Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Influence of groove angle on hardness and reinforcement height of

shielded metal arc welded joints for low carbon AISI 1016 steel plates
Deepak Pathak a,⇑, Rudra Pratap Singh b, Sanjeev Gaur a, Vincent Balu a
a
School of Engineering & Information Technology, Sanskriti University, Mathura 281401, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura 281406, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The main purpose of this research work is to investigate the influence of groove angle on reinforcement
Received 23 February 2020 height and hardness of the weldment obtained by joining low carbon steel plates using a shielded metal
Received in revised form 21 May 2020 arc welding process. Eight pairs of samples having groove angles of 40°, 45°, 50°, 55°, 60°, 65°, 70° and 75°
Accepted 23 May 2020
were prepared by using shaper machine. The welding was carried out for various groove angles maintain-
Available online xxxx
ing all other input process parameters such as welding current, welding voltage, welding speed, etc. as
constant. All the welded joints were subjected to hardness test and results were recorded. A digital slide
Keywords:
caliper was utilized to measure the reinforcement height of all the welded samples. It was observed that
Shielded Metal Arc Welding
Groove Angle
the hardness generally increases but reinforcement height generally decreases with an increase in the
Reinforcement Height groove angle in the present work.
Hardness Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Low Carbon Steel Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Con-
ference on Future Learning Aspects of Mechanical Engineering.

1. Introduction welded joint prepared have an appropriate load bearing capacity

In welding process, similar or dissimilar metals are joined with
or without the utilization of heat or pressure. In this process, differ-
ent parts are assembled to achieve complex structures [1].
Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) is a fusion welding method
in which metals are joined together with the aid of heat developed
by an electric arc generated between the base metal and the cov-
ered electrode [2].Covering of electrode is done with the suitable
flux to enable shielding to the melted weld puddle against atmo-
spheric contamination [3]. SMAW captures a significant place in
the category of fusion welding operations because it is relatively
more flexible and cost-effective method. SMAW finds a wide vari-
ety of applications in the manufacture of steel-framed buildings,
ship building, automobile parts, power plants and other industries
[4]. Measurement of power in a welding circuit is mainly done in
terms of welding current [5]. Welding voltage is controlled by
arc length developed between the coated electrode and the parent
material and is also affected by the electrode diameter [6]. In case
of butt-welded joints, desired weld groove is obtained by machin-
ing process [5]. The design of the weld groove must ensure that the
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: d.pathak1610@gmail.com (D. Pathak).
along with the nominal volume [5]. A Butt joint is commonly uti-
lized in welding of plates, metallic sheets, and pipe welding due
to its reliability and ability to withstand high strength as compared
to any other kind of weld joints [6]. With the optimum selection of
groove angles, welding operation becomes simple and high depth
of penetration in the workpiece, with the proper utilization of
the filler material along with controlled cooling of welded material,
is achieved [7–9]. Li et al. explained the influence of butt-welded
joints with V groove geometrical design at different angles on
the mechanical characteristics of Al plates. They concluded that
groove angle has a strong effect on the welded joint strength and
the highest tensile strength could be obtained with the groove
angle of 0° [10]. Kölük et al. and Kursun concluded that high tensile
strength is obtained for austenitic stainless-steel welded joints
using shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding (GMAW),
and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) methods using single and
double V-type groove angles [11,12]. R. M. Pezeshkian and P.
Shayanfar concluded that the yield strength is maximum (more
than the base material) at a groove angle of 60° in the welded spec-
imen by using SMAW process for P460N steel [13]. S. Safaiepour
explained that maximum impact energy (more than the base
metal) is recorded at groove angles of 70° and 75°. The main reason
for achieving maximum impact energy is the growth of intermetal-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.597
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Conference on Future Learning Aspects of Mechanical Engineering.

