IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

International Journal of Engineering and Modern Technology (IJEMT )

E-ISSN 2504-8848
P-ISSN 2695-2149
VOL. 11 NO. 4 2025
DOI: 10.56201/ijemt.vol.11.no4.2025.pg139.155

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Investigation of Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW)Weld Integrity on a Low- Carbon Steel Pipeline using Destructive Mechanical Testing Technique

A E Dele, C V Ossia, and E O Diemuodeke

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Abstract

Welding is a major application in industries particularly for engineering, and is a typical process that involves joining two or more metals, either similar or dissimilar, through heat energy. Pipeline welded joint failed due to lack of weld integrity. This research aims to investigate weld integrity using destructive techniques by evaluating mechanical properties of shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) weld on low-carbon steel pipeline. Welded joint integrity was evaluated through destructive tests such as, hardness tests, impact-charpy test, tensile testing, bend test, mic & macro hardness. The average Hardness of the WM at 12 o'clock is 211.1 HV, HAZ is 208.6 HV, and BM is 208.6 HV, and at 6 o'clock, the WM is 199.0 HV, HAZ is 216.8 HV, and BM is 178.9 HV, respectively. Tensile tests of welded sample 1 and sample 2 were evaluated and the UTS (N/mm2) are 569.26 and 566.52, Yield stress (N/mm2) are 468.43 and 456.1, and breaking stress (N/mm2) are 380.12 and 382.4, respectively. Impact charpy test were performed on WM, HAZ and BM. The WM has average of 132.9 joules, HAZ with average of 237.1 joules and the BM average of 247.4, characteristically shows the highest value of toughness due to unchanged by welding process. Macro hardness was carried out; the weld penetration was adequate, with a penetration depth of approximately 5.8mm, weld reinforcement approximately 3mm and width approximately 2mm. The bend test showed that the samples could withstand bending without cracking or breaking. This research shows that SMAW can produce a good quality weld on a low-carbon steel pipeline with reasonable mechanical properties.

keywords:

Low carbon steel, SMAW, Mechanical properties

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