Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Heat-affected Zone of Repeated Welding on 304 Stainless Steel

Abstract

The effect of the repeated welding on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) for 304 stainless steel were investigated under repeated welding up to five times by automatic gas tungsten arc welding using an optical microscope, a x-ray diffraction, a scanning electron microscope and an electron back-scattered diffraction. The repeated welding specimens were consisted with the microstructures of austenitic matrices with lath δ-ferrite. With the increasing of the repeated welding times, the average values of the austenitic grain size increased, and the δ-ferrite content decreased then increased. The preferred orientation of the HAZ changed from to . The values of location misorientation increased monotonically with the increasing number of repeated welding. The variation of the ultimate tensile strength and elongation was affected by the grain size mainly. Due to the hardening rate increasing, the yield tensile strength was increasing.