Precipitation of Niobium Boride Phases at the Base Metal/Weld Metal Interface in Dissimilar Weld Joints

In this work, the analysis of failure mechanism in the heat affected zone is described in dissimilar weld joints between advanced martensitic steel T92 and Ni-base weld metal. The joints were treated with two different post-weld heat treatments and tested. For the creep, tensile, and Charpy impact tests, the samples with interfacially located notch were used. Moreover long term aging at 625 °C was applied before the tensile and notch toughness tests. Decohesion fractures ran along carbides at the T92 BM/WM interfaces in case of the modified PWHT, whereas type IV cracking was the prevailing failure mechanism after the classical PWHT in the creep test. In the notch tensile and Charpy impact tests, with the notch at T92 base metal/weld metal interface, fractures ran along the interface with a hard phase on the fracture surface along with the ductile dimple and brittle quasi-cleavage fracture. The phase identified as niobium boride (either NbB and/or Nb3B2) was produced during welding at the end of the solidification process. It was found in the welds regardless of the post-weld heat treatment and long-term aging.