Hydrogen-induced cracking along the fusion boundary of dissimilar metal welds

Abstract

Presented here are the results from a series of experiments in which dissimilar metals welds were made using the gas tungsten arc welding process with pure argon or argon-6% hydrogen shielding gas. The objective was to determine if cracking near the fusion boundary of dissimilar metal welds could be caused by hydrogen absorbed during welding and to characterize the microstructures in which cracking occurred. Welds consisted of ER308 and ER309LSi austenitic stainless steel and ERNiCr-3-nickel-based filler metals deposited on A36 steel base metal. Cracking was observed in welds made with all three filler metals. A ferrofluid color metallography technique revealed that cracking was confined to regions in the weld metal containing martensite. Microhardness indentations indicated that martensitic regions in which cracking occurred had hardness values from 400 to 550 HV. Cracks did not extend into bulk weld metal with hardness less than 350 HV. Martensite formed near the fusion boundary in all three filler metals due to regions of locally increased base metal dilution.