Analysis of Inclusions in Submerged Arc Welds in Microalloyed Steels
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Analysis of Inclusions in Submerged Arc Welds in Microalloyed Steels The level of weld bead acicular ferrite is found to be less in Ca-treated vs. Ca-free base metal of the same composition BY A. R. BHATTI, M. E. SAGGESE, D. N. HAWKINS, J. A. WHITEMAN, AND M. S. GOLDING Introduction ered the importance of inclusion crystal In this study, a range of weld beads lography. Others (Refs. 8, 9) do not share made on API 5LX65 base material have Toughness requirements for arctic this view and have instead concentrated been investigated to simulate the high grade line pipe have become increasingly on the indirect effect that inclusion chem dilution situation in practical pipe manu more stringent with the advent of tech istry may have on hardenability. ln their facture. Two base metals were selected nological demanding applications. This view, acicular ferrite is apparently devel with similar composition and low sulphur has led to developments in steel technol oped when the threshold value of 1.1 content, with one plate having under ogy giving increased through-thickness wt-% Mn is exceeded in the weld metal gone inclusion modification by calcium properties, with a move to low sulphur matrix. treatment. Three welding wires were steels and inclusion control by the use of selected; they were Oerlikon Welding rare earth treatments (e.g., Ca). Industries' S2, SD3Mo and Tibor 22 (con It has been shown (Ref. 1) that these taining microalloyed additions of Ti and B, Table 1—Base Metal Composition, wt-% types of steels provide excellent resis and identified as no. 22 elsewhere in this tance to hydrogen-induced cracking paper). The submerged arc fluxes cov- Ca-free Ca-treated (HIC) in sour gas environments. However, steel processing variables such as calcium C 0.052 0.060 treatment can have an indirect effect on Mn 1.37 1.45 the properties obtained in submerged arc Si 0.224 0.142 Table 2—Base Metal Microstructural Features weld metal in terms of generating a S 0.005 0.006 microstructural phase — acicular ferrite — P 0.018 0.024 which is known to optimize toughness Ni 0.003 0.003 Microstructural Base metal Cr 0.032 0.032 properties in unrefined weld metal. It is feature Ca-free Ca-treated Mo 0.012 0.007 known that the formation of acicular Nb 0.036 0.032 Ferrite, % 96 91 ferrite is favored in a particular range of Cu 0.34 0.32 Pearlite, % 4 9 oxygen content; however, there is some V 0.069 0.070 Ferrite grain 6.15 6.55 disagreement regarding the factors favor Sn 0.007 0.006 size, Mm ing the formation of this phase. Al(sol) 0.054 0.025 Pearlite colony 3.57 6.88 Many authors (Refs. 2-6) think that N 0.003 0.006 size, /am inclusions play an important role in nucle ation. In this case, the controlling factors, in determining the effectiveness of inclu sions as nucleants, are volume fraction Table 3—Welding Wire Composition, Wt-% and size distribution. More recently, a some workers (Ref. 7) have also consid- Element S2 SD3Mo No. 22< > C 0.10 0.10 0.10 Mn 1.06 1.60 1.19 Si 0.22 0.13 0.04 Based on a paper presented at the 64th Annual s 0.012 0.012 0.010 AWS Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylva p 0.013 0.007 0.008 nia, on April 29, 1983. Ni 0.07 0.08 Cr 0.03 0.10 A. R. BHATTI is a Research Fellow and D. N. Mo 0.47 0.30 HAWKINS and J. A. WHITEMAN are Senior Cu 0.11 Lecturers, Sheffield University, England; M. E. Ti 0.043 SAGGESE is with CNEA Argentina, and M. S. B 0.004 GOLDING is Technical Services Manager, Oer likon Welding (Ireland) Limited, Dublin. (a) Marketed by Oerlikon Welding Industries Ltd.. Houston 224-s I JULY 1984 ered a range of basicities (Ref. 10) from Base Metal Effect acid to fully basic; these were flux A with Figure 2 shows the percentage of acic a basicity index (Bl) = 3.1, flux B with ular ferrite (AF) plotted against the basici Bl = 1.8, and flux C with Bl = 0.6. ty index (Bl) of the flux with both welding wire and base metal composition as inde pendent variables. Weld metal micro- Experimental structure in Ca-free base metal always had a larger proportion of acicular ferrite All the beads were deposited under than that in the Ca-treated base metal; identical conditions: process — sub however, the decrease in acicular ferrite merged arc welding, current —600 A, level is influenced by the flux-welding m voltage —32 V, speed —460 mm/min wire combination. With the microalloyed (18.1 ipm), and