Huang 2016
Huang 2016
Huang 2016
To cite this article: B.-S. Huang, J. Yang, D.-H. Lu & W.-J. Bin (2016): Study on the microstructure,
mechanical properties and corrosion behaviour of S355JR/316L dissimilar welded joint
prepared by gas tungsten arc welding multi-pass welding process, Science and Technology of
Welding and Joining, DOI: 10.1080/13621718.2015.1122152
Article views: 10
metal (WM) is austenite and vermiform δ-ferrite, and they cross-distribute in the weld seam.
Moreover, there is a decarburisation layer on the interface of S355JR/WM, but the detrimental
phase σ and M23C6 (chromium carbide) are not observed in the WM through X-ray diffraction.
The fracture of the S355JR/316L welded joints always occurs in the S355JR heat affected zone
during tensile test. Mechanical properties of the welded joints prepared by GTAW can meet the
requirements of engineering application. The electrochemical corrosion test is also indicates that
the corrosion resistance of WM decreases compared with the 316L base material. The corrosion
products of S355JR/316L dissimilar welded joints in 3.5 wt-% NaCl aqueous solution mainly are
α-Fe and FeOOH.
Keywords: Carbon steel, Austenitic stainless steel, Dissimilar welding, Microstructure, Mechanical properties, Corrosion mechanism
Materials C Si Mn S P Ni Cr Mo Cu Fe
similar ones in welding mechanism and operation tech- Materials and experimental procedure
nology, because of the significant discrepancies existing
among in the physical properties, chemical composition, Experimental materials and welding process
mechanical properties and microstructure of the base The base materials used in this research are S355JR UNI
materials. Moreover, these differences also make great EN 10025 low carbon steel and AISI 316L austenitic
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effect on the physical and chemical properties of dissimi- stainless steel, with the dimension of 200 mm × 100
lar joints. During the welding process, the weld joints mm × 12 mm, respectively. The filler materials are
between carbon steel and stainless steel exhibit a number ER309L with the diameter of 2.4 mm, and their chemical
of limitations: (a) losing of carbon by migration and dif- compositions are listed in Table 1. The welded joint was
fusion of carbon in S355JR heat affected zone (HAZ) and prepared by gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) with 7-
subsequent formation of harmful phase or secondary pass welding process. Figure 1 shows the geometrical
phase in weld metal (WM), (b) dilution of alloying shape and dimensions of the employed dissimilar joint,
elements in the WM zone and (c) grain growth takes single-V groove with 75° is used, and the sequence of
place in HAZ, which leads to the significant deterioration welding pass and the dimensional details of the groove
in mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of weld are also shown in Fig. 1. During the experiments, the
seam. inter-pass temperature is approximately 50°C. The weld-
In order to solve these problems, several studies on dis- ing conditions for each pass are given in Table 2.
similar joints between carbon steel and stainless steel have Before welding, the oxide on the upper surface and
been carried out.7,8,16–19 Wu et al.7 investigated that the lower surface was removed with the 800Cw waterproof
microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion abrasive paper, and surface impurities and contamination
behaviour of dissimilar welded joints between ferritic were eliminated through chemical method with acetone.
stainless steel and low carbon steel prepared by laser During the welding process, a pure argon shielding gas
beam with the welding speed of 12 and 24 mm s–1, was employed to avoid the oxidation of WM surface
respectively, are different. As the welding speed increases, and the flow rate is 12 L min–1.
HAZ of carbon steel becomes narrower and higher hard-
ness of weld seam close to ferritic stainless steel side is
obtained. Torkamany et al.16 studied the metallurgical Microstructure observation
and mechanical characterisation of dissimilar spot weld In order to observe and analyse the microstructure fea-
between low carbon and austenitic stainless steel. Poura- tures under the optical microscope, SEM, energy-disper-
liakbar et al.17 investigated the microstructure and mech- sive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).
anical properties of CK45 carbon steel and 304 stainless Specimens were cut down perpendicular to the weld
steel dissimilar joints, and they also investigated the seam, and then the conventional metallographic methods
effects of different post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) on were used with final 5000Cw waterproof abrasive paper
dissimilar joint. Their results show that the structure of milling and 12000Cw polishing. Due to the difference of
WM is completely austenitic, and the carbides M23C6 is corrosion resistance, two etchants were selected to reveal
observed in the WM. Simultaneous, both grain growth the microstructure of dissimilar welded joint. The
and carbides precipitation occur during PWHT. S355JR carbon steel was etched by the solution of 4%
Until now, as for the S355JR/316L dissimilar welded Nital, while 316L stainless steel and WM were etched
joints, few of literatures discussed it. Therefore, it is very using aqua regia (volume ratio, HCl–HNO3 = 3:1).
important to reduce the risk of oil and gas transportation
and extend the service life of the pipeline. In the present
Table 2 Welding parameters of GTAW for each pass
study, welding experiments and series of tests were per-
formed in order to investigate the microstructural evol- Weld Welding Welding Travelling speed
ution, mechanical properties, composition distribution pass current, I (A) voltage (V) (mm s–1)
near the fusion zone and corrosion behaviour of dissimilar
joints. 7 110–120 12–14 2.0
Mechanical properties testing of 100 gf and duration time of 15 s. The schematic dia-
The tensile tests were carried out using WDW-1000 with gram of the microhardness specimen is shown in Fig. 2.
