Underwater Welding History

1.2 History

Professional diving has been in existence for hundereds of years before the 20th century, but the field of underwater welding was yet to emerge. ,Konstantin Khrenov, a Soviet engineer, was the first to invent a method to join and cut metals underwater. Khrenov discovered that one of the largest hurdles to successful wet welds was the sporadic outflow of gas bubbles from the point of contact with the arc and metal. This reaction caused major porosity in the welds. With the help of others, Khrenov devised a waterproof coating for the electrodes. He began experimenting and carried out underwater welding in labs. In 1932, Khrenov traveled with engineers to the Black Sea for the first successful on-field testing.

The first underwater

Shimanskiy (1936)

Just several years after Khrenov’s successful wet weld, the Soviets began to use the technology for their vessels, harbors and docks. With the onset of WWII, many metals were in short supply and nothing could be wasted. In 1936, crews performed underwater welding as part of the effort to lift an enormous ship called Boris out of the Black Sea.

In America during the early and mid-1940’s, Cyril Jensen began his own underwater welding testing. Fascinated with Khrenov’s work, Jensen sought to start an underwater welding program in the US.

Later, with the US brought into WWII, he traveled to the Annapolis naval engineering experiment station for welding research. For the years that followed in the war, Jensen served in the Navy and conducted the operations for their underwater welding and cutting program. Some of his most notable underwater construction includes salvaging several of the sunken ships in Pearl Harbor.

During his life, Jensen vastly expanded the underwater welding program in the US and helped create the arc-oxygen underwater cutting process. He holds two underwater welding patents and wrote (or co-wrote) 18 research

Literature Survey

1. The research paper “Łabanowski, J., D. Fydrych, and G. Rogalski. "Underwater Welding-a review." Advances in Materials Sciences 8.3 (2008): 11-22.” is about the research work undertaken by Department of Materials Technology and Welding at Gdansk University of Technology (GUT) in the field of underwater welding. Various classifications of underwater welding have been discussed and a description on results obtained in the lab in their tests has been presented.
2. The research paper “Cui, Lei, et al. "Friction taper plug welding for S355 steel in underwater wet conditions: Welding performance, microstructures and mechanical properties." Materials Science and Engineering: A 611 (2014): 15-28.” Is about a specific advanced underwater welding technique called friction taper plug welding. Various parameters of this technique have been discussed along with the changes in the microstructure of S355 steel after this process has been carried out. The results of various tests like tensile test and their implications have also been