Please cite this article as: D. Pathak, R. P. Singh, S. Gaur et al., Influence of groove angle on hardness and reinforcement height of shielded metal arc welded
joints for low carbon AISI 1016 steel plates, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.597
2 D. Pathak et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
lic compounds that are produced due to the creation of a high
amount of entered heat developed by the welding conditions in
these regions. He also concluded that maximum yield strength
(more than base metal) is obtained for groove angle of 60° and ten-
sile strength in all the cases (for different groove angles) for all the
welded metals was found more than that of the parent material
[14]. B. Cevich explained that the quality of the welded joints
depends on many factors such as welding current, voltage, welding
speed, shielding gas type, and the welding position. In his research
work he represented the influence of groove configuration on the
mechanical and metallurgical behavior of S275 structural steel
welded by utilizing the SMAW method. He observed that the hard-
ness of the weld metal was higher than that of the HAZ and the
parent metal in all the joints. He found that the bending strength
of the welded samples was lower than that of the parent metal.
The lowest bending strength was achieved in the weldment with
a V-type welding configuration. In bending test results, it was
found that fractures occurred in all the weld samples. In all of them
the fracture occurred mainly near to the parent metal-weld metal
transition zone [15]. Weld reinforcement height is defined as the
distance between the surface of the welded plate and the top sur-
face of the deposited material [19]. When the maximum depth of
penetration, bare minimum weld bead width, optimum reinforce-
ment height and dilution are achieved, the weldment produced
will be strong and inexpensive [19]. A proper selection of input
process parameters and control on the weld bead shape is neces-
sary due to the fact that that the strength of the weldment is
affected not only by the chemical composition of the base and filler
materials but also by the weld bead shape [20]. An appropriate
relationship must be established between the input process
parameters and weld bead geometry [3]. Greater reinforcement
height is obtained in case of direct current electrode negative
(DCEN) polarity as compared to the direct current electrode posi-
tive (DCEP) polarity [21–24]. H. Baach. et al. explained that the
shape of the weld bead indicates the bead geometry influencing
the load-carrying capacity of the welded joints [25,26]. The weld
bead geometry mainly comprises of weld bead width, reinforce-
ment height, depth of penetration. V. Gunaraj and N. Murugan
described that reinforcement height is increased when the welding
wire feed rate in spite of the welding current and the type of polar-
ity utilized [27].In this research work, various groove angles were
used to produce shielded metal arc welded joints for low carbon
AISI 1016 steel plates and their influence on hardness and rein-
forcement height were investigated.
2. Materials and methods
In this experimental work, low carbon AISI steel 1016 plates of
dimensions (200 mm X 50 mm X 10 mm) are utilized as the base
material for welding. It is readily accessible and frequently used
material for welding and fabrication in the industry [16]. This
metal is utilized commonly in sheet and strips for deep drawing,
carburized and structural applications, fasteners, bolts and auto-
mobile parts due to its good strength and high weldability. The
electrode E-6013 of diameter 3.15 mm was used as filler material
in this research work. A high rate of deposition and a good amount
of penetration is achieved with this electrode [16]. The chemical
compositions of base metal and electrode are given in tables 1
and 2. Proper selection and preparation of groove angles play a sig-
Table 1
Chemical composition of AISI 1016.
Carbon Manganese Chromium Nickle
0.155 0.610 0.030 0.020
Please cite this article as: D. Pathak, R. P. Singh, S. Gaur et al., Influence of groove angle on hardness and reinforcement height of shielded metal arc welded
joints for low carbon AISI 1016 steel plates, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.597
nificant role in the fabrication of a sound welded joint. A correct
joint design must be chosen in such a manner that it will provide
minimum distortion and residual stresses in the weldment and
also it should be cost-effective [17]. Based on thickness and width
of the AISI 1016 metal plates, groove angles of 40°, 45°, 50°, 55°,
60°, 65°, 70°, 75° were chosen. In this method, the low carbon steel
plates were fixed in the bench vice and then a hand grinding
machine was used to bevel the plates to obtain the required groove
angles for the welded joint [17]. The shaper was used for producing
a weld groove. In this method, the ends of the low carbon steel
plates were beveled to obtain the desired groove angles for the
weld joint [5]. The plates were carefully cleaned chemically as well
as mechanically to eliminate any kind of contaminated elements
resulting from oil, grease, corrosive products etc. to achieve a good
quality weldment [18]. Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) was
used to produce the single V-Butt welded joint with different
groove angles. An alternating current (AC) source was used to per-
form welding operations in this research work [28]. During the
welding operation, welding current, welding voltage and welding
speed were set at 105 A, 22 V and 40 mm/min respectively. The
hardness test was performed on eight welded samples by using
Brinell hardness testing machine. The hardness value of the base
material was found to be 112.3 HB. The welded plates were again
rubbed with emery paper to remove unwanted materials on the
weld surface. The welded pieces were cut in the middle to have
two slices of plates having a 10 mm width. One slice was used
for hardness test and the other was used for the measurement of
reinforcement height. It is considered that the welding at the start
and the end is not proper, so in this work the slices are taken from
the middle. The slices were worked with an emery belt grinder
smoothly and then were etched properly with a mixture of 98%
ethyl alcohol and 2% nitric acid so that the welds are seen clearly.
A digital slide caliper was used to measure the reinforcement
height. The determination of hardness of weldment was done with
brinell hardness testing machine and the corresponding values
were recorded in table 3.
3. Results and discussion
Table 3 shows the test results obtained for reinforcement height
and hardness
3.1. Reinforcement height
The measurement of weld reinforcement height is essential
because it affects not only microstructural properties but also the
mechanical behaviour of the welded joint. When the groove angle
was increased from 40° to 75°, the weld reinforcement height
decreased from 3.182 mm to 2.627 mm.
3.1.1. Effect of groove angle on reinforcement height
Fig. 1 may be used to describe the variation of the weld rein-
forcement height with a groove angle. The graph between weld
reinforcement height with groove angle was drawn at constant
values of the current of 105 A, the voltage of 22 V and welding
speed of 40 mm/min, and only the groove angle was varied from
40° to 75°. The reinforcement height decreases from 3.182 mm to
3.103 mm and 3.103 mm to 3.014 mm when the groove angle is
increased from 40° to 45° and 45° to 50° respectively. With further
Molybdenum Silicon Sulfur Phosphorus Copper
0.004 0.110 0.022 0.030 0.001
 D. Pathak et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Table 2
Chemical composition of E-6013.

