Microstructure features and formation mechanism in a newly developed electroslag welding

Electroslag welding (ESW) is known to show higher heat input than electrogas welding (EGW), resulting in poor low-temperature toughness. However, a newly developed ESW (dev. ESW) method using low-resistivity slag bath exhibited excellent low-temperature toughness as a result of lower effective heat input than conventional EGW, as demonstrated by the faster cooling rates measured in weld metals and estimated using finite element method analyses. This led to much shallower molten pool in the dev. ESW, resulting in much finer columnar grains and thinner centerline axial grains. High cooling speed in the dev. ESW method appeared to contribute to increased acicular ferrite proportion. The uniform microstructure with large acicular ferrite proportion and small number of inclusions in the weld metal permitted the dev. ESW weld metal to possess little variation in Charpy impact energy across the center of weld metal.

Effects of Microstructure on the Low-Temperature Toughness of an X80 × D1422 mm Heavy-Wall Heat-Induced Seamless Bend

The relationship between the microstructure and the low-temperature toughness of an X80 × D1422 mm heavy-wall heat-induced seamless bend was investigated, including the influence of microstructure on crack initiation and crack propagation. Using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and electron backscattered diffraction, the microstructure and crystallographic orientation characteristics were studied. An instrumented impact tester was used to investigate the impact toughness. The results showed that during the hot bending process, there was a difference in the induction heating temperature and the cooling rate results in the uneven microstructure of the inner surface, center position, and outer surface of the bend. The center position was mainly composed of granular bainite and exhibited the best combination of strength and toughness. The ductile–brittle transition temperatures of the inner surface, center position, and outer surface were −88, −85, and −60 °C, respectively. In the process of impact deformation, the non-uniformly distributed strain concentration regions are likely to cause uneven distribution of plastic deformation and the nucleation of microcracks. The high ratio of high-angle grain boundaries and the smaller effective grain size of the inner surface and center position lead to higher crack growth absorption energy. The low crack propagation energy of the outer surface is attributed to the fact that the high-angle grain boundary does not effectively deviate or arrest the crack propagation, and multiple microcracks are connected to one another and cause fracture failure.