Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

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Highly efcient TIG welding of Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless steel

S.P. Lu , M.P. Qin, W.C. Dong
Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 30 June 2012
Received in revised form
28 September 2012
Accepted 29 September 2012
Available online 8 October 2012
Keywords:
Martensitic stainless steel
TIG welding
Oxygen content
Surface tension convection
Fusion zone prole

a b s t r a c t
A double-shielded TIG welding process using pure He gas as the inner shielding layer and He and CO2
mixed gas as the outer shielding layer was proposed for the welding of Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless steels. This proposed welding process can successfully address the problem of electrode oxidation
with mixed-gas TIG welding and the issue of low weld depth and welding efciency of traditional TIG
welding. A change in the direction of the surface tension convection mode was the primary mechanism that affected the fusion zone prole. When the oxygen content in the weld pool was in the range of
80120 ppm, the surface tension convection direction changed from outward to inward, resulting in both
a larger weld depth and a larger weld depth/width ratio. This process not only allows for a high welding
efciency comparing with traditional TIG welding but also produces better weld impact properties than
those of MAG welding (metal active gas welding).
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Traditional TIG welding processes yield good weld quality
and are one of the most frequently used welding processes
for Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless steels. However, the weld
depth created by traditional TIG welding via a single pass is normally restricted to 3 mm (Lucas and Howse, 1996), and the weld
depth/width (D/W) ratio is restricted to approximately 0.20.3
for stainless steel under argon shielding (Lu et al., 2003), which
results in low welding efciencies. To overcome these disadvantages, Gurevich et al. (1965) of the E.U. Paton Institute of Electric
Welding rst proposed the A-TIG welding process in the 1960s, a
process in which a ne layer of activating ux (halides or oxides)
is smeared on the surface of a workpiece prior to welding. Leconte
et al. (2006) have found that the weld depth of A-TIG welding via
a single pass can be increased by a factor of 1.54 compared with
that of traditional TIG welding. However, the fusion zone prole
of A-TIG welding is sensitive to the quantity of the activating ux
smeared on the plate surface, and slag is easily retained on the
weld surface. Another improvement to traditional TIG welding is
mixed-gas TIG welding, a process that utilizes the addition of an
active gas to the shielding gas and has been explored with H2 by
Hisieh et al. (1999), with SO2 by Heiple and Burgardt (1985), with
O2 by Lu et al. (2007), with CO2 by Lu et al. (2008) and with Ar(Ar + CO2 ) double shielding by Lu et al. (2010). The addition of H2
in He-Ar shielding can increase the weld depth, but this addition

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 24 23971429.

E-mail address: shplu@imr.ac.cn (S.P. Lu).
0924-0136/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2012.09.025

also results in variable penetration arising from cast-to-cast material differences; additionally, this process is sensitive to the parent
material composition (Lucas and Rodwell, 1987). The active gas SO2
is toxic, and the limitations of O2 or CO2 as active gas additives are
due to electrode oxidation, which shortens the application life of
the electrode.
Limmaneevichitr and Kou (2000a,b) investigated the NaNO3
simulated weld pool (also known as the Marangoni Convection) variation by defocused laser heating with and without the
C2 H5 COOH surface active agent and showed the visualization result
of the weld pool convection and heat transfer. The results showed
that the pool surface convection and heat transfer mode are related
to the pool surface tension variation, which is dependent on the
pool temperature. Heiple and Roper (1982) proposed that oxygen
acts as a liquid ferrous-based alloy surface-active element. When
the oxygen content in a weld pool is low, the temperature coefcient of the surface tension, /T, is negative. A temperature
gradient exists on the weld pool surface, with high temperatures at
the pool center and relatively low temperatures at the pool edges.
Because the temperature coefcient of the surface tension is negative, the higher the temperature, the lower the surface tension. In
this situation, the surface tension at the pool center is lower than
that at the pool edges, and an outward convection from the center
to the edge of the weld pool thus occurs. This convection leads to
a heat ux from the arc that is easily transferred to the edge of the
weld pool and results in a low weld depth and low weld D/W ratio,
as shown in Fig. 1(a). When the oxygen content of the weld pool
is high, the temperature coefcient of the surface tension, /T,
is positive, and the surface tension at the pool center is larger than
that at the pool edges and thus induces an inward convection from

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Table 1
Chemical composition of Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless steel (wt.%).

