Corrosion resistance of "tube - tubesheet" weld joint obtained by friction welding

Shell-and-tube heat exchangers are widely applied for implementation of various processes at ventures of fuel and energy complex. Cost of production and reliability of heat exchangers of this type is to a wide extent determined by corresponding characteristics of tube bundle, «tube - tubesheet» is its typical joint in particular when welding operations are used in order to attach tubes to tubesheet in addition to expansion. When manufacturing such equipment of heat-resistant chrome-bearing or chromium-molybdenum steels including steel 15H5M, the process of fixed joint manufacturing gets significantly more complicated and costly due to the necessity to use thermal treatment before, during and after welding (this problem is particularly applicable for manufacturing of large-size equipment). One of the options to exclude thermal treatment from manufacturing process is to use «non-arc» welding methods - laser welding, explosion welding as well as friction welding. Use of each of the welding methods mentioned above during production of heat-exchange equipment has its process challenges and peculiarities. This article gives a comparative analysis of weld structure and distribution of electrode potentials of welded joints and parent metal of the joints simulating welding of tube to tubesheet of steel 15H5M using the following welding methods: shielded manual arc welding, tungsten-arc inert-gas welding and friction welding. Comparative analysis of macro- and microstructures of specific zones of the studied welded joints showed that the joints produced by arc welding methods do not exhibit evident inhomogeneity of the structure after application of thermal treatment which is explained by the correctness of thermal treatment. Joints obtained via friction welding are characterized by structural inhomogeneity of the welded joint zone metal microstructure. The ultra-fine-grained structure obtained as a result of friction welding makes it possible to speak of a qualitative improvement in the structure of compounds as a result of exposure to a metal at the nanolevel. The conducted study of electrode potential values in specific points of parent metal and of welded joints obtained via different methods showed, that from the electrochemical corrosion point of view the «tube - tubesheet» joints obtained by friction welding without thermal treatment are highly competitive in terms of corrosion resistance with similar details obtained via arc welding methods. This fact allows to consider the friction welding method of «tube - tubesheet» fixed joints manufacturing as an alternative for arc welding methods, which in its turn not only allows producers to obtain «tube - tubesheet» fixed joints with high level of strength and plastic properties without thermal treatment but also significantly reduce energy and labor costs on manufacturing of tube bundles of shell-and-tube heat exchangers, including those made of steel 15H5M.