Carbon Manganese Phosphorus Silicon Sulfur

0.10 0.60 0.030 0.28 0.03

Table 3 ing in the development of fine grains as the time of grain growth
Test results for reinforcement height and hardness. reduces. The hardness of the base material is 110.3 HB. Hence it
Sample Groove Angle Reinforcement Height Brinell Hardness is clear that the hardness of the welded joint is more than that of
No. (°) (mm) (HB) the parent metal utilized. The suggested hardness value must be
1 40 3.182 112.4 less than the 109 HB to avoid cracking in the heat-affected zone
2 45 3.103 114.7 in the welding of low carbon steels [29–32].
3 50 3.014 115.9
4 55 2.914 116.2
5 60 2.791 117.7 3.2.1. Effect of groove angle on hardness
6 65 2.722 118.9 Fig. 1 also explains the variation of the hardness with the
7 70 2.699 120.3
groove angle. The graph between the groove angle and the hard-
8 75 2.627 122.1
ness for the considered groove angle range from 40° to 75°, indi-
cates the almost straight-line relationship between the two. In
this case also, the current was kept constant at 105 A, welding
speed was kept constant at 40 mm/min and the welding voltage
was kept constant at 22 V and only the groove angle was varied.
There occurs an increase in hardness from 112.4 HB to 114.7 HB,
114.7 HB to 115.9 HB and 115.9 HB to 116.2 HB with the increase
in groove angle from 40° to 45°,45° to 50° and 50° to 55° respec-
tively. The hardness of the weldment further increases from
116.2 HB to 117.7 HB and 117.7 HB to 118.9 HB with further
increase in groove angle from 55° to 60° and 60° to 65° respec-
tively. When the groove angle is increased from 65° to 70° and
70° to 75°, the hardness is increased from 118.9 HB to 120.3 HB
and 120.3 HB to 122.1 HB respectively.