Fig. 1. Convection in the weld pool driven by surface tension.

the edge to the center of the weld pool, leading to a heat ux that
is easily transferred to the bottom of the weld pool. This weld pool
forms a high weld depth and high weld D/W ratio, as shown in
Fig. 1(b) (Lu et al., 2010).
A double-shielded TIG welding process was proposed with He as
the inner layer shielding gas and He + O2 as the outer layer shielding
gas, and the weld efciency from this process is increased compared with that of the common TIG welding process (Li et al., 2010).
Cheaper than oxygen, CO2 gas is widely used in industry and can
also decompose into oxygen in the welding process. In this paper,
CO2 was used instead of O2 , and He-(He + CO2 ) double-shielding
TIG welding of Cr13Ni5Mo material was investigated under different welding parameters, as shown in Fig. 2. The pure inert He
gas in the inner layer avoids direct contact of the electrode with
the CO2 active gas in the outer layer. The addition of CO2 to the
outer layer provides oxygen as a surface-active element, which dissolves in the weld pool and increases the weld depth and welding
efciency. The variation in the fusion zone prole under different
conditions and the mechanisms affecting the fusion zone prole
were studied. Additionally, the welded joint mechanical properties
were investigated.
2. Experimental procedures
Bead-on-plate welding was performed on Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless steel, the chemical composition of which is shown in
Table 1. A W-2%ThO2 tungsten electrode (2.4 mm in diameter, 60
vertex angle) and a direct current power source with the electrode
as the cathode were used in these experiments.

Cr

Ni

Mo

Si

Mn

Fe

0.011

12.52

4.45

0.64

0.25

0.70

0.031

0.0023

0.0042

Bal.

The welding plates were machined to a size of

100 mm 50 mm 12 mm. Four different TIG welding conditions were chosen to study the feasibility of this double-shielded
TIG welding process. The welding parameters consisted of a 160 A
welding current, a 2 mm/s welding speed, and a 3 mm electrode
gap. With the double-shielded TIG welding, additional experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of the welding
parameters on the fusion zone prole. In these experiments, the
inner layer gas ow rate was 10 L/min (the inner diameter of the
channel for inner shielding gas is 5.06.0 mm), the outer layer gas
ow rate was varied from 0 L/min to 20 L/min, the welding speed
was in the range of 1.55 mm/s, the welding current was in the
range of 120240 A, and the electrode gap was in the range of
17 mm.
According to the experimental results, the double-shielded TIG
welding process (with the set of parameters that ensures a deep
depth) was adopted to weld 9 mm thick plates in a single pass.
The welded joint was tempered at 590 C (with a heating rate of
2 C/min and a 4 h holding time followed by furnace cooling). The
tensile and impact properties of the welded joint were analyzed for
both the as-welded joints and the tempered joints.
After welding, both the electrode and the weld surface morphologies were imaged. Cross-sections of the welds were etched
with an HCl + CuSO4 solution prior to imaging. The weld D/W ratio
was calculated by measuring the weld depth and width. The oxygen
content in the weld was measured by an oxygen/nitrogen analyzer
(TC-436). The composition of the weld metal was also analyzed.
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to observe the
fracture of the Charpy V-notch impact specimens.
3. Results
3.1. Feasibility of the double-shielded TIG welding process
Four different TIG welding conditions were chosen to study the
feasibility of the double-shielded TIG welding process, as shown
in Table 2. The morphologies of the electrode and the weld surfaces are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively, for the traditional TIG
welding, mixed-gas TIG welding, double-shielded TIG welding (2%
CO2 ) and double-shielded TIG welding (20% CO2 ) processes. The
electrode and weld surface oxidation are associated with the arc
oxidizability (when the CO2 in the shielding gas is decomposed or
ionized into oxygen atoms or ions by the arc in the welding process,
the arc can oxidize the electrode and weld pool; in this situation,
the arc is said to have oxidizability). Even if the CO2 concentration is
quite low (2%) under mixed-gas TIG welding, the arc oxidizability
is strong, and the oxidation of the electrode and weld surface can be
Table 2
Four different welding processes.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the double-shielded TIG welding process.

