SANT LONGOWAL INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERIG AND TECHNOLOGY

A Report on comparing microstructure of bead made by SAW/Submerged Arc

Welding (Single pass) with another bead made by SAW/Submerged Arc Welding
(Multi pass).

GUIDED BY:

Dr.Kulwant Singh

(Proffessor)

(Mech. Dept.)

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. H. K. Arya Chhotu Kumar(GWT/121234)
(Asst. Prof.) Ankit Kumar(GWT/121937)
(Mech. Dept.) Narendra Kumar(GWT/121938)
Daya Shankar(GWT/121941)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance
and assistance from many people and we are extremely privileged to have
got this all along the completion of our project. All that we have done is
only due to such supervision and assistance and we would not forget to
thank them.

We respect and thank Dr. Kulwant Singh for providing us an opportunity to

do the project work in (Advanced Welding and Metallurgy Lab.) and giving
us all support and guidance which made us complete the project duly. I am
extremely thankful to him for providing such a nice support and guidance,
although he had busy schedule.

We are fortunate enough to get constant encouragement, support and

guidance from all Teaching staffs of (Mechanical Department) which
helped us in successfully completing our project work. Also, I would like to
extend our sincere esteems to all staff in laboratory for their timely
support.

Finally, we would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped us
a lot in finalizing this project within the limited time frame.
 ABSTRACT
A detailed study on the microstructure, phase analysis and mechanical
properties, HAZ width of submerged arc weld metal multi pass joint and
heat affected zone of 20 mm thick mild steel plate was carried out using
optical microscope. The main purpose of present work is to investigate the
microstructure of single “V” butt joint of mild steel plate(made by multi
pass) to compare it with the microstructure of single pass weld and also to
perform the phase analysis of the multi pass and single pass welded joint
to get defect free welded structures.
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO SAW WELDING PROCESS
1.1 SUBMERGED ARC WELDING (SAW)
It uses heat generated by an electric arc established between a bare
consumable electrode wire and the work piece. Since in this process,
welding arc and the weld pool are completely submerged under cover of
granular fusible and molten flux therefore it is called so. During welding,
granular flux is melted using heat generated by arc and forms cover of
molten flux layer which in turn avoids spatter tendency and prevents
accessibility of atmospheric gases to the arc zone and the weld pool. The
molten flux reacts with the impurities in the molten weld metal to form
slag which floats over the surface of the weld metal. Layer of slag over the
molten weld metal results:

1) Increased protection of weld metal from atmospheric gas

contamination and so improved properties of weld joint.

2) Reduced cooling rate of weld metal and HAZ owing to shielding of the
weld pool by molten flux and solidified slag in turn leads to:

 Smoother weld bead and

 Reduced the cracking tendency of hardenable steel.

The weld bead deposited has an extremely smooth finish and of excellent
quality. The deposition rates (45kg/hr) are also much higher than
compared to flux cored arc welding process. Practically no edge
preparation is necessary depending on joint configuration and required
penetration.
 Figure: A setup of Submerged Arc Welding

Figure: Schematic of submerged arc welding system

1.2 WELDING PARAMETERS:
Welding parameters namely electrode wire size, welding voltage, welding
current and welding speed are four most important parameters (apart
from flux) that play a major role on soundness and performance of the
weld therefore these must be selected carefully before welding.

a) WELDING CURRENT

Welding current is the most influential process parameter for SAW

because it determines the melting rate of electrode, penetration depth
and weld bead geometry. However, too high current may lead to burn
through owing to deep penetration, excessive reinforcement, increased
residual stresses and high heat input related problems like weld distortion.
On the other hand, selection of very low current is known to cause lack of
penetration & lack of fusion and unstable arc. Selection of welding current
is primarily determined by thickness of plates to be welded and
accordingly electrode of proper diameter is selected so that it can
withstand under the current setting required for developing sound weld
with requisite deposition rate and penetration.

Diameter (mm) Welding Current (A)

1.6 150-300
2.0 200-400
2.5 250-600
3.15 300-700
4.0 400-800
6.0 700-1200
b) WELDING VOLTAGE
Welding voltage has marginal affect on the melting rate of the electrode.
Welding voltage commonly used in SAW ranges from 20-35 V. Selection of
too high welding voltage leads to flatter and wider weld bead, higher flux
consumption, and increased gap bridging capability under poor fit-up
conditions while low welding voltage produces narrow & peaked bead and
poor slag detachability.

c) WELDING SPEED
Required bead geometry and penetration in a weld joint are obtained only
with an optimum speed of welding arc during SAW. Selection of a speed
higher than optimum one reduces heat input per unit length which in turn
results in low deposition rate of weld metal, decreased weld
reinforcement and shallow penetration.

