Liquation cracking in the heat-affected zone of IN939 superalloy tungsten inert gas weldments

The main aim of this study was to investigate liquation cracking in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the IN939 superalloy upon tungsten inert gas welding. A solid solution and age-hardenable filler metals were further studied. On the pre-weld heat-treated samples, upon solving the secondary γ′ particles in the matrix, primary γ′ particles in the base metal grew to “ogdoadically diced cubes” of about 2 µm in side lengths. The pre-weld heat treatment reduced the hardness of the base metal to about HV 310. Microstructural studies using optical and field-emission scanning electron microscopy revealed that the IN939 alloy was susceptible to liquation cracking in the HAZ. The constitutional melting of the secondary, eutectic, and Zr-rich phases promoted the liquation cracking in the HAZ. The microstructure of the weld fusion zones showed the presence of fine spheroidal γ′ particles with sizes of about 0.2 µm after the post-weld heat treatment, which increased the hardness of the weld pools to about HV 350 and 380 for the Hastelloy X and IN718 filler metals, respectively. Application of a suitable solid solution filler metal could partially reduce the liquation cracking in the HAZ of IN939 alloy.