the specimens of 5 mm × 10 mm × 120 mm at room temp-
erature. The impact tests were performed by using Electrochemical testing
ZBC2302-D at room temperature with the specimens of The electrochemical corrosion test was carried out by
10 mm × 10 mm × 55 mm. The room temperature tensile using PGSTAS 302N in a conventional three-electrode
and impact tests of the joints were carried out according cell. Corrosion samples from the joints and base materials
to the international standards ISO 6892.1-200920 and were cut down with the dimensions of 10 mm × 10 mm ×
ISO 148.1-2010,21 respectively. Microhardness values of 3 mm. The samples were packaged in epoxy resin and just
the joints were measured using HVS-1000 with a load exposed the area of 1 cm2. The working surface was
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3 Microstructure of base materials and S355JR/316L dissimilar welded joints: a S355JR; b WM-S355JR junction; c WM; d WM/
316L junction and e 316L
5 Schematic diagram of EDS line scanning of S355JR/WM interface and alloying elements distribution chart: a schematic of line
scanning; b carbon; c chromium; d manganese; e nickel and f molybdenum
part on the weld joint should be higher than 53 J cm–2 at impact toughness of dissimilar joints in this experiment
room temperature according to ASTM standard. So the is satisfactory. Moreover, the average impact toughness
of S355JR HAZ and 316L HAZ is lower than that of
their base materials, respectively. Based on the classic
Hall–Petch relationship and previously microstructure
analyses, during the welding process, the grain size in
the HAZs of S355JR and 316L have growth. Meanwhile,
during the austenite–ferrite transformation process, the
mixture of high carbon martensite and residual austenite
Tensile Yield
strength, strength, Elongation, Fracture
Samples Rm (MPa) Re (MPa) δ (%) position
Table 4 Charpy impact test results of different zones of S355JR/316L dissimilar welded joint at room temperature
V type notch position S355JR BM S355JR HAZ S355JR FL WM 316L FL 316L HAZ 316L BM
may be formed in the HAZ, namely, granular bainite, carbon migration from the S355JR side to WM during
which can significantly reduce the toughness of the steel. welding forms a decarburised layer mentioned above
Thus, the toughness of the HAZs obviously decreases. and then the grain growth of HAZ during welding. The
Compared with the base materials and the HAZs, the grain growth of HAZ causes the softening of microstruc-
impact toughness of WM is still the lowest. The possible ture, which also leads to the sharp drop of hardness in the
reason is that the diffusion of carbon and alloying vicinity of the fusion line on the S355JR side and 316L
elements to lower the impact toughness of WM. The side. As stated in the earlier, the mechanical properties
non-uniform distribution of microstructure and the of S355JR/316L dissimilar welded joints can meet the
harder microstructure of upper bainite and widmanstat- requirements of engineering application.
ten ferrite formed in WM can also lower the impact
toughness of WM.
Corrosion
Microhardness In this section, the electrochemical corrosion behaviour of
Figure 7 shows the microhardness of dissimilar welded WM and 316L base material was studied. The used sol-
joints. Generally, microhardness usually implies a resist- ution is 3.5 wt-% NaCl aqueous, namely, simulated sea-
ance to plastic deformation. In the as-welded condition, water environment. Test samples were sealed with epoxy
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the microhardness distribution is roughly symmetrical, resin, leaving about 10 mm × 10 mm test area. Figure 8
and the average microhardness of WM is 257.06 HV. shows the potentiodynamic polarisation of WM and
This figure shows that the trend of microhardness 316L base material. The self-corrosion potential and cor-
decreases as the distance between edge and the weld rosion current density are presented in Table 5. From
seam centre increases. Obviously, the microhardness of this figure, 316L base material shows passivity to a certain
the WM is higher than that of the S355JR base material extent, whereas dissimilar welded joints have typical
and the HAZ of S355JR, which attributes to the differ- characteristics of active dissolution in 3.5% NaCl aqueous
ences in chemical composition and properties. Simul- solution. In general, the higher the corrosion current den-
taneously, the microhardness of the WM is higher than sity and the smaller the self-corrosion potential is, the
that of the 316L base material and the HAZ of 316L, weaker the corrosion resistance of the metallic materials
because of the fast heating and cooling rate of the WM is. So, both Fig. 8 and Table 5 show that 316L base material
during the welding process. Then, it leads to the formation has a higher self-corrosion potential of –438 mV and lower
of martensite-like and the increase of grain size in HAZ corrosion current density of 0.3018 × 10–5 A cm–2.
for the thermal circle. Similar results are reported in Whereas, dissimilar welded joint has a lower self-corrosion
Refs.7,13 It can be noted that the maximum hardness is potential of –518 mV and higher corrosion current density
approximately 268 HV at the fusion line of S355JR side. of 0.8123 × 10–5 A cm–2. Therefore, corrosion resistance
The reason is probably the inhomogeneous distribution of 316L base material is better than that of WM in 3.5%
of microstructure and chemical composition and there is NaCl aqueous solution. This is due to the dilution and
a carburised layer in the vicinity of the fusion line of loss of alloying elements in the course of welding, and gal-
S355JR side. It can also be seen that point A is the mini- vanic interaction with S355JR and 316L.
mum hardness in the S355JR side HAZ. Because the
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This work was supported by Key Laboratory of Ministry on microstructure and mechanical properties of dissimilar joints
of Education of Oil & Gas Equipment (grant number between super duplex and stainless steel and high strength low
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