A Numerical Assessment of the Tolerance of Manual Pressure Vessel Cladding Repairs

A numerical method for the prediction of the distribution of heat affected zone (HAZ) microstructures for dissimilar metal combinations involving austenitic and nickel base electrodes is described. The method is extended to consider possible variations in HAZ structure after local repairs to pressure vessel cladding. The calculated tolerance of the ASME III half-bead technique is compared with the tolerance of a two-layer refinement technique which does not involve hot grinding.