scope:

To determine the influence of various parameters for choosing suitable heating conditions for local post weld heat treatment (PWHT), an extensive research study was conducted by Japan Power Engineering and Inspection Corporation (JAPEIC). In that study, both experiments and computational analyses using the finite element method (FEM) were used. This bulletin is concerned with the computational analyses and covers a broad scope with respect to a variety of influential parameters and materials as they relate to PWHT. The bulletin also provides background information for understanding or clarifying the computational analyses results. For these analyses, information such as the temperature dependent materials constants used, the detailed description of the serial computations, and the computed results are presented. In this study, the problem is analyzed from various aspects, such as temperature field, thermal elastic stress, inherent strain, welding residual stress, type of material, size (of pipe), PWHT in the furnace, and PWHT in stress-free pipes. The knowledge obtained from this study may be useful in determining the influence of various parameters, which could be used in both general and local PWHT of pressure vessels and piping. Results also show the validity of many current concepts such as using a minimum heated band width of 2.5(Rt)1/2 for local PWHT