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The effect of repeated post-weld heat

treatment on low-carbon steel ASTM A216WCB
ARTICLE in PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART L JOURNAL OF MATERIALS
DESIGN AND APPLICATIONS JANUARY 2014
Impact Factor: 0.67 DOI: 10.1177/1464420714530596

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Technical Note

The effect of repeated post-weld

heat treatment on low-carbon
steel ASTM A216WCB

Proc IMechE Part L:

J Materials: Design and Applications
2015, Vol. 229(6) 522525
! IMechE 2014
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/1464420714530596
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Cathal DArcy1, Mark Ruddy1, John Haines2, John P Gibbons1

and Kenneth T Stanton1

Abstract
The subject of this study is the effect of repeated post-weld heat treatment on valves made of low-carbon steel, ASTM
A216WCB. Post-weld heat treatment is a common technique used to alleviate detrimental stresses induced in the
vicinity of the weld as a result or the weld process. This investigation was set out to characterise the effect of such heat
treatments in the bulk material away from the weld site if carried out as part of a regular industrial maintenance routine.
By exposing the steel to varying numbers of heat treatments up to a maximum of 20 cycles and performing tensile
testing, hardness tests and metallographic analysis, it was possible to quantitatively assess the mechanical properties of
the material. The objective was to determine whether the materials properties were altered beyond the requirements of
the applicable standard for the alloy. A 3.7  C/min ramp rate and a hold temperature of 615  C  15  C were used for
each heat treatment cycle. The study found that A216WCBs hardness decreased by 6%, to 141 Hv after 20 heat
treatment cycles. Tensile tests showed that there was a decrease in yield strength of 2.98%, to 300.6, while ultimate
tensile strength fell by 6.9% to 483.3 MPa after 20 cycles. The ultimate tensile strength values were approaching those
listed in the material standard for A216WCB, whereas yield strength values were well within the minimum specified by
the standard.
Keywords
Low-carbon steel, A216WCB, post-weld heat treatment, mechanical properties, analysis of variance
Date received: 25 September 2013; accepted: 13 March 2014

Introduction
Low-carbon steels such as ASTM A216WCB are particularly suited to use in high-temperature service
components that may be fabricated or repaired with
fusion welding techniques. Often due to the nature of
the use of ASTM A216WCB, there is a need for repair
of the component. This may be achieved by using
techniques such as metal active gas welding to replace
the loss of parent material as a result of erosion
processes in elbows, Ts and valves.
The heat-aected zone (HAZ) around the weld site
will experience elevated temperatures during the welding process, which if heated above the lower critical
temperature (&723  C) can cause microstructural
changes. Furthermore, during cooling, tensile stresses
are generated in the weld material with corresponding
compressive stresses in the base material. These stresses can reach levels equal to the yield strength of the
material.1 Post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) is frequently utilised to alleviate such stresses: by heating
and holding the material below the lower critical

temperature, tensile and compressive stresses can be

relieved in this way.
Cols2 and Gndz and Acarer3 have investigated the
eects of dierent heat treatments on physical and
mechanical properties of various steels. Numerous
studies46 have used standard methods such as tensile
and hardness tests along with microscopy to characterise mechanical and physical properties. The eects
of prolonged PWHT, 40 h, on a welded ASTM A302
steel joint have been investigated by Smith et al.7 This
research showed that as a result of PWHT the HAZ
toughness increased, while prolonged heat treatment
was shown to result in a decrease in yield strength of
7.8%, without a corresponding decrease in toughness.
1

School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University College

Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland
2
Aughinish Alumina Ltd., Askeaton, Ireland
Corresponding author:
Kenneth T Stanton, School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering,
University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Email: kenneth.stanton@ucd.ie

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DArcy et al.

523

Many investigators have looked at the eects of various processing techniques on the microstrcture of
low-carbon steel810 but these steels were highly
alloyed with other elements such as chromium and
nickel. ASTM A216WCB has been previously characterised in response to a failure of a value at a
nuclear power plant.11 It was found that a soaking
temperature of 650  C for 2 h provided optimal relief
conditions for AISI 1020.12,13
This study will attempt to build on the previously
mentioned work by presenting the eects of repeated
PWHT for ASTM A216WCB. The tensile properties
of A216WCB, as calculated by the 0.2% proof stress
method, are given in its standard as14:
. Tensile strength: 485655 MPa;
. Yield strength (min): 250 MPa.

applied uniaxial tensile stress. Tests were carried out

using an Instron 250 kN testing machine (Instron ,
Wycombe, UK).
The grain size was determined using the linear
intercept method. Samples were mounted in Bakelite
and ground in stages using P-320, P-500 and P-1000
SiC paper. Polishing was carried out using a 1 mm
diamond solution after which the sample was etched
using 2% Nital solution. A typical microstructure is
shown in Figure 1(a). A minimum of ve samples
were used for grain size determination for each
condition.
Mounted samples were further used for the determination of Vickers hardness testing with a 10 kg
load, and a minimum of 10 measurements were
taken for each heat treatment condition.

