racookpe1978
Nuclear
Trying to closeout an emergent plant outage for an imported steam turbine with blade damage due to condensate flooding inside the casing during cooldown. (Don't ask how that happened.)
One vertical steam drain line under the turbine was cut to allow water to drain out, but that cut is irregular and hand-cut (sloped, gouged, etc.) Material is EN 1.5415 16MO3 stainless, measured = 1 inch nominal pipe dia OD, thin-walled. I'd prefer a butt weld repair, but there is no purge path available for the root pass and hot pass welds, and a cock-eyed BW weld prep isn't allowed even if the usual 1/8" "fitup" gap could be restored after the pipe is prepped.
We have 1 inch dia, 150 and 300 lb socket weld couplings available in 304 and 316; and 309 GTAW wire on site. If I trim the two pipe stubs square to fit the SW fitting gap and the expansion spacing required inside the SW coupling, is there any technical reason to reject a SW repair recommendation?
If so, should I recommend using the available 308 filler metal, or go off-site to order a different filler?
One vertical steam drain line under the turbine was cut to allow water to drain out, but that cut is irregular and hand-cut (sloped, gouged, etc.) Material is EN 1.5415 16MO3 stainless, measured = 1 inch nominal pipe dia OD, thin-walled. I'd prefer a butt weld repair, but there is no purge path available for the root pass and hot pass welds, and a cock-eyed BW weld prep isn't allowed even if the usual 1/8" "fitup" gap could be restored after the pipe is prepped.
We have 1 inch dia, 150 and 300 lb socket weld couplings available in 304 and 316; and 309 GTAW wire on site. If I trim the two pipe stubs square to fit the SW fitting gap and the expansion spacing required inside the SW coupling, is there any technical reason to reject a SW repair recommendation?
If so, should I recommend using the available 308 filler metal, or go off-site to order a different filler?