heat input (HI)-2.5 kj/ no. 22 welding wire, the reduction is mm (62.5 kj/in.). relatively small, regardless of the flux The base metals were 16 mm (0.63 in.) basicity index. For the other two welding thick, and details of their chemistry and wires, flux B with the basicity of 1.8 microstructure are given in Tables 1 and produces the greatest decrease. This flux, 2. The compositions of the filler metals when used with S2 welding wire, gives a and fluxes used are presented in Tables 3 low acicular ferrite content even when and 4, respectively. used on a Ca-free base metal. The acicular ferrite level in each weld metal was quantified by point counting Wire Effect using the schemes proposed by Abson and Dolby (Ref. 11) and Pargeter (Ref. For the whole range of welds exam Fig. 1 — Typical microstructural features ob 12). The types of inclusions were exam ined, use of the no. 22 welding wire always gave improved acicular ferrite served in the weld metal: A — Ca-free base ined by means of a Philips 400 electron metal; B — Ca-treated metal microscope, fitted with EDAX and STEM levels with little change resulting from changes in the flux type. This behavior is facilities, using carbon extraction repli large for an interstitial atom, boron readi in agreement with previously published cas. ly segregates to atomically strained literature (Refs. 13, 14, 15) on Ti- and The replica technique was best suited regions; very small quantities (typically B-containing consumables. for this work. This is because mean inclu <50 ppm in the deposit) will reduce the sion size was less than 0.5 nm, and any Additions of boron and titanium are energy of these sites and hence inhibit other technique using bulk specimens known to promote acicular ferrite forma grain boundary ferrite nucleation. would have been severely affected by tion. It is presumed that boron carries out the role of minimizing grain boundary interaction with the matrix. The inclusions Flux Basicity were further line-scanned along their ferrite nucleation, while titanium protects diameters to determine their internal vari boron from oxygen and nitrogen due to Referring to Fig. 2, it can be seen that ation in chemical composition. This tech its strong deoxidizing potential. In addi there is no relationship between the AF nique was also employed to analyze the tion, titanium (as TiO) is proposed to level and the basicity index of the flux. extraction replicas taken from the base enhance acicular ferrite nucleation (Refs. Although the best results are those given metals. Diffraction work was also under 16, 17). by fully basic flux A, the worst ones are taken to study any crystallographic The beneficial effect of boron results not given by the acid flux but by the nature of the inclusions. from its small atomic size. It is present as semi-basic flux B. These results are con an interstitial solute and is, therefore, trary to those reported in the literature relatively mobile. Since it is comparatively (Refs. 8, 16-17, 18); however, they would Results and Discussion Metallography Table 4-—Results of Flux Analyses The typical microstructural features (Fig. 1) observed in these welds were: Ra<;iritv Composition, wt-% 3 1. Acicular ferrite (AF). Flux index' ' Si02 + Ti02 CaO + MgO Al203 + MnO CaF2 2. Grain boundary ferrite (CF). 3. Polygonal ferrite (PF). A 3.1 15 35 20 25 4. Ferrite with aligned martensite, aus B 1.8 22 30 25 21 C 0.60 27 1 51 14 tenite or carbide (MAC). The percentage of acicular ferrite for - MgO + BaO + Na 0 + K 0 + ViMnO B, = Ca°^ 2 2 the welds studied are shown in Table 5. Si02 + Vi (Al203 + Ti02 + Zr02) Table 5—Percentages of Acicular Ferrite (AF) in Weld Microstructures FlNvnn»nd No. 22 welding wire SD3Mo welding , wire S2 welding wire basicity Ca-free Ca-treated Ca-free Ca-treated Ca-free Ca-treated index (Bl) base metal base metal base metal base metal base metal base metal 1 (Bl = 3.1) A-85% AF B-76% AF C-69% AF H-64% AF M-70% AF N-68% AF 2 (Bl = 1.8) C-70% AF D-65% AF 1-61% AF 1-17% AF 0-35% AF P-16% AF 3 (Bl = 0.6) E-78% AF F-65% AF K-73% AF L-61% AF WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT 1225-s seem to support the findings of Terashi ma and Hart (Ref. 19) where high levels of acicular ferrite were generated in a higher oxygen content. It is well known that there is a direct so correlation between basicity index of the flux and weld metal oxygen content. This relationship holds for the present series of welds examined as can be seen in Fig.