Effect of heat input on microstructure of weld by using 308L as filler metal

and 304L as base metal

1. Introduction
Austenitic stainless steels (ASSs) are widely used in fabrication industry, high
performance pressure vessels, nuclear, chemical, process and medical industry due
to their very good corrosion resistance and superior mechanical properties.
Sensitization (grain boundary depletion of chromium and precipitation of
chromium carbide near or at the grain boundaries) of the weldments is one of the
potential problems in the welding of ASSs. Sensitization leads to degradation of
corrosion resistance as well as the mechanical properties. There are many studies
on the effect of heat input on the micro structural developments of ASSs, but the
welding process and the conditions used are different in each case.
Zumelzu et al. studied the effect of microstructure on the mechanical behavior of
welded 316L joints. They showed that the best mechanical properties can be
obtained by shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process using E316L-16
electrode under low thermal heat input conditions and with 5% ferrite
in the welded region.
Baek et.al. showed in their study that the fatigue crack growth rates of the base
metal decreased with the decreasing test temperature for a 304 SS pipeline, while
the crack propagation rate was relatively insensitive to the orientation of the base
metal. Laser and lasertungsten inert gas (TIG) hybrid welding has been reported
to be beneficial as compared to conventional TIG welding processes, since they
produce smaller dendrite size and also does not deteriorate the mechanical
properties of 304 ASS significantly. The laser or laser TIG hybrid welding
produces full penetration joints without any defects.
The effect of argon and oxygen in helium base shielded gas tungsten arc welding
on arc ignitability, bead protection and weld penetration were systematically
investigated by Lu et al.. for 304 SS. They showed that addition of a small amount
of oxygen to He-30%Ar and He-50%Ar shielding changes the weld shape from a
wide shallow to a narrow deep one. The weld depth-to-width ratio also increased
from 0.35 to 0.8 for 1 mm electrode tip work distance and from 0.20 to 0.50 for 3
mm electrode tip work distance. Oxygen changes the temperature coefficient of
surface tension from negative to positive (at over 100 ppm concentration) causing
the Marangoni convection to change from an outward to an inward direction. The
weld penetration was therefore significantly increased. In addition to the above,

weld metal ferrite content also affects the quality of welds and is dependent
primarily on the solidification mode .
The amount of -ferrite formed during welding needs to be controlled due to its
influence on the mechanical properties of the weldments as well as its corrosion
resistance . A ratio of chromium equivalent (Creq) to nickel equivalent (Nieq) in
the range of 1.521.9 has been recommended to control the primary mode of
solidification in 304L ASS . The necessary ferrite content to eliminate flaws (~3 to
20% in ASSs) is dependent on the composition of the deposits as well as the
welding process.
From the literature reviewed, it has been found that there are very few
systematic studies on the effect of heat input on the microstructure (morphology of
welded region/fusion zone, ferrite content in welded region/ fusion zone, extent of
HAZ, sensitization).
The microstructures were characterized by using optical microscopy,
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron back scattered diffraction
(EBSD), while X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to obtain the residual stresses.
Hardness of the welded region and the fusion zone was measured using
microhardness tester and a ferritoscope was used to measure the -ferrite content.

2. Experimental Methods
The base material used in the this investigation was AISI 304L austenitic stainless
steel in the as-rolled and mill annealed condition. Three plates of 10 mm thickness
and dimensions of 300 mm (length) 50 mm (width) and one plate of 6 mm
thickness and of the same length and width was used for the SMAW welding
process. An arc was struck between the base plate and the welding electrode and a
weld bead was deposited onto the surface of the base metal (bead-on-plate)
welding [4,19]. The chemical composition of the base plate (AISI 304L)
Table.1 Chemical composition of base metal and the filler electrode (in wt %)

Table2 Parameter used for welding process to obtain different heat input condition.f
the base metal and t

Microstucture
Fig. 1 shows the macrostructures of the weld beads after different heat inputs. It
can be clearly seen from Fig. 2 that both depth of penetration and width of the weld
bead increased with the increase in heat input.

Fig.1Macrographs showing the cross section of the weld bead (size and shape) of
the as-welded stainless steel at different heat inputs. Please note that the
dimensions are not to scale. The macrographs were obtained by boiling the cross
section of the welded plates in a solution of 50% HCl in water at 70 C.

Fig. 2 shows the fusion boundary and adjacent region of 304L stainless steeland
filler metal 308 L for different heat inputs. The fusion area increased with the
increase in the heat input. After the highest heat input for 10 mmthick base plate
(10HHI), the morphology of the fusion boundary was completely different. It has
been expected that grain growth will occur near the fusion boundary after all the
heat inputs. However, the grain growth or in other words, the HAZ near the fusion
boundary was not very clearly evident by optical microscopy. In the 6HI sample,
we get a slight indication of grain growth as evident from microstructure. But the
quantification of HAZ was not very clear.

Fig. 2 Comparison of optical micrographs of the fusion boundary for different

samples in the as-welded condition. The micron bar applies to all the micrographs.

Figs.3, 4 and 5 show the fusion boundary and the welded region for 10LHI, 10HHI
and 6HI sample respectively. In all the samples, predominantly skeletal ferrite
morphology was observed in the welded region. Ferrite was precipitated in the
inter-dendritic region and its proportion (amount) was found to increase
(qualitatively) with the increase in the heat input for 10 mm thick welded plates.
For 6 mm thick welded plate, the dendrites were found to be much wider in size.
At lower heat inputs, cooling rate was relatively higher causing the thermal
gradients to be much steeper in the weld metal. This resulted in finer dendrite size.
At higher heat inputs, cooling rate was slower resulting in coarser dendrites. For
the lowest heat input (10LHI, Fig. 3), the spacing between the ferrite was much
larger as compared to the highest heat input (10HHI, Fig. 4). For the highest heat
input for 10 mm thick sample (10HHI), the fusion boundary showed a distinct
morphology due to the presence of polygonal and some lathy (parallel) -ferrite.
This could be due to the epitaxial growth of the grain in the fusion zone; which
usually originates from the grains of the base metal and grows in the direction of
maximum heat flow. For the 6 mm thick welded plate (Fig. 5), the ferrite had much
wider separation as compared to 10HHI sample. Some grain growth was also
evident in the optical microstructures near the fusion boundary. The skeletal ferrite
in the welded region also has a much wider spacing.

Fig. 3 Optical micrographs of the fusion boundary (a and b) and the welded
region (c and d) for the 10 mm thick sample welded with the lowest heat input.

Fig. 4 Optical micrographs of the fusion boundary (a and b) and the welded
region (c and d) for the 10 mm thick sample welded with the highest heat input.

Fig. 5 Optical micrographs of the fusion boundary (a and b) and the welded
region (c and d) for the 6 mm thick welded plate.