Results and discussion

Materials and methods
Samples of ASTM A216WCB were cut from the sides
of the main body of a single 24-inch angle valve
(Poyam, Spain). To minimise the possibility of microstructural changes occurring as a result of the cutting
process and inuencing the ndings, oversized samples were rst cut using an oxy-acetylene torch and
then reduced to a suitable specimen size by a power
hacksaw. This was done in order to remove any area
of the material that may have been aected by the
ame cutting. In order to ensure there were no regions
of signicant porosity or shrinkage voids, radiography was carried out. This would ensure uniformity
for the purposes of tensile testing.
Optical emission spectroscopy15 was carried out on
a sample in order to verify that the valve material was
A216WCB and to obtain a detailed characterisation
regarding the wt. % composition.
To replicate the heat treatment cycles which the
steel may experience in service, ve batches, each containing four samples underwent the heat treatment.
Each batch was put through a varying number of
cycles designed to represent steel which has experienced multiple repairs. The cycle amounts chosen
were 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20. Each cycle underwent a
3.7  C/min ramp rate and a hold temperature of
615  C  15  C for 1 hour. An upper limit of 20
cycles was used as any in-service component is
highly likely to be repaired this many times. A
Carbolite RHF 1200 furnace interfaced via a
Eurotherm controller was used to conduct the heat
treatment. A type K thermocouple was used to
record the temperature prole of the components
during heat treatment. Subsequent to heat treatment,
the blocks were sent to be machined (C.N.C Precision,
Worcester, UK) into samples suitable for tensile testing (Figure 1(b)). Tensile testing was carried out
according to ASTM E 8 M-04 to provide information
on the strength and ductility of A216WCB under an

The results for the composition analysis are given in

Table 1 and the alloy is seen to conform to the
standard.
The plot in Figure 2(a) illustrates the mean value of
the grain sizes with a 95% condence interval for each
of the heat treatment cycles. As can be seen, the
results show little change in grain size as a function
of heat treatment. The number of grains intersected
was found to be half the recommended number; however, at lesser magnications, it was dicult to determine the grain structure and count the grains.

Figure 1. (a) Micrograph showing dark areas of pearlite and

lighter areas of ferrite prior to heat treatment; (b) tensile test
samples before and after testing.

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Proc IMechE Part L: J Materials: Design and Applications 229(6)

The initial grain size measured was 13.8 mm, and samples having undergone 20 heat treatment cycles had a
mean grain size of 14.1 mm.
The trend for hardness is easier to determine. It can
be seen from Figure 2(b) that the hardness of the
material has decreased over the 20 cycles. In fact,
the hardness decreases from initial value of 150 Hv
to 141 Hv, representing a 6% decrease.
There is a clear trend and an overall decrease in the
yield strength of 2.98% over the range of heat

Table 1. Elemental composition of samples as determined

using optical emission spectroscopy.
Elements

Standard

Actual
(0.01)

Carbon, max
Manganese, max
Phosphorous, max
Sulphur, max
Silicon, max
Specified residual elements
Copper, max
Nickel, max
Chromium, max
Molybdenum, max
Vanadium, max

0.30
1.0
0.04
0.04
0.60

0.212
0.901
0.019
0.011
0.70

0.30
0.50
0.50
0.20
0.03

0.023
0.112
0.216
0.027
0.001

treatment cycles. Figure 2(c) shows the data for the

mean yield strength plotted graphically. Overall samples endured varying degrees of extension prior to failure. This is probably a consequence of ne porosity
introduced during casting.
Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) was also determined, Figure 2(d). There is also a clear trend in the
UTS data with a decrease of 6.9% over the 20 cycles
performed. With reference to the UTS listed in the
standard, at 20 cycles, the UTS has approached the
lower bound of the stated standard of 485 MPa.
Elongation of the samples was also investigated
and most of the samples were within the 22% minimum stated in the standard; samples that did not
reach this minimum were same that did not follow
the trend in plastic deformation as described above.
To verify the signicance of the data, analysis of
variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis were performed. The regression analysis reveals that there are
denite trends for the hardness, yield strength and
UTS. The regression condence values for the analyses were 46.5%, 40.2% and 56.5%, respectively,
and for each of these, the p-value as determined by
ANOVA analysis was <0.0001, conrming that the
trends are signicant. For the hardness, yield strength,
and UTS data, the regression equations for each of
the plots are as follows
Hv 149:279  0:429N

Figure 2. (a) Mean grain sizes; (b) mean hardness values; (c) mean yield strength; (d) mean UTS values. Error bars are 95%
confidence intervals.

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DArcy et al.

525

y 310:95  0:557N MPa

UTS 520:433  1:737N MPa

where N is the number of heat treatment cycles.

Conclusions
With a decrease in yield strength and hardness, it
would be expected to indicate an increase in grain
size; however, in this case, it has been shown that
there was no signicant observable change in grain
size. A possible explanation for this would be that
the PWHT allowed recovery and some recrystallisation which has reduced the strength of the material.
The Vickers hardness values obtained proved both
accurate and statistically signicant. Hardness was
found to fall in a relatively linear manner of &6%
over 20 heat treatment cycles. Over 20 heat treatments, tensile tests veried that there was a decrease
of 2.9% in yield strength to 300.9 MPa, while UTS fell
by 6.9% to 483.3 MPa, both of which were statistically signicant. It can thus be concluded that stressrelieving heat treatments if carried out on multiple
occasions do reduce the strength and hardness of
ASTM A216WCB but not below the lower level of
the ASTM standard up to 20 cycles.
Funding
This work received nancial support from Aughinish
Alumina Ltd.

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