to the task of going for
procedure trials.
FIRST EVER HYPERBARIC
ALUMINUM PROCEDURES
NAVSEA assigned the task of outlining the
qualification test plan to Welding Engineering
Services, Mr. Tom West, a welding engineer and
pioneer in underwater welding, wet and dry. The
test plan called for welding with 3/64 inch
diameter wire of AWS A5.10 (A-22B) at a depth
of 24 feet of water and joining the following
alloys: 5083 H116 and 6082-T6 (or 6061-T6)
(American Welding Society n.d.) welded to
themselves and to each other. The coupons were
built using ASTM B928 (Bushfield and et.al.
2004) (S-25 (NAVSEA 1995)) approved plate and
ASTM B221 flat bar, 5/8 inches thick and 26
inches long by 12 inches wide for the 3G, and 10
inches long by 12 inches wide for the 4G
positions. A total of 7 coupons were welded and
sent to x-ray after Liquid Penetrant testing (PT).
The 4G 6061-T6 failed x-ray on the first attempt
due to a cluster of porosity, the second try easily
passed x-ray. All other coupons sailed through
Class 1 x-ray. The RT acceptance standard used
for evaluation was the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
NDT Instruction NDTI 138 - 209 A. CH 5 (i)
because its tables use a more incremental material
thickness breakdown.
Mechanical testing included all of the normal
procedure requirements plus some testing for
information purposes. Remember that since no
one has done this in a hyperbaric environment
before there is no data available to compare to.
We performed a weld on the bench for a control
baseline, sanity check, and all of the hyperbaric
samples were within expected ranges. Below are
some sample results:
Side Bends: Tech Pub 248, Par. 4.5.2
All passed, 1 re-test
Reduced Section Tensile: Base Metal
Minimum Tensile
All Exceeded the Minimum
All Weld Metal Tensile: Information Only
5083 welded to 5083 (40,934 psi (3G
sample T2)
Dynamic Tear: Information Only
5083 welded to 5083 (-20F - 88 Ft-
lbs / 30F - 108 Ft-lbs)
Weld Metal Chemistry: Information Only
Macro Examination: Information Only
CONCLUSION
High quality multi-pass groove welds on marine
grade aluminum plate and high silicon extruded
shapes can be accomplished with repeatability in a
typical underwater welding cofferdam. Great care
must be taken to assure cleanliness and low
moisture in all aspects of hyperbaric aluminum
welding. Mechanical properties of a weld are not
adversely affected by welding under higher than
atmospheric pressures as performed in this project.

10
Equipment selection is crucial to quality
assurance, quality control, and overall repeatable
performance of high quality welding.
Armed with reliable equipment and procedures,
the next step is to perform real world test
scenarios under an LCS 2 vessel and accomplish
mock repair welds on plate. These tests, the
acceptance criteria, and the data gathered are well
defined in NSTM Chapter 074 Volume 1 and are
part of our normal operating practice for new
hyperbaric welding procedures.
References/Bibliography
American Welding Society. "AWS
D1.2/D1.2M:2008 Structural Welding Code
Aluminum."
Bushfield, Harold Sr., and et.al. "Marine
Aluminum Plate - ASTM Standard Specification B
928 and the Events Leading to its Adoption."
ASTM Standard, B928, 2004.
Frank Armao, Director Application Engineering;
The Lincoln Electric Company.
Hettes, F.J., and D.L. Ketron. Evaluation of
Surface Preparation Methods on Porosity
Formation in Aluminum GMAW.
NAVSEA. "Quality Assurance Requirements for
Welding of 5XXX Series Aluminum Structures for
CG 47 Class." 05 Oct 2011.
NAVSEA. "S9086-CH-STM-010/CH-
074V1R5/Chapter 074 Volume 1 Welding and
Applied Processes." In Naval Ships Technical
Manual Chapter 074. 2003.
NAVSEA. "Technical Publication S9074-QA-
GIB-010/248 Requirements for Welding and
Brazing Procedure and Performance
Qualification." 1995.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. "NDTI 138 - 209 A.
Chapter 5." In NDT Instruction. 2011.
Reichelt, W. R., J. W. Evancho, and M. G. Hoy.
"Effects of Shielding Gas on Gas Metal Arc
Welding Aluminum." American Welding Society
60th Annual Meeting. Detroit, Michigan, 1979.
Woods, R. A. "Porosity and Hydrogen Absorbtion
in Aluminum Welds." Supplement to the Welding
Journal, March 1974.
Acknowledgements
Whitney Ehrgott Welder/Diver, Phoenix
International Holdings, Inc.
Nathan Martin Welder/Diver, Phoenix
International Holdings, Inc.
Eric P. Lindberg CTO, Phoenix International
Holdings, Inc. Technical, programmatic, editing,
and moral support
Biography of Authors
Kenneth R. Elliott, is the Welding Program
Manager for Phoenix International Holdings, Inc.
As the Welding Manager he is responsible for
welder qualifications, quarterly maintenance, new
processes and procedures, as well as the daily
issues of more than 30 welder /divers. A charter
member of the U.S. Navy Seabees Underwater
Construction Team 1 with nearly 40 years of
experience in the diving and welding trades.
Justin N. Pollack, is the Underwater Welding
(UWW) Program Manager for the Underwater
Ship Husbandry (UWSH) Division in the office of
the U.S. Navy Director of Ocean Engineering and
Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (NAVSEA
00C). As the UWW Program Manager, he is
responsible for ensuring all UWW on U.S. Navy
Ships and Submarines are in compliance with
NAVSEA standards, as well as working to
produce new procedures to continue to grow the
Navys UWSH capability. Mr. Pollack earned a
BE in Naval Architecture from the New York
Maritime Academy and a MS in Ocean
Engineering from Virginia Tech.