Study of cracking susceptibility in similar and dissimilar welds between carbon steel and austenitic stainless steel through finger test and FE numerical model

Hot cracking susceptibility and the formation of brittle martensite phase are the main factors that limit the weldability of a dissimilar joint between carbon steel (CS) and austenitic stainless steel (SS). In this study, the self-constraint finger test was used to correlate the welding thermo-mechanical field with the crack susceptibility of a dissimilar weld between the CS ASTM A36 and SS AISI 304L. The finger test allowed to intercalate fingers (portions) of tested materials in the weld samples to produce dissimilar welds. The heat dissipation and the distortion behavior were related to the crack susceptibility, critical weld regions extension, and chemical species diffusion. Four samples were welded (two similar welds and two dissimilar welds) using the filler metals ER70S-6 and EC410NiMo. Welds were analyzed through light optical microscopy (LOM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to characterize phases, detect cracks, microstructural changes, and element diffusion. A finite element (FE) numerical model was applied to simulate the welding thermo-mechanical field. FE estimations of distortion and residual stress helped to predict induced crack propagation (the initial gap between fingers) towards the fusion zone. Additionally, electrochemical tests were carried out to assess the corrosion susceptibility of the dissimilar welds. The observed cracks were produced due to different factors such as residual stress distribution, the formation of brittle and untempered martensitic phase in the fusion zone (FZ), and hot cracking associated with the weld sample distortion behavior. According to the FE estimations, the high thermal expansion of the SS was responsible for the bending curvature change in welds 2 and 4, which produced a gap between fingers and increased the crack extension in the FZ of weld 4. The dilution contributed to the formation of δ-ferrite in the FZ, which limited the growth of cold and hot cracks. The decarburization and sensitization were not observed in dissimilar welds due to the low element diffusion.