Welding process

Shielding gas (vol.%) and gas ow

rate

Traditional TIG welding

Mixed-gas TIG welding

He, 10 L/min
He + 2% CO2 , 10 L/min

Double-shielded TIG welding, 2% CO2

Inner layer He, 10 L/min

Outer layer He + 2% CO2 , 10 L/min

Double-shielded TIG welding. 20% CO2

Inner layer He, 10 L/min

Outer layer He + 20% CO2 , 10 L/min

S.P. Lu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

231

Fig. 3. Weld surface morphology: (a) traditional TIG welding, (b) mixed-gas shielded TIG welding; (c) double-shielded TIG welding, 2% CO2 ; (d) double-shielded TIG welding,
20% CO2 .

Fig. 4. Electrode morphology: (a) traditional TIG welding; (b) mixed-gas shielded TIG welding; (c) double-shielded TIG welding, 2% CO2 ; (d) double-shielded TIG welding,
20% CO2 .

Fig. 5. Fusion zone prole: (a) traditional TIG welding; (b) mixed-gas-shielded TIG welding; (c) double-shielded TIG welding, 2% CO2 ; (d) double-shielded TIG welding, 20%
CO2 .

signicant. However, even with CO2 concentrations as high as 20%

in double-shielded TIG welding, the arc oxidizability is not strong,
and the oxidation of the electrode and weld surfaces are not signicant. Therefore, double-shielded TIG welding can successfully solve
the problem of electrode oxidation that occurs with mixed-gas TIG
welding.
The shape and dimension of the welds are shown
in Fig. 5 and Table 3, respectively, for the traditional
TIG welding, mixed-gas TIG welding, double-shielded
TIG
welding
(2%
CO2 )
and
double-shielded
TIG
welding (20% CO2 ) processes. Both the mixed-gas TIG welding and the double-shielded TIG welding can increase the weld
depth and reduce the weld width relative to that of traditional
TIG welding. However, when the CO2 concentration is 20% under
double-shielded TIG welding, the weld depth is the deepest, the
weld width is the narrowest, and the weld D/W ratio is 0.63.

Table 3
Weld dimensions with four different welding processes.
Welding process

Weld depth

Weld width

Weld D/W
ratio

Traditional TIG welding

Mixed-gas TIG welding
Double-shielded TIG welding, 2% CO2
Double-shielded TIG welding, 20% CO2

2.6 mm
4.00 mm
3.89 mm
5.89 mm

13.2 mm
9.50 mm
11.63 mm
9.37 mm

0.20
0.42
0.33
0.63

The addition to the shielding gas of CO2 as the active gas

has important effects on the arc. The arc voltages are 24.0 V,
29.2 V, 23.8 V and 24.1 V for the traditional TIG welding, mixed-gas
TIG welding, double-shielded TIG welding (2% CO2 ) and doubleshielded TIG welding (20% CO2 ) processes, respectively.
3.2. Effect of the welding parameters on the fusion zone prole
3.2.1. Effect of the gas ow rate on the fusion zone prole
The weld shapes with outer layer gas ow rates from 2 L/min
to 20 L/min are shown in Fig. 6. As the outer layer gas ow rate
increases, the fusion zone prole changes from shallow and wide
to deep and narrow. The weld oxygen content and weld D/W ratio
for the different outer layer gas ow rates are shown in Fig. 7. The
weld oxygen content and weld D/W ratio initially increase with
increasing outer layer gas ow rate. However, when the outer layer
gas ow rate is greater than 10 L/min, both the weld oxygen content and the weld D/W ratio tend to decrease. The magnitude of
the inner/outer layer gas ow rate ratios represents the effective
strength of the outer layer shielding gas. If the inner/outer layer
gas ow rate ratio is less than 1, the CO2 in the peripheral region of
the arc can be easily carried to the center region of the arc, resulting
in an increase in the weld oxygen content and weld D/W ratio. If
the inner/outer layer gas ow rate ratio is greater than 1, the CO2
in the peripheral region of the arc is not easily carried to the center region of the arc, resulting in a decrease in the weld oxygen

