Orientation relationships of intragranular austenite in duplex stainless steel weld metals

Formation and characteristics of fine intragranular austenite were studied for low energy input duplex stainless steel welds. Microstructures were largely ferritic with some allotriomorphic grain boundary austenite, Widmanstatten type austenite, fine intragranular austenite and nitrides. Electron backscattered diffraction analysis revealed that grain boundary austenite had a random orientation relationship (OR) with one of the adjacent ferrite grains and was close to Kurdjumov-Sachs (KS) with the other, whereas Widmanstatten austenite always showed an OR near KS. The finest intragranular austenite was mainly randomly oriented, whereas coarser austenite more often was close to KS. It is argued that the OR of intragranular austenite with the ferritic matrix is governed by a combination of composition, determining driving force for nucleation at temperature, cooling rate and the availability of nitrides acting as nucleation sites. A random OR is most likely for higher cooling rates and compositions promoting nucleation at lower temperatures.