Effect of Heat Input on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Gas Tungsten Arc Welded AISI 316 Stainless Steel Joints

Karthick B,Shriram S,Silambarasan V,Shrihari L,Sakthivel M

doi:10.47392/irjash.2020.86

Abstract

For every manufacturing industry, materials that are applicable for particular conditions and are of low economy are highly required. Hence various studies are carried out to determine the working conditions for several materials. The wide application of steel in industry demands a significance study on physical, chemical and mechanical properties of steel, Here, the characteristic changes in the mechanical and microstructure properties due to the effect of heat inputs of gas tungsten arc welded AISI 316 Stainless steel were examined. The major issue faced during the welding process of stainless steel is the increase in grain growth in the heat affected zone (HAZ). The welding process have been carried out using three heat input parameters on the AISI 316 Stainless steel from the operating window of the gas tungsten arc welding process (GTAW) and they are categorized as low heat (2.563 KJ/mm), medium heat (2.784 kJ/mm) and high heat (3.017 kJ/mm) . These welded joints of AISI 316 SS have been subjected to evaluation of tensile testing microstructure and mechanical properties so as to interrupt and infer the impact of thermal arc energy on the mechanical properties and microstructure of AISI 316 SS welded joints. From this study, it has been inferred that the heat input has notable effect on Ultimate Tensile Strength, Hardness and Microstructure on AISI 316 SS GTAW plates.

Highlights

Stainless steels are widely used in many manufacturing industries
Ferritic steels are the steels which have the primary phase as ferrite they are generally body centered cubic crystal (BCC), they are generally less ductile when compared to austenitic steel and it cannot be hardened by heat treatment
Six specimens were tested under same atmospheric conditions and the tensile test result so obtained show that maximum tensile strength of 637.5 N/mm2 is possessed by the specimen made using medium heat input combination followed by tensile strength of 609.1 N/mm2 is possessed by the specimen made using low heat input combinations

Summary

Introduction

Stainless steels are widely used in many manufacturing industries. The Stainless steels are mainly categorized into austenitic, ferritic, martensitic and duplex. In the present world every manufacturing industry has a metallurgical division in order to make feasible study on the metals and materials which are used in the production division in a as the little deviation in microstructure and mechanical properties may have a huge impact in the final outlet product. This project helps to analyze the metals which are used various climatic conditions and their variation in the mechanical properties like tensile strength, compression and hardness of the metal used This project helps to reveal the variation in the microstructure of the metal due to its climatic conditions. The properties like ductility, brittleness, malleability can be visualized with the help of the microstructural studies revealing the dendrites formation and grain formation in the metal which helps to analyze about the metal and information about suitable application of the metal and helps in gaining the better results for those applications.[1-4]

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