Figure: Influence of welding parameters on weld bead geometry

1.3 BEAD GEOMETRY AND EFFECT OF WELDING PARAMETERS
Bead geometry and depth of penetration are two important
characteristics of the weld bead that are influenced by size of the
electrode for a given welding current setting. In general, an increase in size
of the electrode decreases the depth of penetration and increases width
of weld bead for a given welding current. Large diameter electrodes are
primarily selected to take advantages like higher deposition rate owing to
their higher current carrying capacity.

Figure: Influence of electrode diameter on weld bead geometry

Flux
The granulated flux shields and protects molten weld from atmospheric
contamination. The flux cleans weld metal and can also modify its
chemical composition. The flux is granulated to a definite size. It may be of
fused, bonded or mechanically mixed type.
1.4 ADVANTAGES
Due to unique features like welding arc submerged under flux and use of
high welding current associated with submerged arc welding processes
compared with other welding process, it offers following important
advantages:

 High deposition rates (over 45 kg/h) have been reported.

 High operating factors in mechanized applications.
 Deep weld penetration.
 Sound welds are readily made (with good process design and
control).
 Practically no edge preparation is necessary depending on joint
configuration and required penetration.
 The process is suitable for both indoor and outdoor works.
 Welds produced are sound, uniform, ductile, corrosion resistant and
have good impact value.
 Single pass welds can be made in thick plates with normal
equipment.
 The arc is always covered under a blanket of flux, thus there is no
chance of spatter of weld.
 50% to 90% of flux used is recoverable, recycled and reused.

1.5 LIMITATIONS
 Limited to ferrous (mild steel or stainless steels) and some nickel-
based alloys.
 Normally limited to the 1F, 1G, and 2F positions.
 Normally limited to long straight seams or rotated pipes or vessels.
 Flux and slag residue can present a health and safety concern.
 Requires inter-pass and post weld slag removal.
 Requires backing strips for proper root penetration.
 Limited to high thickness materials.
1.6 APPLICATIONS
Submerged arc welding is mainly used for welding low carbon and low
alloy steels, though with the development of suitable fluxes it can be used
successfully for welding stainless steels, copper, aluminium, and titanium
base alloys. SAW is also capable of welding medium carbon steels, heat-
resistant steels, corrosion resistant steels and many high strength steels.
Welds made by SAW have high strength and ductility with low hydrogen
and nitrogen contents.

SAW is widely used for butt and fillet welds in heavy industries like
shipbuilding, pressure vessel fabrication, rail-road tank cars, structural
engineering, pipe welding, and for storage tanks. For welding storage
tanks at site special self-propelled machines with devices for collecting the
spilling flux are used to make circumferential seam welds.
 CHAPTER 2
2.1 INTRODUCTION
This project work is to compare the microstructure of the bead made by
single pass on a mild steel plate of thickness 20 mm with another multi
pass bead made on mild steel of same thickness keeping the welding
parameters same in both the cases. For this purpose various studies has
been done on the cooling rate of the weld ment, inter pass temperature in
case of multi pass welds, what value of inter pass temperature must be
kept, different phases in welds, phase transformation of weld metal etc.

2.2 LITERATURE SURVEY

Submerged arc welding is one of the few welding processes which has the
high deposition rates as compared to any other welding processes.
Improvement in the weld quality has been a continuing challenge, as new
processes were introduced and existing processes were stretched to their
limit. Competition in the field of welding is increasing day-by-day.
Fabricators look for welding processes, which are cost effective and are
able to give higher deposition rates, better penetration and robust
structures. Submerged arc welding is one of the processes having high
deposition rate welding speed, deeper penetration - fewer operators
fatigue because arc is not visible and welder’s manipulative skill not
needed. The normal welding variables of submerged arc welding like
current, voltage, travel speed and bead geometry are characterized by
bead width, height, penetration, hardness and quality.
Figure: Weld bead geometry of Submerged Arc Welding.

