Investigation of precipitation behavior in a weld deposit of 11Cr-2W ferritic steel

This article is aimed at investigating the difference in precipitation behavior in the fine-grained heat-affected zone (FGHAZ), coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ), and base metal for the welded joint of high Cr ferritic heat-resistant steel (1 lCr-0.4Mo-2W-1Cu-V-Nb, normalized 1323 K x 1 h and tempered 1033 K x 1 h). Simulated HAZ (SHAZ) specimens were used, whose thermal cycles were controlled to be the same as those in the actual welded joint with peak temperatures of 1523 and 1173 K to represent CGHAZ and FGHAZ, respectively. Based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation, it looks that the precipitates in FGHAZ specimens (1173 K) were fewer and larger than those in CGHAZ (1523 K) specimens and base metal specimens. This phenomenon implied that the growth and coarsening of precipitates in FGHAZ may play a role in the deterioration of creep properties and type IV cracking, which was observed in previous creep tests. X-ray diffraction analysis for the electrolytic extraction showed that the types of precipitates are the same for the 1173 K specimens and base metal specimens, including M23C6, MX, Laves phase, and mu phase. Further, the elemental analysis of the extraction showed that the mass percentages of Cr, W, and Mo in the precipitates to specimen mass were higher in the FGHAZ specimen than those in the base metal specimen, especially during the period between 600 and 2464 hours. Finally, a two-dimensional (2-D) model was proposed to simulate the precipitation behavior of the Laves phase.