Bead by bead study of a multipass shielded metal arc-welded super-duplex stainless steel

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating bead geometry and the evolution of microstructure with thermal cycles in multipass shielded metal arc welding of a V-groove 13-mm type-2507 super-duplex stainless steel (SDSS) plate. The weld consisted of 4 beads produced with arc energies of 0.81–1.06 kJ/mm. The upper beads showed lower base metal (BM) dilution than the first bead. Thermal cycles were recorded with thermocouples, indicating that the cooling rate decreased in the as-deposited weld zone when adding a new bead. Ferrite fraction in the as-welded condition was lower for the upper beads. The austenite grain morphology in reheated passes varied depending on the local peak temperatures and the number of reheating passes. Sigma phase precipitated in a location reheated by the third and fourth passes that was subjected to a critical peak temperature for sigma precipitation. Ferrite content, measured using image analysis and Fisher FERITSCOPE technique, showed that the ferrite fraction moved toward 50/50% in the weld metal with an increasing number of reheating cycles. Finally, a schematic map showing an overview of the microstructure in the multipass SDSS weld was introduced.