4. Conclusions

Weld bead width, depth of penetration and reinforcement

Fig. 1. Groove angle vs Reinforcement height vs Hardness.
increase in groove angle from 50° to 55° and 55° to 60°, reinforce-
ment height further decreases from 3.014 mm to 2.914 mm and
2.914 mm to 2.791 mm respectively. There occurs a further
decrease in reinforcement height from 2.791 mm to 2.722 mm,
2.722 mm to 2.699 mm and 2.699 mm to 2.627 mm with further
increase in groove angle from 60° to 65°, 65° to 70° and 70° to
75° respectively. From the graph it can be observed that the change
in weld reinforcement height is almost negligible with the change
in groove angle. The value of weld reinforcement height varied
only by 0.555 mm if the groove angle was changed by 35°. Rein-
forcement height decreases when the groove angle increases, due
to the fact that the product of reinforcement height, depth of pen-
etration and weld bead width is almost constant and due to
increase in groove angle weld bead width increases and depth of
penetration may also increase.
3.2. Hardness
When the groove angle was increased from 40° to 75°, the hard-
ness increased from 112.4 HB to 122.1 HB. When the weld groove
angle increases, more volume of the filler material is required to fill
the groove [5]. From the hardness test results, it is observed that
the hardness of the weldment increases with the increase in the
groove angle. The desirable value of hardness was found at the
groove angle of 60°, which is equal to 117.7 HB [17]. The main rea-
son of increment in hardness is that when the surface area of the
molten weld pool is increased, the rate of cooling increases result-
height are factors used to specify the weld bead geometry which
affects the strength of the welded joint. The weld reinforcement
height of a weldment identifies both mechanical and structural
properties of the welded joint. The weldment is found to be robust
and affordable if it has an optimum value of reinforcement height.
Hardness indicates the overall strength as well as microstructural
properties of the weldment establishing a successful welded joint.
Hardness is directly proportional to the tensile strength of the steel
welded joint. The groove angle is considered to be the most impor-
tant part of the weldment. Therefore, the relationship between
groove angle, reinforcement height and hardness of the weldment
are expressed. As reported by the results achieved from the evalu-
ation of low carbon steel welded joints using SMAW, the following
points are concluded:
1. Experimental investigation reveals that the groove angle has a
considerable influence on the mechanical and structural prop-
erties of the welded joints.
2. With increasing in groove angle from 40° to 75°, there occurred
a decrease in reinforcement height.
3. Hardness was increased when the groove angle increased from
40° to 75°.
4. The optimum value of the groove angle is 60° to achieve the
desired hardness values to achieve a sound welded joint can
be prepared.
5. Groove angle has more influence on hardness as compared to
reinforcement height.
It is clearly understood that an optimum value of the groove
angle provides the required values of hardness and hence the over-
all strength as well as the tensile strength of the welded joint.

Please cite this article as: D. Pathak, R. P. Singh, S. Gaur et al., Influence of groove angle on hardness and reinforcement height of shielded metal arc welded
joints for low carbon AISI 1016 steel plates, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.597
4 D. Pathak et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
5. Suggestions for future research
There is always a possibility of improvement in each research
work because no research work is ideal and flawless in all respects.
All the components of the research work cannot be expected to
deal with because of the limitations in the availability of time
and resources. Therefore, the present study provides an opportu-
nity for future research which are briefly addressed below:
1. A similar study can be conducted on a large number of samples
for the proper implementation of prediction techniques such as
Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and optimization techniques
such as Response Surface Methodology (RSM) etc. to have in-
depth analysis between the interrelationship of weld process
parameters and responses.
2. The present piece of research was confined to only three corre-
lates i.e., Groove angle, reinforcement height and hardness of
the weldment. It is recommended to find other determinants
like variations of welding current, welding voltage, welding
speed, types of electrodes, electrode diameters, electrode
advance angle, tensile strength, yield strength, impact strength,
depth of penetration etc.
3. In the present study, the material of samples was limited to low
carbon AISI 1016 steel only. It can be extended to other grades
of low carbon steels for making a comparative analysis to pre-
dict their suitability in various industrial applications.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Deepak Pathak: Conceptualization, Data curation, Validation,
Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing - review &
editing. Rudra Pratap Singh: Supervision. Sanjeev Gaur: . Vincent
Balu: .
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