Effect of welding wire and groove angle on mechanical properties of high strength steel welded joints

Abstract

Mechanical properties of high strength steel welded joints strictly depend on the welding process, the filler material composition and the welding geometry. This study investigates the effects of using cored and solid welding wires and implementing various groove angles on the mechanical performance of weld joints which were fabricated employing the gas metal arc welding process. It was found that weld joints of low alloy, high strength steels using low alloy steel cored welding wires exhibited higher tensile strength than that of low alloy steel solid wire and chromium-nickel steel bare welding wire when the method of gas metal arc welding is employed. The effect of groove angle on the strength and toughness of V-groove and double V-groove butt-joints was investigated. V-groove joints, with higher tensile strength than double V-groove joints in the whole range of groove angles, were superior in toughness for small groove angles, but impact toughness values of both joints were comparable for large angles. The effect of heat input and cooling rate on the weld microstructure and weld strength was also investigated by performing thermal analysis employing the commercial software ANSYS. It was concluded that cooling rate and solidification growth rate determined the microstructure of the weld zone which had great consequences in regard to mechanical properties.