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Weld metallurgy

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What is metallurgy?
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 Metallurgy is the science involving

 the production of metals from their ores,
 making and compounding alloys,
 metal reactions, heat treatment
 processing of metals like forging, foundry

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Welding metallurgy
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 Welding metallurgy is a special branch in metallurgy where the reaction

times are in the order of minutes or seconds
 Welding metallurgy describes a mechanisms of metallurgical processes
occurring in and around a weld that influence the microstructure,
properties, and weldability of the material
 Deals with the interaction of different metals and interaction of metals
with gases and chemicals of all types
 Phenomena like melting, freezing, solid state transformations, thermal
strain and shrinkage stresses causes many problems.
 A metallurgist examines the changes in physical characteristics that
happen in short periods

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Why study welding metallurgy
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 Similar to a casting process, the microstructure in the weld zone can

significantly change due to re-melting and solidification
 Solids metals have a crystalline structure in which the atoms are
arranged in a specific geometry pattern
 Orderly arrangement of atoms is called the lattice
 Lattice is responsible for many of the properties of the metals
 Liquid state – atoms do not have an orderly arrangement
 When the liquid approaches the solidification temperature, solid
particles called nuclei begins to form at some sites.

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Cont..
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 Solidification proceeds as the individual nuclei grows into larger

particles called grains
 More solidification occurs resulting in the elimination of liquid molecules,
molecules go larger until there is no liquid between them.
 These grains meet each other at irregular boundaries – grain boundaries
 Grain growth occurs independently and orientation of grain lattice
differs from one grain to another.
 The original periodic and orderly arrangement of atoms is disturbed at
the places where the grains meet
 Grain boundaries form continuous network and the behaviour of the
material at these grain boundaries at these locations are different

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Micro-structure
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 The overall arrangement of the grains, grain

boundaries and phases present in a metal alloy is
called the micro-structure of the alloy
 Microstructure largely responsible for the physical and
mechanical properties of the metal
 chemical composition and thermal treatment affects
the micro-structure
 Micro-structure is affected by welding because of
thermal or mechanical effects or both, but they are
confined to the local regions of the weld

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9 HEAT FLOW IN WELDING

 Change in microstructure happened due to the heat source

 heat generated due to welding gets conducted to the nearby
regions of the weld
 Important to consider the flow of heat before considering about the
solidification
 Flow of heat directly affects
Rate and the Extent of melting
Rate of cooling and solidification on the fusion zone
Rate and extent of heating in the HAZ
Also affects the weld volume, shape, weldment distortions
and defects

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 Rate of solidification – determines the solidification

structure and thereby the properties
 Rate and extent of peripheral heating – Thermal Stress
on the fusion zone
 Rate of cooling in the fusion zone - determines the
fusion zone structure and the properties

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11 INTERESTED PARAMETERS

 The solidification rate of the weld metal

 The distribution of maximum or peak temperatures in the
weld affected zone
 Cooling rates in the weld metal and in the heat affected
zone

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12 HEAT FLOW – HOW TO CALCULATE

 Experimental results of heat transfer and simple

equations of heat transfer
The equations could predict the methods to control
heat flow to obtain the desired qualities
 Geometric weldment configuration can be modelled
and solution can be found numerically

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13 WELD THERMAL CYCLE

 Weld Thermal Cycle gives the variation of temperature as a

function of time at a particular region on the application of heat
 The time and change in temperature gives the rate of heating, the
rate of cooling etc
 If a weld is considered – you will have a lot of zones like HAZ, FZ etc

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Components to be welded

Direction
of welding
A

A – high rate of heating, cooling Non uniform volumetric

B- low rate of heating and cooling change in different
zones
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17 CONT..

 Soak Temperature : Temperature that is maintained in order to achieve

some mechanical property
 Soak Time : the time for which the material is kept at the soaking
temperature
 Points lying closer to the fusion zone will have longer soaking time
compared to the points lying far.
 Weld Thermal Cycle is also influenced by
 The heat input rate
 Initial Plate Temperature
 Weld Joint Design
 Thermal properties of the base metal

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18 CONT..

 Thermal Diffusivity : it measures the ability of a material to conduct thermal

energy relative to its ability to store thermal energy. It has the SI unit is m²/s.
Thermal diffusivity is usually denoted 
𝑘
 𝛼 = 𝜌×𝑐
𝑝

 k = thermal conductivity  = density, 𝑐𝑝 = specific heat capacity

 Increase in thermal diffusivity increases the rate of cooling, but the rate of
heating is reduced.

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 Heat input is directly related to the energy density

 A high density process like EBW and LBW will have only lesser heat input –
steeper distribution of the curve
 An increase in the heat input will cause more regions of the metal getting
subjected to temperatures closer to the peak temperature – more width of
heat affected zone.
 Increasing the preheat temperature decreases the rate of cooling but it
has no significant impact on soaking time
 thickness of the metal causes high rate of cooling, low rate of heating

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20 EFFECT of WTC on STRENGTHENING

 Solid Solution Hardening

 Dispersion Hardening
 Work Hardening Lost during heating (welding)
 Precipitation hardening Precipitates gets coarsened
 Transformation Hardening Undesirable transformations
 Grain Refinement

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21 WTC on Recrystallisation Temp

 Recrystalisation : it is the nucleation and growth of new, strain-free crystals

from the cold worked metal.
 The temperature is 0.3-.05 times the melting point
 Time and temperature affects the recrystallisation
 Longer exposure and Higher temperature results in grain coarsening

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25 COOLING RATE

 It determines the final microstructure of weld zone and HAZ

 High cooling rate may have solidification times ranging from 0.5 seconds to
2-3 seconds varying with the thickness of the weld and the welding
processes involved.
 Time available for solidification determines the time available for gases to
escape from the weld zone
 Cooling rate determines the transformations that occurs.
 Cooling rates too high in some steels can result in hard untampered
martensite with some embrittlement defects.

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A – Austenite, F – ferrite, P- pearlite, B- Bainite, M-

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martensite
27 CALCULATION OF COOLING RATE

 Cooling rate is affected by the thickness of the plates to be welded

 Two empirical relations are required for the cooling rate for thick and thin
plates
 Thick or thin specified by
1. No of passes 6 passes
2. Relative plate thickness Thickness, heat input,initial plate temperature,
Temperature of interest, specific heat capcity,
density
 Relative plate thickness can be calculated by  =
 Thin plate when less than 0.6, thick plate when more than 0.9
 0.6-0.9 - Value used will be 0.75, which determines the equation to be
used.

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28 CONT..

 Cooling Rate for thin plates : R =

 Thick Plates : R =
 Unit is oC/sec
 Hnet = f .VI/S
 f = fraction of heat generated and transferred to the plate
 V – arc voltage
 I – welding current , S – welding speed mm/sec

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