Flux Composition Dependence of Microstructure and Toughness of Submerged Arc HSLA Weldments

Twenty eight reagent grade fused fluxes from the CaF2-CaO-Si02 system were used to produce bead-on-plate and double-V-groove submerged arc welds on a quenched-and-tempered niobium HSLA steel. An E70S3 welding wire was used with two different heat inputs —namely, 1.9 and 3.3 k j /mm (48.3 and 83.8 kj/in.) A niobium microalloyed steel was selected because of its fine grained microstructure, high yield strength, and high toughness at low temperatures. Fluxes from the CaF2-CaOSi02 system were selected because of their low oxygen potential, and their ability to produce low oxygen (80-450 ppm) welds. Quantitative metallography and chemical analysis were performed on the welds. The chemical behavior of this flux system has been characterized with respect to manganese, silicon, niobium, and sulfur. The lower heat input welds showed predominantly fine microstructure of acicular ferrite. At high oxygen content, a higher percentage of grain boundary ferrite (ferrite veining) was observed. By reducing the oxygen in the weld metal, the amount of acicular ferrite was increased. With further reduction of weld metal oxygen, the main microstructural feature, instead of acicular ferrite, became bainite. Using higher heat input. Based on paper presented at the 64th Annual A WS Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during April 24-29, 1983. C B. DALLAM, S. LIU, and D. L. OLSON are with the Center for Welding Research, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado. the weld metal microstructure transition with oxygen level was not so clear. In spite of the essentially similar optical microstructure and similar chemical composition (other than oxygen), the mechanical properties of the various welds were observed to be very different. Toughness data (upper shelf energy and transition temperature) were found to correlate with weld metal oxygen content. The upper shelf energy decreased with increasing oxygen level in the weld metal. Introduction and Background HSLA steels were developed to achieve high yield strength and at the same time maintain a reasonable level of toughness with a minimum of alloying. Due to the possibility of increased design loading and strength to weight ratio, more and more structural applications using HSLA steels are being seen. Some examples are line pipes for gas and oil transportation and off-shore structures. The physical metallurgy of these microalloyed steels for the optimization of their microstructure and properties has already been treated extensively in the literature (Refs. 1-4) and are not discussed in this paper. Most applications of HSLA steels involve structures where welding is used. Two major consequences of this fabrication process are the deterioration of the base metal properties due to the welding thermal cycles and the introduction of a solidification structure which is heterogeneous (compared to the base metal) both chemically and microstructurally. In the fusion zone, the weld metal composition, heat input and cooling rate, solidification characteristics, and reheating thermal cycles (in multiple pass welds) contribute to the final properties of the weld joint. Adjacent to the fusion zone is a thermally affected region (heat-affected zone, i.e., HAZ) within which the base metal microstructure is altered by the high temperature of the molten weld pool. Martensite or other low temperature transformation products may be formed impairing the toughness of these regions. As noted below, under separate heading, the presence of oxygen can influence weld metal microstructure and properties. With this in mind, the behavior of CaF2-CaO-Si02 flux systems was studied with the purpose of reporting on weld metal performance when using these fluxes on a niobium microalloyed steel.