FCAW repair welding cycles, HAZ microstructure and corrosion resistance of 2304 duplex stainless steel

Flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) is an automatic welding process widely employed to join duplex stainless steel (DSS) structures in industrial plants because of its high productivity. However, when multiple passes are performed, this process can lead to the formation of non-metallic inclusions originating from the slag in the fusion zone. In this case, the welded joint can be repaired using the same welding process. Some regions next to the heat-affected zone are not removed during the repairing operation. Thus, these regions are subjected to repeated welding cycles and to a high heat input, which can cause microstructural alteration that impairs the corrosion resistance of the welded material. The aim of this work was to study the corrosion resistance of 2304 DSS plates joined using the FCAW process and repaired using the same process. The influence of the repair procedure on the corrosion resistance of the welded joints was evaluated using potentiodynamic polarisation and chronoamperometric curves, which allow the determination of the critical pitting temperature of the samples. The microstructure obtained after each repair cycle was evaluated using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the corrosion resistance was depressed as the number of repair cycles increased.