Characteristics of Intra-granular Microstructure in Steel Weld Metals Formed by CO2-shielded High-Current Buried-Arc Welding
摘要
In this study, multilayer welding was performed on high-tensile steel using an advanced joining process known as high-current buried-arc welding. The weld metal, formed using a solid wire (JIS YGW18) under a carbon dioxide shielding atmosphere, exhibited high strength and toughness despite the high heat input. These excellent mechanical properties were attributed to the formation of a fine intragranular acicular ferrite microstructure. The characteristics of this microstructure matrix were analysed via dislocation density measurements and Kurdjumov–Sachs orientation relationship variant analysis. The heterogeneous nucleation sites of acicular ferrite were also examined in detail via atomic-resolution analytical electron microscopy. Results revealed that titanium monoxide (TiO), with a size of a few nanometres, exhibited a Baker–Nutting crystal orientation relationship with the surrounding intragranular ferrite plates and served as effective nucleation sites at edge of composite oxide. In addition, trace amounts of manganese were detected in the TiO phase and its role in heterogeneous nucleation was discussed. The characteristics of weld metal microstructure formed via high-current buried-arc welding was investigated in detail.