Solidification Cracking Susceptibility Predictions for Stainless Steels

Solidification cracking is concerning for welding stainless steels. The susceptibility of different kinds of stainless steels to the weld defect of solidification cracking was predicted using the susceptibility index of maximum | dT/d(f(S))(1/2) | (T: temperature, f(S): fraction solid). Commercial thermodynamic software with a solidification model which allows back diffusion was used to obtain solidification paths. The predictions of the stainless steels were compared to experimental crack susceptibility data for optimization and verification. It was found that the index can successfully be used for stainless steels by applying it up to the critical fraction solid of 0.99 for 310 and 0.98 for the other stainless steels. Reported microstructure observation and back diffusion effect during solidification were used to explain the predictions.