2.3 THE STUDIES OF HEAT INPUT IN SINGLE AND MULTI PASS WELDING
INVESTIGATED BY DIFFERENT RESEARCHERS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

 KISHOR P. KOLHE, PAWAN KUMAR, R.M. DHARASKAR AND

C.K.DATTA which explain the effects of heat input on grain details of
multipass submerged arc weld joint
 BY I. GOWRISANKAR, A. K. BHADURI, V. SEETHARAMAN, D. D. N.
VERMA AND D. R. G. ACHAR who found that as the number of passes
increased, the hardness and tensile strength increased, while the
ductility and toughness decreased.
 Mohsen Mokhtabad Amrei Yves Verreman Florent Bridier Denis
Thibault Philippe bocher which gives information about the
microstructure Characterization of Single pass and Multi pass
13Cr4NI Steel Welded Joints.

OBJECTIVES
1 To see the grain structure in single pass and multi pass welding
2To study the phase transformations.
 CHAPTER 3
3.1 BASIC CONCEPT OF PROJECT
The basic requirement in this project is to see the difference in grain
structures of the single and multi pass weld samples and also study the
phase changes.

3.2 PREPERATION OF THE V–GROOVE

For the multi pass welding we need to prepare the V-Groove which can be
easily prepared on a Shaper. The angle of the V-Groove is kept 60 degrees
and depends on the thickness of the weld plate.

Figure: V-Groove with an included angle of 60 degrees.

3.3 WELDING OPERATION

Once the initial parameters are set i.e. welding current, welding voltage
and the travel speed then the flux starts depositing on the joint to be
welded from the flux hopper.
Before keeping the flux in the flux hopper of the setup it is kept in the
oven for some time because flux when cold is a non-conductor of
electricity.
Before the deposition of flux the distance from the welding torch to plate
is measured and usually kept about 15-20 mm and the arc may be struck
either by touching the electrode with the work piece or by placing steel
wool between electrode and job before switching on the welding current
or by using a high frequency unit. In all cases the arc is struck under a
cover of flux. (Here we have generated arc by touching the electrode to
the work piece).
Flux otherwise is an insulator but once it melts due to heat of the arc, it
becomes highly conductive and hence the current flow is maintained
between the electrode and the work piece through the molten flux.
The upper portion of the flux, in contact with atmosphere, which is visible
remains granular (unchanged) and can be reused. The lower, melted flux
becomes slag, which is waste material and must be removed after
welding.
The electrode at a predetermined speed is continuously fed to the joint to
be welded. The arc length is kept constant by using the principle of a self-
adjusting arc.
A backing plate of steel or copper may be used to control penetration and
to support large amounts of molten metal associated with the process.
In the cases of multi pass welds once a bead is deposited we have to wait
for the temperature to lower down till it reaches the inter pass
temperature so that next bead can be laid. The inter pass temperature is
different for different work pieces. Here we have kept the inter pass
temperature 150 degrees.
3.4 INTERPASS TEMPERATURE

Inter pass temperature is the temperature at which subsequent weld runs

are deposited. Procedures can specify a maximum inter pass temperature,
which is done to control weld metal microstructural development, and
also ensures that the weld is similar to the welds made in the procedure
qualification. Minimum inter pass temperatures are maintained to control
hydrogen cracking, and in most cases are similar to the preheat
temperature.

All the weld runs in a joint will have the same hydrogen input, cooling
capacity and composition, and therefore similar preheat (minimum inter
pass) requirements, dependent on heat input, to avoid hydrogen cracking .
A possible exception to this would be the root pass, which may have a
higher stress concentration than the remainder of the joint, and so the
root region may require a higher preheat than the minimum inter pass
temperature of the filling passes.

Here the interpass temperature is kept 150 degrees and is determined

with the help of an infrared pyrometer

Figure: Infrared Pyrometer

3.5 SINGLE PASS AND MULTIPASS WELDING
One pass on the weld plate and four passes of SAW in the V-Groove of the
metal plate has been laid on this work piece with an inter pass
temperature of 150 degree Celsius.

The welding parameters used are:

Sr. No. Parameters Notation Unit Value

1 Welding Current I A 482
2 Welding Voltage V V 28
3 Travel Speed S m/hr 20

Figure: Single Pass and Multi pass Welding

 CHAPTER 4
EXPERIMENTATION
4.1 PREPERATION OF THE WELD SAMPLE
 After the completion of the single and multi-pass weld the weld
sample has to be cut from the weld plate.
 Two weld sample of width 15 mm are cut from the single and multi-
pass weld plates.
 The cutting is done by Power Hack saw.

