Mechanical bonding properties and interfacial morphologies of austenitic stainless steel clad plates

The current paper focuses on the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties in low-carbon steel/austenitic stainless steel clad composite fabricated by hot-roll bonding. For this reason, the morphology and interfacial characteristics, tensile properties shear strength and fracture toughness of the cladded material were evaluated. From the main results, it was found that carbon element diffusion caused the forming of a decarburized ferrite zone (DFZ) of the parent metal and a carburized austenite zone (CAZ) of the clad layer, and between these two area, a thin diffusion layer with rapid element component change are formed in the hot-roll cladding process. Stress-strain curves obtained from tensile testing of parent metal and clad layer can predict the bi-material tensile behavior. The shear test proved that the stainless steel clad plate presents an acceptable shear bond strength at the interface joint. Impact test toughness results confirm that fracture took place only in the parent metal side of cladded specimens; the clad layer was bent but without obvious fracture. Fractography was carried out using scanning electron microscope in the tensile, shear bond test specimens and Charpy impact ones. It reveals the presence of predominantly dimpled fracture. Charpy impact specimens of the interface failed in mixed mode while impact specimens of the base plate failed in ductile mode.