Proceedings of the ASME 2017 India Oil and Gas Pipeline Conference

IOGPC2017
April 20-22, 2017, Mumbai, India

IOGPC2017-2464

OPTIMIZATION OF PIPE INDUCTION BENDING PROCESS PARAMETERS

T. S. Kathayat Rajesh K. Goyal

Welspun Corp Ltd. Welspun Corp Ltd.
President - Corporate Quality & Technical Services R&D, Pipe Division, Anjar,
Mumbai, Maharashtra 400013, India. Gujarat-370110, India.
ts_kathayat2@welspun.com goyal_rajesh@welspun.com
+91-9664440207 +91-9825219559

Richard Hill Tushal Kyada

Technical Consultant to Welspun Corp Ltd. Welspun Corp Ltd.
Houston, Texas-77064, USA R&D, Pipe Division, Anjar,
Richard.Hill@microalloying.com Gujarat-370110, India.
713-591-6621 tushalkyada90@yahoo.com
+91-9898843764

ABSTRACT
Hot pushed induction heating is a bending process used to
bend pipes having a small bending radius with a large
diameter. This is a complex process since it involves
mechanical process of bending and thermal process of
localized induction heating. This paper deals with the
optimization of induction bending process parameters such as
bending speed, water flow rate, water pressure, air pressure
and induction coil to water coil distance. Mother pipes of size
464 mm OD x 20.60 mm and grade API 5L X65MS/MO were
used to make trial bends of 5D radius in 30˚ angle. Trial bends
were subjected to mechanical tests and microstructural analysis
to evaluate the effects of selected process parameters.
NOMENCLATURE
AF: Acicular Ferrite
CPF: Coarse Polygonal Ferrite
FPF: Fine Polygonal Ferrite
GL: Gauge Length
P: Pearlite
PF: Polygonal Ferrite
QPF: Quasi Polygonal Ferrite
UTS: Ultimate Tensile Strength
YS: Yield Strength
1. INTRODUCTION
Induction bends are formed by passing a length of straight
pipe through an induction bending machine (Figure 1). This
machine uses an induction coil to heat a narrow band of the
pipe material. The leading end of the pipe is clamped to a pivot
arm. As the pipe is pushed through the machine, a bend with
the desired radius of curvature is produced. The heated
material just beyond the induction coil is quenched with a
water & air spray on the outside surface of the pipe to set the
deformation band. Thermal expansion of the narrow heated
section of pipe is restrained due to the unheated pipe on either
side, which causes diameter shrinkage upon cooling. The
induction bending process also causes wall thickening due to
compressive stress on the intrados and thinning due to tensile
stress on the extrados of the bend. The severity of
thickening/thinning is dependent on the bending temperature,
the speed at which the pipe is pushed through the induction
coil, the placement of the induction coil relative to the pipe
(closer to the intrados or extrados) and other factors [1]. The
bend radius is specified as a function of the diameter. For
example, common bend radii for induction bends are 3D, 5D
and 7D, where D is the nominal pipe diameter.
During the thinning of pipe wall on extrados may not be
allowed more than 12% in the above radii (3D, 5D & 7D)

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 which are welded with the line pipe. Any product in which the The dissolution temperature of Nb(C,N) is determined by using
wall thickness decreases beyond the aforementioned limit Irwin’s equation [6].
would be unsuitable for this purpose [2]. Therefore, the mother
pipe must have additional wall thickness in order to meet T ⁰C = {-6770/log (Nb) (C+ (12/14) N)-2.26} -273.15 (1)
minimum specified wall thickness on the finished bends.
In the present experimental study, induction heating
temperature was kept almost same in all the trials.

2.3 Bending Speed

Figure 1: Induction bending machine
2. INDUCTION BENDING PROCESS VARIABLES
2.1 Chemistry
The chemistry of API 5L X65MS/MO mother pipe is
given in Table 1. The parameters such as bending speed, water
flow rate, water pressure, air pressure and distance between
induction coil & water coil, affecting morphology of the
microstructure and thereby, mechanical properties were
selected. In general the additions of alloying elements such as
Mn, Nb, Mo, Cr and Ni promote acicular ferrite and /or bainite
transformations by restricting the polygonal ferrite and/or
pearlite transformations [4 & 5].
Bending speed affects both the through thickness heating
and cooling. With increasing pipe wall thickness, the bending
speed is reduced to allow the sufficient through wall soak time.
For thicker wall pipes, the cooling rate is reduced due to
increased distance from pipe inner wall to the water spray at
pipe outside surface as well as the slow emergence of heated
annular ring from induction coil into the cooling water spray.
This can result in heterogeneity of the microstructure and
hence variation in mechanical properties through thickness.
2.4 Water Flow Rate and Pressure
Cooling of heated annular ring is carried out by water
spray at a particular flow rate and pressure. For a given nozzle
design, both water flow rate and pressure are the influencing
parameters to obtain the desired cooling rate.
2.5 Air pressure
Air, applied at particular pressure, serves the purpose to
restrict the water entering into heated annular ring.