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S.P. Lu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

Fig. 6. Effect of the outer layer gas ow rate on the fusion zone prole: (a) 2 L/min, (b) 5 L/min, (c) 10 L/min, (d) 20 L/min.

Fig. 7. Effect of the outer layer gas ow rate on the weld D/W ratio and oxygen
content.

content and weld D/W ratio. When the oxygen content is greater
than 120 ppm, the weld D/W ratio is greater than 0.5.
3.2.2. Effect of welding speed on the fusion zone prole
The fusion zone proles at different welding speeds from 5 mm/s
to 1.5 mm/s are shown in Fig. 8. As the welding speed decreases,
both the weld depth and width increase, and the fusion zone prole changes from shallow and wide to deep and narrow. The weld
oxygen content and weld D/W ratio at different welding speeds
are shown in Fig. 9. The weld oxygen content and weld D/W ratio
increase with decreasing welding speed. When the welding speed is
less than 1.5 mm/s, the 10 mm thick plate can be welded in a single
pass. However, if the welding speed is too low, the arc has enough
time to dissolve oxygen in the weld pool, and an oxide tends to form
on the weld surface and reduces the surface tension convection to
a certain extent.
3.2.3. Effect of welding current on the fusion zone prole
The fusion zone proles at different welding currents from 120 A
to 240 A are shown in Fig. 10. As the welding current increases, the
weld depth rst increases and subsequently decreases, the weld
width consistently increases, and the fusion zone prole changes
from shallow and wide to deep and narrow, then changes to shallow and wide once again. The weld oxygen content and weld D/W
ratio at different welding currents are shown in Fig. 11. The weld
oxygen content and weld D/W ratio rst increase and subsequently
decrease with increasing welding current. When the welding current is greater than 200 A, the arc oxidizability is strong, and an
oxide is easily formed on the weld surface and weakens the surface tension convection. In addition, an increase in the welding

Fig. 9. Effect of the welding speed on the weld D/W ratio and the oxygen content.

current results in an increase in the plasma drag force. Tanaka et al.

(2004) have shown that the plasma force induces outward convection. Therefore, the weld D/W ratio is low for a 240 A welding
current.
3.2.4. Effect of the electrode gap on the fusion zone prole
The fusion zone proles for different electrode gaps from 1 mm
to 7 mm are shown in Fig. 12. As the electrode gap increases, the
weld depth rst increases and subsequently decreases, the weld
width rst decreases and subsequently increases, and the fusion
zone prole changes from shallow and wide to deep and narrow before returning to shallow and wide once again. Data for
the weld oxygen content and weld D/W ratio produced by different electrode gaps are shown in Fig. 13. The weld oxygen content
consistently increases, but the weld D/W ratio increases and subsequently decreases with decreasing electrode gap. As the electrode
gap is increased, the protection of the inner shielding gas provided
to the welding pool is weakened, and the carbon dioxide in the
outer layer shielding easily enters the arc, which enhances the arc
oxidizability. Hence, the weld metal oxygen content increases with
the increasing electrode gap, as shown in Fig. 13. In this situation,
the weld pool is easily oxidized and forms an oxide on the pool surface, which weakens the surface-tension-induced convection and
decreases the weld D/W ratio, as shown in Fig. 13.
3.3. Mechanical properties of the welded joint
A square butt weld joint without a gap (closed joint) was prepared with two Cr13Ni5Mo plates of size 100 mm 50 mm 9 mm.
Prior to welding, the two plates were spot-welded at the middle and on two edges of the weld seam. The double-shielded TIG

Fig. 8. Effect of the welding speed on the fusion zone prole: (a) 5 mm/s, (b) 3 mm/s, (c) 2 mm/s, (d) 1.5 mm/s.

