Double pulsed current adopted in local dry underwater WAAM to simultaneously enhanced strength and ductility of 308 L multi-layer component

Abstract

The double pulsed current waveform modulation was applied to address the severe challenges of greatly declined strength and ductility caused by continuous heat accumulation and water cooling in local dry underwater wire arc additive manufacturing (LDU-WAAM) process. The microstructures and mechanical performance of 308 L stainless steel multi-layer components prepared by LDU-WAAM using single pulsed waveform (SPW) and double pulsed waveform (DPW) were comprehensively investigated in this work. The results demonstrate that the microstructures of LDU-WAAM parts were both composed of abundant columnar crystals and few equiaxed crystals. Extremely directional columnar crystals dominated in each deposited layer centre prepared by SPW, while the weakened growth tendency of columnar crystal and uniform microstructure were achieved by DPW. DPW exhibited outstanding stirring action in LDU-WAAM process, which was conducive to the refined grain, improved liquidity of deposited metal, increased ferrite content, dislocation density, and austenite deformed twinning content compared with the SPW multi-layer component. Hence, the average microhardness, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation of DPW deposited layers were improved to 204.7 HV, 659.2 MPa, and 24.9 %, respectively, which enhanced by 10.1 %, 12.5 %, and 37.5 % than that of SPW sample. The research results provide a new technique optimization method to simultaneous enhance the strength and ductility of LDU-WAAM process and promote the landing application of LDU-WAAM in underwater on-site repair.