Underwater  Wet Welding Electrodes have been used for many decades, now since the early 1900s, with varying degrees of success; from excellent to very poor.

 

The success of underwater wet welding is partly due to a number of interacting factors. The most important of these interacting factors are are improvements in training, along with improvements in electrode development, better understanding of  welding techniques as well as improved steel manufacturing, which provides steels having improved properties and lower carbon equivalent values. However, most class societies still regard wet welding as a ‘temporary’ repair methodology.

 

Previous studies have shown that underwater wet welding can, with suitable training and appropriate skill, produce AWS D3.6M  class ‘B’ quality wet welds, but until now no published reports have shown that class ‘A’ weld quality has been achieved for welding in the wet.

 

The purpose of this investigation was to identify if underwater wet-welding could now be performed, using the electrode Barracuda Gold, to deliver weld metal quality in accordance with AWS D3.6M: 2010 Class ‘A’, therefore moving this process out of temporary to permanent repair methodologies.

 

Under the AWS D3.6M underwater welding specification Class ‘A’ welds are intended to be suitable for applications and design stresses that are comparable to their conventional surface welding counterparts, by virtue of specifying comparable properties and testing requirements.

 

For the purposes of these trials, welding was conducted at -3M water depth in a  freshwater training tank. Water temperature was 7C⁰ and visibility was good. All welding was performed by Mr. George Maroudas of Marex.