Investigation of arc stability, microstructure evolution and corrosion resistance in underwater wet FCAW of duplex stainless steel

Underwater wet flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) process was used to join 2205 duplex stainless steel using Ni-based filler under three different heat inputs of 16.9 kJ/cm, 23.5 kJ/ cm and 32 kJ/cm. The arc stability, microstructure and corrosion resistance with different heat inputs were studied. The results showed that the welding process at the heat input of 23.5 kJ/cm was stable with less spatter and good weld appearance. The weld width, weld penetration and dilution ratio increased with increasing heat input. A single-phase austenitic microstructure was obtained for all welds with varied parameters. The heat affected zone consisted of coarse ferrite and austenite in grain boundary. The grain size of weld zone and heat-affected zone coarsened as the heat input rose. Compared with the base 2205 base metal, the hardness of HAZ increased about 15% while the weld metal changed little. Electrochemical test in 3.5% NaCl solution indicated that the corrosion resistance of the weld metal under high heat input was better, but its corrosion resistance was inferior to that of base materials. Weld metal obtained at 23.5 kJ/cm possessed comprehensive properties in terms of arc stability and corrosion resistance. These results are helpful to promote the application of duplex stainless steel in the fields of nuclear power fields. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The study investigated the underwater wet flux-cored arc welding of 2205 duplex stainless steel using Ni-based filler at three different heat inputs. It was found that the welding process was stable with good quality at a heat input of 23.5 kJ/cm. As the heat input increased, the weld width and penetration depth increased, and the grain size in the heat-affected zone coarsened. The weld metal obtained at 23.5 kJ/cm showed comprehensive properties in terms of arc stability and corrosion resistance.