S.P. Lu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

233

Fig. 10. Effect of the welding current on the fusion zone prole: (a) 120 A, (b) 160 A, (c) 200 A, (d) 240 A.

Fig. 11. Effect of the welding current on the weld D/W ratio and the oxygen content.
Fig. 13. Effect of the electrode gap on the weld D/W ratio and the oxygen content.

welding process was used to penetrate the welding plates in a single pass. The welding parameters were set to 10% CO2 , a 10 L/min
gas ow rate for both the outer and inner layer shielding gases, a
160 A welding current, a 1.5 mm/s welding speed, and a 3 mm electrode gap. The cross-sectional shape of the welded joint is shown
in Fig. 14, and the microstructure of the welded metal is shown
in Fig. 15. Because the cooling speed of the weld pool during the
welding process is fast compared with the cooling rate of the large
casting process, the ferrite transformation into austenite is not
complete, and the microstructure of the weld metal is thus composed of martensite and small amounts of retained ferrite.
MAG welding is often used for Cr13Ni5Mo heavy castings
in industry. In order to evaluate the welding joint property by
double-shielded TIG welding, MAG welding was also used to weld
Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless steel. A 5060 degree double-V
groove butt weld joint was prepared with two Cr13Ni5Mo plates of
size 300 mm 200 mm 50 mm. The wire electrode diameter was
1.2 mm, and the chemical composition of the welding wire used in
the MAG welding is shown in Table 4. The MAG welding parameters were set to a Ar + 5% CO2 shielding gas with a gas ow rate
of 1215 L/min, a welding current of 220280 A, an arc voltage of
2432 V, a welding speed of 3045 cm/min and a wire feed speed
of 57 m/min. A macrosection of the MAG weld joint is shown in
Fig. 16.
The tensile and impact properties of the welded joints in both
the as-welded state and in the 590 C tempered state for the doubleshielded TIG welding and MAG welding processes are shown in
Table 5. The tensile strengths of the weld joints decreased after
tempering at 590 C. A larger difference was not observed in the
tensile strengths of the two welding methods. The dilatometric

Fig. 14. Macrograph of the cross-section of a welded joint.

Fig. 15. Microstructure of the weld metal.

Fig. 12. Effect of the electrode gap on the fusion zone prole: (a) 1 mm, (b) 3 mm, (c) 5 mm, (d) 7 mm.

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S.P. Lu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

Table 4
Chemical composition of the welding wire (wt.%).
Element

Cr

Ni

Mo

Si

Mn

Fe

Requirement
Measurement

0.03
0.024

11.513.5
12.86

4.06.0
5.17

0.40.8
0.50

0.90
0.42

1.0
0.60

0.02
0.012

0.01
0.004

Bal.
Bal.

Table 5
Tensile and impact properties of the welded joint at 20 C.
Welding process

Tensile property,  b (MPa)

Condition

Impact property, Akv (J)

5 mm 10 mm 55 mm
Individual value

Even value

Double TIG

As-welded
Tempered at 590 C

910
872

42
46

43
52

43
52

43
50

MAG

As-welded
Tempered at 590 C

945
890

13
20

14
20

14
22

14
21

Table 6
Chemical composition of the weld metal (wt.%).
Welding process

Cr

Ni

Mo

Si

Mn

Fe

Double TIG
MAG

0.011
0.034

12.20
13.58

4.60
5.08

0.66
0.55

0.29
0.49

0.69
0.78

0.029
0.025

0.003
0.004

0.0148
0.053

Bal.
Bal.

Fig. 17. Dilatometric curve of the completely austenitized sample of Cr13Ni5Mo

martensitic stainless steel (heating rate 0.05 C/s, cooling rate 100 C/s).

