Intergranular Corrosion and Residual Stress Determination of Duplex Stainless Steel Pipeline Girth Welds

Welding of duplex stainless steel (DSS) pipeline material for the oil and gas industry is now common practice. To date research has been conducted primarily on the parent material and heat affected zones in terms of its susceptibility to various forms of corrosion and effects of addition of alloying elements. However there has been little research conducted on the corrosion characteristics and structural transformation of the weld metal in terms of the susceptibility to Intergranular Corrosion (IGC) of the various successive weld layers namely the root, fill and cap layers.