Session: Construction & Industrialization

Paper Number: 164922

164922 - A Radical Departure From Traditional Welding 

Abstract: 

Wind turbine towers are increasingly higher and installed in more severe, rugged environments. Industry needs to increase width and thickness of tower base but is coming up against physical reality of heat input and residual stress. As size and thickness of tower base increases, cost to weld, transport and install increases disproportionally. Physical transport to location has been maximized. There needs a new way of thinking – How to build, deliver and install increasing larger tower base to location?

Submerged arc has served the welding industry well for many decades. Multi pass using multi heads has been accepted and standardized globally. As manufacturers all face the same building procedures, cost of material etc. The remaining variable is labor cost. How to optimize, putting this jig saw puzzle together efficiently is key to this increasingly larger and more competitive environment. Installation of larger wind turbine tower is at its infancy. Taking advantage of wind energy is just at the beginning.

Dynamic solid state (DSS) was invented over two decades ago. The technique is to place an induction coil in-between two work pieces, take to hot working temperature in an inert environment, remove induction coil, push / forge, rotate / shear the two work pieces for under 30 seconds. Result is a weld that is fine grained base to base, no fusion line, hardness mapping is close to base metal w/ a slight bump in hardness at fusion zone. Forge distance is less than 1 mm. There is no oxide to expel. No stress riser. Technique is accepted under ASME IX, code case 2799. Commercialized in automotive diesel cylinder heads; won The Pace Automotive Award 2016 for innovation. Also used in truck axel.

This DSS technique has been perfected for small objects – truck axles 5” OD, 5/8” wall; diesel cylinder head < 4” OD. Wind turbine tower base is in meters across. The demand for electricity over 30 seconds will be enormous. This author is proposing joining in smaller segments using DSS. One is to use wedge segments applied in horizontal fashion (IP granted). The other is to use a ‘Band Aid’ analogy but applied vertically (IPs pending). These two concepts have not been proven but the science is sound. To date technique has been applied to stainless to stainless, Zirconium to Zirconium in smaller segments but the weld crystalline structure is fine grained and no HAZ.

Hexagon ran simulations comparing traditional submerged arc in horizontal weld position vs DSS welded ‘Band Air’ in vertical position. The concept is valid. Vertical welded patch offers significant advantage.

The end result is time and cost. Base thick segments can be transported to location and joined either dockside, on the transport ship or as tower is being built one segment at a time. DSS is modular. All weather. Technique is automated so does not depend on skill set of welder. There is much unknown to this DSS technique for the size required but there is enough learned from commercial DSS practice to warrant further investigation. Technique can offer significant risk to reward ratio. Once proven commercially viable, technique can change how the base is put together globally.

Presenting Author: Paul Cheng Fusering Inc

Presenting Author Biography: Exploration O&G consultant. Worked from Algeria to United States. Retired from Saudi Aramco. Received 1st patent in 2017. The 2nd in 2019. Solid the love of his life, a 53 ft Hatteras MY to focus on commercializing FuseRing. Having a lot of fun working w/ prime contractor Sorsys Technologies and University of Waterloo engineering students.

Authors:

Paul Cheng Fusering Inc