Fig. 16. Macrosection of the MAG weld joint.

curve of a completely austenitized sample of Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless steel is shown in Fig. 17, where Ms is 578 C. Wang
et al. (2008) proposed that when the tempering temperature is in
the range of 578600 C, the formation of stable reversed austenite
will improve the impact properties. Therefore, tempering at 590 C
can increase the weld impact energy for both of these welding processes due to the formation of stable reversed austenite. However,
the impact energy of the double-shielded TIG weld is much larger

Fig. 18. Weld defects: (a) slag, (b) porosity.

S.P. Lu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

235

Fig. 19. Scanning electron micrographs of fractures: (a) As-welded, double-shielded TIG welding; (b) 590 C, double-shielded TIG welding; (c) as-welded, MAG welding; (d)
590 C, MAG welding.

than that of the MAG weld. The rst reason for the low impact
energy of the MAG weld is that a greater amount of slag and porosity
exists in the weld metal, as shown in Fig. 18. The second reason is
that the carbon content of the MAG weld is higher than that of the
double-shielded TIG weld. The chemical compositions of the weld
metal for the double-shielded TIG welding and MAG welding processes are shown in Table 6. The oxygen content of the MAG weld
is much higher than that of the double-shielded TIG weld. Because
the shielding gas of the MAG welding process consists of Ar + 5%
CO2 , the dissociation of CO2 is strong enough to produce not only a
large number of oxygen atoms but also a quantity of carbon atoms,
both of which dissolve in the weld pool and increase the carbon and
oxygen content of the weld metal. Scanning electron micrographs
of the weld impact fractures are shown in Fig. 19. It is clear that the
fractures from these two welding processes display typical dimples, at the bottom of which exist ne oxide inclusions (12 m).
An EDS analysis of the oxide inclusions is shown in Fig. 20. Oxide
inclusions are often the sources of cracks in the impact process.
Because the size of the oxide inclusions is nearly the same under
these two welding processes, greater oxygen content creates additional sources for cracking. Therefore, the growth and joining of
ne holes in the double-shielded TIG weld is more complete than

that of the MAG weld. Consequently, the dimples in the doubleshielded TIG weld are larger than those of the MAG weld. MAG
welding process is quite different from the TIG welding process. For
MAG welding process, there is consumable transfer in the welding
process and the weld pool convection is more complex. Since certain content CO2 is added to the argon shielding gas directly, the
weld pool is easily oxidized, and more oxide (slag) forms on the
weld pool. In this situation, the liquid pool contacts with the slag
directly, and pool/slag interface formed instead of pool/arc surface.
Therefore, the surface induced Marangoni convection will not exist
in MAG welding when the oxygen content in the welding pool is
high.

4. Discussion
4.1. Role of CO2 in the shielding gas
Under mixed-gas TIG welding, the dissociation of CO2 is strong
and arc constriction occurs, as rst proposed by Simonik et al.
(1973). In the cooler peripheral region of the arc, the dissociation of
CO2 exists in the form of molecules and dissociated atoms, which

Fig. 20. EDS analysis of inclusions: (a) double-shielded TIG welding, (b) MAG welding.

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S.P. Lu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

Fig. 21. Surface tension of Fe-O system as a function of: (a) oxygen content, (b) temperature.

are large enough for the electrons to become attached and form
negatively charged particles. Consequently, the number of electrons that are the main charge carriers in the peripheral region
of the arc is reduced. The dissociation and ionization of CO2 are
endothermic reactions. Accordingly, the arc constricts to a new
equilibrium state with a higher arc voltage and current density.
However, the arc is mainly controlled by the amount of He, the
inner layer shielding gas in double-shielded TIG welding. The active
CO2 gas in the outer layer serves only to increase the arc oxidizability to a certain extent but has little effect on the constriction of the
arc. Therefore, both the arc voltage and the current density do not
increase remarkably with double-shielded TIG welding.
The addition of the active CO2 gas to the shielding gas also has
important effects on the heat transfer of the weld pool. It is well
known that oxygen is a liquid ferrous-based alloy surface-active
element. The oxygen content in the weld pool has an important
effect on the fusion zone prole by changing the surface tension
convection mode. Sahoo et al. (1988) proposed the following equation for the surface tension, , of a FeO system as a function of
temperature, T, and oxygen content, ai :