Table 1: Chemical composition in weight % 2.6 Coil to Coil Distance

C Si Mn P S Ti Nb Cr Ni Mo Cu Al Distance between induction coil and water spray coil has a
0.04 0.24 1.26 0.008 0.0014 0.010 0.04 0.14 0.11 0.06 0.01 0.033
great influence on the cooling rate. Larger distance means
delayed cooling which in turn leads to the formation of
ferrite/pearlite microstructure. Shorter distance will not allow
2.2 Temperature
required soaking time. An optimum distance is required to
During the bending, material is heated above Ac3 point
obtain the desired microstructure and hence properties in the
into the austenitic region and subsequently cooled by water.
finished bend.
The induction heating temperature is determined based on the
dissolution temperature of the alloying elements. Since
3. EXPERIMENTAL PART
niobium is a strong carbide and nitride forming element, the
The LSAW mother pipes of size 464 mm OD x 20.60 mm
soluble Nb as well as Nb(C,N) precipitates can have great
WT and grade API 5L X65 MS/MO were used for hot
effect on phase transformation and the resulting mechanical
induction bending trials (Table 2). The mother pipes were
properties of the bend.
manufactured at Welspun Corp Ltd, Anjar-Gujarat-India. The
size of the bend selected for trials was 464 mm OD x 20.60
Table 2: Hot induction bending trials parameters
mm WT x 5D x 30˚. Initially two trials were carried out with
Parameter Trial-1 Trial-2 Trial-3 Trial-4 Trial-5
variable bending speed. In Trial-1 and Trial-2, bending speed
Temperature (˚C) 1010-1015 was changed by keeping all other parameters constant. In
Bending Speed (mm/min) 20 26 26 20 26 Trial-3, water flow rate was increased from 15 (Trial-2) to 20
Water Flow Rate (m /h) 3
15 15 20 15 15 m3/h. To restrict water entering the heated annular ring due to
Water Pressure (kg/cm2) 3.5 3.5 3.0 3.5 3.5
increased water flow rate, water pressure reduced from 3.5 to 3
kg/cm2 and air pressure increased from 5.5 to 7 kg/cm2 in
Air Pressure (kg/cm2) 5.5 5.5 7.0 3.4 3.4
Trial-3.
Coil to Coil Distance (mm) 75 75 75 60 60

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 These three trials failed to show much improvement in Figure 2: Microstructure obtained in Trial-1 to Trial-5
mechanical properties. Trial-4 and Trial-5 were carried out by
reducing distance between induction coil and water spray coil 4.2 Mechanical properties of trial bends
from 75 mm to 60 mm, as well as reduced water flow rate from Table 3 presents the mechanical properties from mother
20 to 15 m3/h and a reduced air pressure from 5.5 to 3.4 pipe to finished bend.
kg/cm2. In Trial-5, bending speed was higher than that in
Trial-4. Table 3: Mechanical properties of trial bends
UTS, Elongation YS0.5/
Location Trial No. YS0.5, MPa
4. RESULTS MPa @ 2”GL, % UTS
4.1 Microstructural Analysis Mother pipe
transverse -- 500 581 50 0.86
Induction bend consists of different zones such as (tangent)
transition start, extrados, intrados and transition stop having T1 442 548 49 0.81
Extrados at bend
different thermal, mechanical and physical characterizes. T2 455 546 48 0.83
portion in
Since extrados is the most stringent portion, the present work T3 427 519 52 0.82
transverse to
bend axis T4 463 532 47 0.87
gives focus on optimization of the extrados properties. Fine
T5 474 560 48 0.88
acicular ferrite or bainite structure is the desired
microstructure to achieve the properties.
The base metal full- thickness (flat-strip) transverse tensile
Microstructural changes from coarse polygonal ferrite +
test sample was drawn from extrados bend portion (Figure 3).
pearlite to fine quasi polygonal ferrite + acicular ferrite were
The full-thickness flat-strip sample of size 38 mm wide having
observed in Trial-1 to Trial-5 (Figure 2). Through thickness
25 mm fillet radius was used. Sample preparation and testing
microstructure variation observed from top surface to bottom
were performed at room temperature as per ASTM E8. Since it
surface.
Trial-1 Trial-2
was not feasible to draw more than 1 sample from the bend
portion of extrados in trial bend of 30°, estimation of scatter in
test results was not possible. However, the utmost care was
P taken during testing to minimize variations due to man,
machine and method.
P
CPF
CPF

