The present study focuses on the metallurgical and corrosion characterization of post weld heat treated duplex stainless steel joints. After friction welding, it was confirmed that there is an increase in ferrite content at weld interface due to dynamic recrystallization. This caused the weldments prone to pitting corrosion attack. Hence the post weld heat treatments were performed at three temperatures 1080[Formula: see text]C, 1150[Formula: see text]C and 1200[Formula: see text]C with 15[Formula: see text]min of aging time. This was followed by water and oil quenching. The volume fraction of ferrite to austenite ratio was balanced and highest pit nucleation resistance were achieved after PWHT at 1080[Formula: see text]C followed by water quench and at 1150[Formula: see text]C followed by oil quench. This had happened exactly at parameter set containing heating pressure (HP):40 heating time (HT):4 upsetting pressure (UP):80 upsetting time (UP):2 (experiment no. 5). Dual phase presence and absence of precipitates were conformed through TEM which follow Kurdjumov–Sachs relationship. PREN of ferrite was decreasing with increase in temperature and that of austenite increased. The equilibrium temperature for water quenching was around 1100[Formula: see text]C and that for oil quenching was around 1140[Formula: see text]C. The pit depths were found to be in the range of 100[Formula: see text]nm and width of 1.5–2[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m.
Characterization of thermal oxide films formed on a duplex stainless steel by means of confocal-Raman microscopy and electrochemical techniques