The effect of the heat input energy on the tensile properties of the AH-40 fatigue crack arrester steel, welded by the use of the robotic metal-cored arc welding technique

Abstract

The present study deals with the effect of the heat input on the tensile properties of AH-40 fatigue crack arrester steel (FCA). The joining process was implemented by the use of the robotic metal-cored arc welding technique with five heat input levels (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 kJ/mm), which led to different microstructural and mechanical properties of the weldments. Initially, the microstructural characterization of the welds was carried out, followed by the measurement of the microhardness distribution, while appropriate coupons extracted from the welds were tested under uniaxial tensile loading and examined fractographically. The experimental results of the analysis correlate the selected operational parameters with the properties of the welds and principally with their tensile performance. Consequently, the obtained data result in the optimization of the structure, leading to the conclusion that the optimum heat input should be approximately 1.0 kJ/mm when AH-40 FCA steel plates of 13-mm thickness are welded.