CONCLUSION Hot-cracking and microfissuring Hot cracks and microfissures are believed to initiate at liquated grain and subgrain

boundaries within the fusion zone and the partially melted zone at temperatures above, or near, the effective solidus. Thus, the mechanisms of microsegregation described in the proceding sections play an important role, in that they always tend to occur in such a fashion as to depress the effective solidus and liquidus temperature of the material at grain and subgrain boundaries.

A CONCLUSO que Quente-Arranhando e microfissuring que rachaduras Quentes e microfissures so acreditados iniciar em gro de liquated e limites de subgrain dentro da zona de fuso e a zona em parte derretida em temperaturas acima, ou perto, o solidus eficaz. Assim, os mecanismos de microsegregation descreveram nas sees de proceding joga um papel importante, em que eles sempre tendem a ocorrer em tal moda quanto deprimir o solidus eficaz e temperatura de liquidus do material em gro e limites de subgrain. In multiple pass welds, the microsegregation present in underlying weld beads tends to extend the partially-melted zone adjacent to subsequent passes. Thus, microfissuring, such as was shown in Figure 14b, is often observed in the portions of underlying passes adjacent to the fusion boundary of a subsequent pass. The subject of centerline hot-cracking has been discussed earlier. The formation of such defects can be explaind in terms of solidification mechanics, as can the selection of procedures for their prevention. The role of delta ferrite in austenitic stainless steels has been subject to debate for many years. Recent work by Lippold12, Lyman13 and Cieslak14 indicates that the amount of ferrite is probably less important than its morphology and the way in which it is formed. Figure 23 is a schematic pseudo-binary slice of the iron-chromium-nickel ternary, taken at 70% Fe. The approximate location of type 304L stainless steel is shown by the vertical line at 20% Cr 10% Ni. According to this diagram, the initial-transient stage would begin T1 and the first solid, which forms the cores of the subgrains, would be enriched in chromium and depleted in nickel. *The diagram predicts that the steady-state stage of solidification would begin when the temperature reached T2, and solid of nominal composition with about 20-Cr and 10-Ni would form throughout this stage. When the solute gradients in the liquid at the surface of adjacent subgrains begin to over-lap, the terminal transient stage begins, and the last liquid to remain at the subgrain boundaries would solidify as a divorced eutectic mixture of ferrite and austenite. As the alloy cools, it must first pass through the two phase y + d region, and then enter the single phase austenite region indicated in Figure 23. However, with the possible exception of electroslag welds , the rate of cooling through the two phase y + d region is so fast the diffusion-controlled transformation predicted by equilibrium cannot occur. Instead, the delta ferrite, which is of nominal composition, is believed to transform to austenite by a

diffusionless massive transformation. This is made possible by the fact that at temperatures below T3 austenite of nominal composition is the stable phase. Therefore, it is merely necessary to convert the body-centered-cubic ferrite crystal structure to the face-centeredcubic crystal structure of austenite during the rapid cooling. Lyman used scanning transmission electron microscopic analysis to determine the composition gradients in an autogenuous GTA weld in Type 304L stanless steel with a nominal composition of 18.55% Cr and 9.61% Ni. Figure 24 summarizes his results. Point counts were taken at 32 locations over a distance of only 9 microns. The region analyzed contained two narrow islands of retained delta ferrite as indicatedat the top of Figure 24. thi ferrite containe about 26% chromium and only about 4% Ni, and so was a stable ferritic stainless steel at room temperature. The ferrite islands were located at the cores of the cellular dendrites, indicating that they were formed during the initial transient and, as predicted in the discussion above, were indeed enriched in chromium and depleted in nickel.

Cieslak has recently documented the microstructure of autogenous welds made in CF-8M steel with the following compositions:

TABELA

The weld in Heat 3 exhibited a ferrite number (FN) of 1.5 FN, while the weld in Heat 4 FN. Although Heat 3 proved to be significantly more crack sensitive than Heat 4 n the Varestraint Test, the difference is not believed to result from the diference in ferrite content. In Heat 4, the ferrite was located at the subgrain cores. This indicates that the solidification must have been ferrite, and that the solidification occurred in much the same fashion as was described above for the Type 304L. By contrast the ferrite in Heat 3 was located at the cell boundaries, thus indicating that it must have formed during the terminal-transient stage. For this to occur, the nominal composition of the alloy would have to lie to the left of the eutectic triangle in Figure 23. This would mean that the solid formed during the initial- transient and steady state stages must have been austenite rather than ferrite. The distribuition coefficients for residual elements such as phosphorous and sulfur are significantly different for ferrite and austenite. Therefore, it is believed the patterns of microsegregation produced during solidification are strongly dependent on whether ferrite or austenite is the primary phase.

Baeslak and Manning have both shown that the presence of delta ferrite in stainless steels impairs their resistance to both stress-corrosion ckacking and pitting corrosion. It would therefore be desirable to develop a weldable, fully austenitic stainless steel for service in corrosive environments. Perhaps by applying a basic knowledge of solidification mechanies this goal might be achieved in the future.