Figure: Power Hacksaw

 After the cutting has been done and specimens are taken out then
filing has been done on the weld sample to remove the sharp edges.
 Now the polishing of the weld samples is to be done.
 Polishing Machine is used for this purpose and different grades of
emery paper are required for it.
 Figure: Polishing Machine
 The grades of emery paper which we have used are 100, 150, 220,
400, 600 and 2000.
 After the polishing has been done on the emery paper we need to do
polishing on the velvet paper.
 When polishing of the weld sample is over we need to do the etching
of the weld samples. For this we require Nital and cotton.
 After the etching is done the weld sample is viewed under a
microscope and we find that the grain structure of the single pass
weld sample is fine and the grain structure of the multi pass weld
sample is coarse.

4.2 PREPERTION OF THE ETCHANT

Nital is a solution of nitric acid and alcohol commonly used
for etching of metals. It is especially suitable for revealing the
microstructure of carbon steels. The alcohol can
be methanol, ethanol or methylated spirits. Here we have used 96% nitric
acid and 4% methanol to prepare the etchant.
4.3 MICROSTRUCTURE OF THE SINGLE-PASS WELD SAMPLE COMPARED
WITH MICROSTRUCTURE OF THE MULTI-PASS WELD SAMPLE
The weld sample of single pass and Multi pass weld are:

Figure: Weld sample of single pass and Multi pass weld

After viewing the weld samples in the microscope we find that the grain
structure of single pass weld is fine whereas the grain structure of multi
pass weld is coarse.

Figure: Optical Microscope

 CHAPTER 5
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 DETAILS OF BASE METAL MICROSTRUCTURE

Figure: Depicting grain structure of single pass and multi pass weld.

5.2 DETAILS OF BASE METAL MICROSTRUCTURE

Figure: Depicting grain structure of single pass and multi pass base metal
microstructure.
5.3 WHY FINE GRAINS ARE FORMED IN SINGLE PASS WELDS AND COARSE
GRAINS ARE FORMED IN MULTI PASS WELDS

In single pass weld the cooling rate of the metal is fast as compared to the
cooling rate in multi pass welds. In the multi pass welding process
parameters are directly affect the number of passes and total heat input.
The individual effect of current, voltage, speed on hardness of weld and
HAZ is higher. It is observed that the hardness is higher in the HAZ than the
weld metal. Due to the low cooling rate the grains in the single pass welds
do not get much time to grow.

The effect of multi pass welding on the microstructure of the weld metal
was that grain size increased at the reheated portion of the weld metal. In
the multilayer welds, the thermal effect of upper runs had a tendency to
normalize the structure of those previously solidified, leading to a
refinement of the structure and thus giving variation in the hardness
values in these zones.

As the number of passes increase, the total heat input increase, the grains
HAZ are larger in size due to repeated heating and grain refinement as
compared to the weldment having medium and low heat input in multi
pass welding.

Microstructure shows columnar grains at weld bead and coarse grains of

pearlite and ferrite at HAZ in low heat input. It can be observed that
columnar grains coarsen with the increase of heat input. Grains are mostly
coarse and cellular near centreline of the bead.

In multipass welding fusion zones of a weld of weld pass is replaced by

HAZ of subsequent passes which is evident from the Primarily shows two
phases namely ferrite (light etched) and pearlite (dark etched) and fine
carbide particles are not visible at low magnification. Grain coarsening
near the fusion boundary (in HAZ) results in coarse columnar grains in the
weld metal.

5.4 PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS

5.4.1 Different phases in mild steel weldment

a) Ferrite- A solid solution, it's stable at room temperature and capable of

containing up to only 0.008 percent carbon at 70 degrees. Magnetic ferrite
is sometimes called alpha iron, not to be confused with the silver-rich
alpha phase in the silver-copper phase diagram. Ferrite may be acicular
ferrite, polygonal ferrite or Delta ferrite.
b) Cementite. This iron-carbon crystalline compound is also called iron
carbide. Cementite contains 6.67 to 6.69 percent carbon and can combine
with ferrite to form pearlite.
c) Austenite. Also known as gamma iron, austenite is the FCC form of steel
and is capable of dissolving almost 2.0 percent carbon. While austenite is
never stable in carbon steel at less than 727 degrees F, additional alloys
can make it stable at room temperature. Nonmagnetic and easily work-
hardened, austenite is both strong and ductile.
d) Pearlite. When thin, alternating layers of cementite and ferrite
combine, you have pearlite, and it's what austenite transforms to when it's
cooled slowly. Pearlite is always 0.77 percent carbon, and it usually makes
steel more ductile.
e) Bainite. Hard with low ductility, bainite is a combination of fine carbon
needles in a ferrite matrix. It results when austenite is cooled at a rate
lower than what's needed to form martensite.
f) Martensite. If we take a piece of red-hot steel and quench it in ice
water, what you end up with is usually a lot of martensite. Here's why:
Martensite results when austenite is quickly cooled to the temperature at
which it forms a body-centered tetragonal crystalline structure.
Figure: Single pass weld viewed at 100X, 200X, 400X and 500X.