Extrados: CPF + P Extrados: CPF (Slightly finer than

Trial-1) + P
Trial-3 Trial-4

QPF AF
QPF P

Figure 3: Sample location for tensile and microstructure

Extrados: QPF + P (Higher than Extrados: Fine QPF + AF

5. DISCUSSIONS
Trial-1 and Trial-2) 5.1 Co-relation between forming parameters versus
Trial-5 mechanical properties
Test Details Keeping water flow rate constant at 15 m3/h, water
Etchant: 2% nital
pressure at 3.5 kg/cm2, air pressure at 5.5 kg/cm2 and
AF
Sample location: Middle of wall
thickness at bend portion of extrados
induction coil to water spraying coil distance constant at 75
QPF (Figure 3) mm, both YS and UTS increased with bending speed (Trial-1
Direction: Transverse to rolling & Trial-2). Further increase of water flow rate to 20 m3/h,
Technique: Optical metallurgical resulted decrease in YS and UTS (Trial-3) as shown in Figure
with bright field illumination 4 & 5. The possible explanation of this decrease in YS and
Method: ASTM E112 UTS was due to reduction in cooling rate effectiveness. To
Extrados: AF + QPF restrict water entering the heated annular ring due to increased

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 water flow rate, water pressure reduced from 3.5 to 3 kg/cm2
and air pressure increased from 5.5 to 7 kg/cm2 in Trial-3.
Cumulative effect of low water pressure and higher air
pressure resulted in an air film between hot bend surface and
water spray and thereby, ineffective water cooling as confirmed
by the microstructure (Figure 2) and mechanical properties
(Table 3).
Figure 4: YS versus water flow rate and bend speed
Figure 5: UTS versus water flow rate and bend speed
At constant water flow rate of 15 m3/h and bending speed
20 mm/min, there was 20 MPa increase in YS in Trial-4 when
compared to Trial-1 (Figure 6). Similarly, at constant water
flow rate of 15 m3/h and bending speed 26 mm/min, there was
20 MPa increase in YS in Trial-5 when compared to Trial-2
(Figure 6). The reduced induction coil to water spraying
distance by 15 mm [From 75 mm to 60 mm] and reduced air
pressure by 2.1 kg/cm2 [From 5.5 kg/cm2 to 3.4 kg/cm2] in
Trial-4 and Trial-5 resulted in early cooling and increased
cooling rate and hence, formation of acicular ferrite (Figure
2).
At constant water flow rate, water pressure and 75 mm
distance of induction coil to water spraying, there was no effect
on UTS with increasing bending speed in Trial-1 and Trial-2
(Figure 6). There was 30 MPa increase in UTS with bending
speed in Trial-4 and Trial-5 (Figure 6) at constant water flow
rate, water pressure and air pressure. This showed that the
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effect of bending speed was pronounced when induction coil to
water spraying distance was reduced from 75 mm to 60 mm.
Figure 6: YS & UTS versus induction coil to water spraying coil
distance and bending speed
6. CONCLUSION
Hot induction bending is a very complex process involving
thermal and mechanical parameters, it is imperative to
optimize the process parameters for each size of bend for the
given chemical composition of the mother pipes manufactured
by TMCP plates. Generally, the distance between the induction
coil and water spray coil remains fixed at a minimum distance.
In this study there was scope of reducing it from 75 mm to 60
mm. The optimum setting of parameters established were;
water flow rate 15 m3/h, water pressure 3.5 kg/cm2, air
pressure 3.4 kg/cm2 and bending speed 26 mm/min for the
bend of size 464 mm OD x 20.60 mm WT x 5D and grade API
5L X65MS/MO.
The CVN impact energy at -20 °C was very high (>100 J
against the requirement of minimum 45 J) at base metal, HAZ
and weld in all the trials. Similarly, the hardness was quite low
(<200 Hv5 kgf against the requirement of maximum 250 Hv5
kgf). Therefore, strength (YS and UTS) was considered for
optimization of bending parameters. In view of using flat-strip
sample, elongation at 2” gauge length was considered for
ductility measurement in place of reduction of area.
Diameter and thickness of bend play a great role in the
optimization of bending parameters such as speed, temperature
and cooling rate at given chemical composition. So it becomes
apparent to take initial trials before offering bend for mill
qualification. However, in general, the main aim is to produce
acicular ferrite or bainite structure through thickness to obtain
desired mechanical properties.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors are thankful to the management of Welspun Corp
Ltd for giving support and permission to prepare and publish
this paper.

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