A Study on Microstructure, Residual Stresses and Stress Corrosion Cracking of Repair Welding on 304 Stainless Steel: Part I-Effects of Heat Input

In this paper, the effect of repair welding heat input on microstructure, residual stresses, and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) sensitivity were investigated by simulation and experiment. The results show that heat input influences the microstructure, residual stresses, and SCC behavior. With the increase of heat input, both the delta-ferrite in weld and the average grain width decrease slightly, while the austenite grain size in the heat affected zone (HAZ) is slightly increased. The predicted repair welding residual stresses by simulation have good agreement with that by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The transverse residual stresses in the weld and HAZ are gradually decreased as the increases of heat input. The higher heat input can enhance the tensile strength and elongation of repaired joint. When the heat input was increased by 33%, the SCC sensitivity index was decreased by more than 60%. The macroscopic cracks are easily generated in HAZ for the smaller heat input, leading to the smaller tensile strength and elongation. The larger heat input is recommended in the repair welding in 304 stainless steel.