The influence of welding parameters and parent plate metallurgical characteristics on solidification of austenitic stainless steel weld metals

Abstract

The present work reports the effect of heat input, cooling rate, parent plate deformation and restraining conditions on the formation and morphology of delta ferrite in welds on AISI 318L and 321 steels. The experiments were carried out on commercially produced plates in the following conditions: (i) as received condition (ii) further deformed by cold rolling. (iii) further deformed by hot rolling. The effect of heat input and cooling rates were examined using bead-onplate Submerged Arc welds on the same parent plate material. The parent plate condition was assessed using bead-on-plate metal Inert Gas (MIG) and Subm rged Arc butt welds. The results suggest that 1. The weld metal solidification proceeds epitaxially from the existing unmelted base metal. The weld exhibited surface marking i.e. deformation bands or close packed plane, in the austenite matrix, but not passing through delta ferrite phase. 2. The solidification substructure, the ferrite content, and morphology are influenced by tile (i) thermal stress induced during welding, (ii) parent plate chemical composition, (iii) the parent plate microstructural and deformation characteristics i.e. strain energy. 3. Rapidly cooled welds have lower ferrite content than welds produced with slower cooling rates. The randomly distributed elongeed ferrite with some lath type ferrite morphology was predominantly attributed with the welds produced with high cooling rates. 4. The ferrite is the first solidified phase to form and austenite is formed from the liquid rather than by solid phase transformation of primary ferrite to austenite. 5. The ferrite formation is a diffusion controlled phase transformation, the degree of its dendrites development depends upon the welding parameters i.e. heat input, cooling rates. 8. Two types of ferrite morphology were observed: (a) elongated type dendrites identified as vermicular by previous investigators and (b) the cellular type morphology which has not been classified in previous investigations.