The International Maritime Organization has recently updated the ship emission standards to reduce atmospheric contamination. One technique for reducing emissions involves using liquefied natural gas (LNG). The tanks used for the transport and storage of LNG must have very low thermal expansion and high cryogenic toughness. For excellent cryogenic properties, high-Mn steel with a complete austenitic structure is used to design these tanks. We aim to determine the optimum welding conditions for performing Laser-MIG (Metal Inert Gas) hybrid welding through the MIG leading and laser following processes. A welding speed of 100 cm/min was used for welding a 15 mm thick high-Mn steel plate. The welding performance was evaluated through mechanical property tests (tensile and yield strength, low-temperature impact, hardness) of the welded joints after performing the experiment. As a result, it was confirmed that the tensile strength was slightly less than 818.4 MPa, and the yield strength was 30% higher than base material. The low-temperature impact values were equal to or greater than 58 J at all locations in the weld zone. The hardness test confirmed that the hardness did not exceed 292 HV. The results of this study indicate that it is possible to use laser-MIG hybrid welding on thick high-Mn steel plates.

Laser shock peening creates compressive residual stress on the surface of the material, reducing stress corrosion cracking and increasing fatigue life. FE simulation of laser shock peening is an effective way to determine the mechanical effects on the material. In conventional FE simulations of laser shock peening, explicit analysis is used while pressure loads are applied and switched into implicit analysis to dissipate kinetic energy. In this study, static damping was adopted to dissipate kinetic energy without conversion into implicit analysis. Simulation of a single laser shock and multiple shocks was performed, and deformation and minimum principal stress were compared to evaluate the static damping effect. The history of the internal and kinetic energy were analyzed to compare the stabilization time depending on the damping value. Laser shock peening experiments were also performed on stainless steel 304 material. The residual stress of the specimen was measured by the hole drilling method and it was compared to the FE simulation result. The residual stress from the experiment and the simulation results showed similar distributions in the depth direction. Anisotropic residual stress distribution due to the laser path was observed in both results.