In underwater wet welding, cold cracking and pores might have a deleterious effect in the mechanical properties of welded joint. The hydrogen might act in the occurrence of theses discontinuities. The amount of diffusible hydrogen in the weld metal can be influenced by several factors. However, not yet known whether the depth of welding (pressure) affects the amount of diffusible hydrogen in weld metal. In this work, several measurements of diffusible hydrogen were made at following depth: 0.30 m, 10 m, 20 m and 30 m atwet welding. The electrode used was commercial waterproofed E6013. The diffusible hydrogen measurements were made through the gas chromatography method following the AWS D3.6M procedure. The porosity was measured using the macrographic method and an image analyser program. The residual hydrogen also was measured. The results showed that diffusible hydrogen reduced substantially as the hydrostatic pressure increased. The porosity increased as the hydrostatic pressure increased. It was not observed changes in the residual hydrogen of the weld metal. So, it is possible to conclude that the welding depth affects several aspects of the underwater wet welding, in special, the diffusible hydrogen and porosity.
Underwater Wet Welding; Diffusible Hydrogen; Hydrostatic Pressure