 = o,m A(T Tm ) RTs ln 1 + K1 ai exp

 Q 
RT

(1)

where  o,m is the surface tension of the pure metal at its melting point (1.943 N m1 ), A is the negative of d/dT for the pure
metal (4.3 104 N m1 K), Tm is the melting point for the pure
metal (1811 K), R is the gas constant (8.314 J/mol K),  s is the surface excess at saturation (2.03 108 kg mol/m2 ), k1 is a constant
(1.38 102 ), ai is the activity in wt.% [O], and Q is the standard
heat of adsorption (1.463 105 kJ/kg mol). The predicted surface
tension of the FeO system as a function of the oxygen content is
shown in Fig. 21(a). The surface tension of the FeO system is sensitive to the oxygen content and decreases quickly with increasing
oxygen content, especially when the oxygen content is less than
1000 ppm. Fig. 21(b) shows the predicted surface tension of the
FeO system as a function of temperature. When the oxygen content is less than 20 ppm, the surface tension of the FeO system
decreases with increasing temperature. When the oxygen content
is greater than 40 ppm, the surface tension of the FeO system rst
increases and subsequently decreases with increasing temperature.
In other words, when the oxygen content is greater than 40 ppm,
the temperature coefcient of the surface tension, /T, changes
from positive to negative at a particular temperature. At higher
temperatures, the temperature coefcient of the surface tension,
/T, is negative, and outward surface tension convection occurs.
In the relatively low temperature area, inward surface tension convection occurs. A temperature gradient exists on the pool surface,
with high temperatures at the pool center and relatively lower temperature at the pool edges. Consequently, inward surface tension
convection easily occurs in the peripheral region of the weld pool,

while outward surface convection occurs easily in the center region

of the weld pool. When the area of the inward surface tension convection in the peripheral region of the weld pool is much larger than
that of the outward surface tension convection in the center region
of the weld pool, the surface tension induces an inward convection
in the weld pool, and a heat ux is easily transferred to the bottom
of the weld pool, forming a high weld depth and weld D/W ratio,
as shown in Fig. 1(b).
The weld oxygen contents are 56 ppm, 400 ppm, 76 ppm and
168 ppm for the traditional TIG welding, mixed-gas TIG welding,
double-shielded TIG welding (2% CO2 ) and double-shielded TIG
welding (20% CO2 ) processes, respectively. Because the oxygen
content of the traditional TIG welding is low, the surface tension
induces an outward convection, forming a shallow and wide weld.
With mixed-gas TIG welding, because the oxygen content is notably
high, large amounts of oxide are easily formed on the weld surface, which reduces the effect of the surface tension convection
to a large extent. However, because arc constriction occurs with
mixed-gas TIG welding, the weld depth and weld D/W ratio of this
process are both larger than those of the traditional TIG welding.
When the weld oxygen content increases from 76 ppm to 168 ppm
with double-shielded TIG welding, the surface tension convection
changes from outward to inward, and the welds become characterized by a deep and narrow fusion zone prole, as shown in Fig. 5d.

