Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the present work was to investigate the influence of welding process variation as well as post weld thermal aging treatment on the metallurgical properties of Duplex Stainless Steel (DSS) 2205 welds. Method: Butt welded joints were fabricated using 10 mm thick plates of DSS 2205 by two different welding processes namely, Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) process and Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) process. These welded specimens were further subjected to thermal aging treatment at 800°C for 40 minutes to study the precipitation tendencies in the welds. Findings: Ferrite content was found to increase more in case of thermally aged FCAW joints as compared to the thermally aged GTAW joints. Also, GTAW weld metal showed a softening effect while FCAW weld metal underwent hardening after thermal aging treatment. Aging resulted into variation of ferrite content indicating that the process change can affect the important metallurgical ratio of austenite to ferrite in these welds. Ferrite phase was the predominating phase that showed dissolution which led to different inter-metallic phase formations like carbides, oxides as well as sigma phase formation. Application/Improvements: The present study is beneficial from the industrial view point, as the data generated through this piece of research can be directly used for DSS fabrications.

Keywords: DSS, FCAW Process, GTAW Process, Metallurgical Properties, Welded Point