Microstructure, Texture, and Mechanical Property Analysis of Gas Metal Arc Welded AISI 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel

The present study elaborately explains the effect of welding parameters on the microstructure, texture, and mechanical properties of gas metal arc welded AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel sheet (as received) of 4 mm thickness. The welded joints were prepared by varying welding speed (WS) and current simultaneously at a fixed heat input level using a 1.2-mm-diameter austenitic filler metal (AISI 316L). The overall purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the variation of welding conditions on: (i) Microstructural constituents using optical microscope and transmission electron microscope; (ii) Micro-texture evolution, misorientation distributions, and grain boundaries at welded regions by measuring the orientation data from electron back scattered diffraction; and (iii) Mechanical properties such as hardness and tensile strength, and their correlation with the microstructure and texture. It has been observed that the higher WS along with the higher welding current (weld metal W1) can enhance weld metal mechanical properties through alternation in microstructure and texture of the weld metal. Higher delta-ferrite formation and high-angle boundaries along with the < 101 > + < 001 > grain growth direction of the weld metal W1 were responsible for dislocation pile-ups, SFs, deformation twinning, and the induced martensite with consequent strain hardening during tensile deformation. Also, fusion boundary being the weakest link in the welded structure, failure took place mainly at this region.