Figure: Multi pass weld viewed at 100X, 200X, 400X and 500X
In the single pass welds initially austenite grain size is found whose shape
is determined by the presence of ferrite which is formed at austenite grain
boundaries during transformation on weld cooling. A linear interception
technique is usually satisfactory in determining the grain dimensions.
Sometimes it Is not possible to determine because the position of grain
boundaries cannot be determined easily.

It is observed from multi pass submerged arc welding more ferrite

structures are observed for low heat input with more number of welding
passes and rapid cooling rate whereas more graphite structure are
observed at high heat input due less number of passes and slow cooling
rate. Percentage of ferrite increases due to more refined grains as the
number of passes is more and increases with an increase in temperature
and decreases with an increase in manganese content. The increases in
ferrite phase due to change of temperature distribution the hardness of
HAZ increase and weld metal hardness decreases.
 CONCLUSION

Improvement in the weld quality has been a continuing challenge, as new

processes were introduced and existing processes were stretched to their
limit. Competition in the field of welding is increasing day-by-day.
Fabricators look for welding processes, which are cost effective and are
able to give higher deposition rates, better penetration and robust
structures. Submerged arc welding is one of the processes having high
deposition rate welding speed, deeper penetration - fewer operators
fatigue because arc is not visible and welder’s manipulative skill not
needed.

During this project we learned about the procedure to lay the single and
multi pass bead, to determine the v groove angle and interpass
temperature according to the size or dimensions of the workpiece and to
do the polishing of the weld samples correctly. Further we saw the weld
sample in the microstructure and found the grain structure in the single
and multi pass welds to be fine and coarse and also learned the reasons
for it. We also encountered the phases in the single and multi pass welds.
 REFERENCES

1 Analysing the Effect of Parameters in Multipass Submerged arc Welding

Process by Deepti Jaiswal Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

2 Study of Heat Transfer Rate on Multipass Submerged Arc Welding by

Pandurang V. Kasabe Department of Mechanical Engineering, JSPM’s
Imperial College of Engineering & Research, Wagholi, Pune-14, India

3 Effects of heat input on grain details of multipass submerged arc weld

joint KISHOR P. KOLHE, PAWAN KUMAR, R.M. DHARASKAR AND C.K.DATTA

4 BY I. GOWRISANKAR, A. K. BHADURI, V. SEETHARAMAN, D. D. N. VERMA

AND D. R. G. ACHAR who found that as the number of passes increased,
the hardness and tensile strength increased, while the ductility and
toughness decreased

5 R.S. Parmar, Welding process and technology, 3rd ed., (Khanna

Publishers, New Delhi, 2015).

6 Modern Arc Welding Technology, 2005, Ador Welding Limited.

7 American Welding Society Forum

8 Optimization of welding parameters for maximization of weld bead

widths for submerged arc welding of mild steel plates by L.Manihar Singh
M.Tech Student, NITTTR Kolkata

9 R.S. Chandel, S.R. Bala, and L. Malik, Effect of submerged arc welding
variables on the penetration and its prediction, Welding and Metal
Fabrication, 55(1987) 302-304.
10 Microstructure Characterization of Single and Multipass 13Cr4Ni Steel
Welded Joints by Mohsen Mokhtabad Amrei, Yves Verreman

11 Physical metallurgy of metal joining by Prof. R. N. Ghosh, Dept of

Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

12 Single pass full penetration welding of high-tensile steel thick-plate

using SAW welding process by SHIN Minhyo

13 Heat affected zone and weld metal properties in welding of steels

posted by satyendra on oct 1, 2016 in technical

14 MODERN WELDING TECHNOLOGY BY Howard B. Carry, Welding

Engineer, Consultant, Past President American Welding Society