4.2. Critical oxygen content affecting the weld pool convection

According to the results presented above regarding the effect
of the welding parameters on the fusion zone prole, the oxygen
content in the weld pool can be effectively adjusted using doubleshielded TIG welding by changing the welding parameters, and the
fusion zone prole can be controlled by changing the surface tension convection direction from outward to inward. From Fig. 21(b),
it can been observed that when the oxygen content in the weld
pool is greater than 20 ppm, the inward surface tension convection
in the peripheral region of the weld pool coexists with the outward surface tension convection in the center region of the weld
pool. As the oxygen content in the weld pool increases, the critical temperature point where the temperature coefcient of surface
tension changes from position to negative is increased, and the temperature range, where inward surface tension convection occurs,
expanded. Therefore, the inward surface tension convection in the
peripheral region of the weld pool is expanded, and the outward
surface tension convection in the center region of the weld pool is
narrowed. The statistical relationship between the weld D/W ratio
and the oxygen content, as determined by the results from Fig. 7,
Fig. 9, Fig. 11 and Fig. 13, is shown in Fig. 22 for double-shielded
TIG welding. This diagram can be divided into four regions.

S.P. Lu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 213 (2013) 229237

237

With the double-shielded TIG welding process, adjustment of

the welding parameters can effectively control the weld oxygen
content and provide further control of the surface tension convection and fusion zone prole. With suitable welding parameters,
consisting of a 1.52.0 mm/s welding speed, a 120200 A welding
current and a 3 mm electrode gap, a weld depth of 612 mm and a
weld D/W ratio of 0.61.0 can be achieved using He-(He + 10%CO2 )
double shielding in a single pass with a 10 L/min ow rate for both
the outer and inner layer shielding gas. The double-shielded TIG
welding process displays an efciency 24 times greater than that
of traditional TIG welding.
The weld joint strength of the Cr13Ni5Mo stainless steel from
He-(He + 10%CO2 ) double shielding is similar to the strength of a
MAG-welded joint under Ar + 5%CO2 shielding, and the weld impact
property is superior to that of MAG welding as well.
Fig. 22. Statistical relationship between the weld D/W and the oxygen content.

Acknowledgments
Region A: The oxygen content is less than 80 ppm and the weld
D/W ratio is approximately 0.2. In this case, the surface tension
convection is dominated by outward convection, and the fusion
zone prole is shallow and wide.
Region B: The oxygen content is in the range of 80120 ppm,
and the weld D/W ratio is in the range of 0.20.5. In this case,
the inward surface tension convection competes with the outward surface tension convection. When the strength of the inward
surface tension convection is much larger than that of the outward surface tension convection, the fusion zone prole changes
from shallow and wide to deep and narrow. Therefore, the critical
oxygen content of the surface tension convection changes from
outward to inward in the range of 80120 ppm.
Region C: The oxygen content is in the range of 120300 ppm, and
the weld D/W ratio is greater than 0.5. In this case, the surface
tension convection is dominated by the inward convection, and
the fusion zone prole is shallow and wide.
Region D: On the left side of this region, the oxygen content is high
enough to induce inward surface tension convection, based theoretically on Fig. 21(b). However, because the amount of oxygen is
high, SiO2 and Cr2 O3 oxides (slag) can be formed on the peripheral areas of the pool surface for stainless steel (Lu et al., 2004),
and the weld pool/arc surface changes to a pool/slag interface on
the periphery area of the pool. The surface-induced inward convection on the pool periphery is largely reduced or disappears, and
this results in a lower weld D/W ratio.
Liquid pool movement and its fusion zone prole variation are
complex phenomena inuenced by different physical forces in the
welding process. The explanation and discussion in this investigation are only based on the experimental results qualitatively, and
further more detailed quantitative investigation on the subject both
by simulation and experiment are necessary to clarify and understand the complex process of the liquid weld pool movement in the
welding process in the future.
5. Conclusions
The He-(He + 10%CO2 ) double-shielded TIG welding process can
successfully address both the problem of electrode oxidation with
He(Ar) + O2 (CO2 ) mixed-gas TIG welding and the issue of low weld
depth and welding productivity observed with the use of traditional TIG welding for stainless steel. The change in the surface
tension convection mode is the main mechanism that affects the
fusion zone prole. The critical oxygen content at which the surface tension convection changes from outward to inward lies in
the range of 80120 ppm for Cr13Ni5Mo martensitic stainless
steel.

The authors are grateful for nancial support from the National
Science Foundation of China under grant No. 50874101 and No.
51104142.
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