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Original Article

Influence of welding procedure and PWHT on

HSLA steel weld metals

Jorge Carlos Ferreira Jorge a,∗ , Joel Lemos Dias Monteiro a ,

Antonio José de Carvalho Gomes a , Ivani de Souza Bott b , Luís Felipe Guimarães de
Souza a , Matheus Campolina Mendes a , Leonardo Sales Araújo c
a Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca – CEFET/RJ, Av. Maracanã,
229, Bl E, 506, Maracanã, CEP 20271-110, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
b Departamento de Engenharia Química e de Materiais – DEQM, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro – PUC-Rio, Rua

Marques de S. Vicente, 225, Gávea, CEP 222541-900, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
c Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ, Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de Engenharia – COPPE, Rio

de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

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

Article history: The development of consumables for welding of high strength steels represents a continu-
Received 8 January 2018 ous challenge taking into account the great variety of alloy systems. In this regard, there are
Accepted 10 May 2018 many applications, such as offshore structures, where the welding is still preferably done by
Available online xxx the SMAW process. In order to evaluate the properties of weld metals obtained by other pro-
cesses with higher productivity, the present work presents a comparative analysis between
Keywords: the mechanical properties of high strength steel weld metals obtained by shielded metal
Weld metal arc (SMAW) and gas metal arc (GMAW) welding processes. Multipass welding by SMAW and
Mechanical properties GMAW processes was performed with preheating of 200 ◦ C, in 750 × 150 × 19 mm plates.
Microstructure After welding, a post weld heat treatment (PWHT) at 600 ◦ C for 1 h was performed and
Post-weld heat treatment this condition was compared to the as welded one. Mechanical tests and metallographic
examination by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and elec-
tron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) were performed for mechanical and microstructural
characterization. Thermodynamic calculations were also performed by using Thermo-Calc
software, in order to evaluate the occurrence of carbides as a consequence of the PWHT.
Although presenting impact toughness behavior slightly different due to the chemical
composition and carbide precipitates, as predicted by computational simulation, both pro-
cesses showed a good relationship between mechanical strength and impact toughness for
all analyzed conditions, even after PWHT.
Based on this scenario, it can be inferred that GMAW process can be applied as an interest-
ing alternative for welding of high strength steels, once this process promotes a significant
improvement in productivity with good quality.
© 2018 Brazilian Metallurgical, Materials and Mining Association. Published by Elsevier
Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail: jorgecfjorge@gmail.com (J.C. Jorge).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2018.05.007
2238-7854/© 2018 Brazilian Metallurgical, Materials and Mining Association. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article in press as: Jorge JC, et al. Influence of welding procedure and PWHT on HSLA steel weld metals. J Mater Res Technol.
2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2018.05.007
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1. Introduction
With an industrial trend towards application of modern higher
strength steels for different structures [1–4], it is necessary to
develop new steel grades [5] with high strength combined with
a low ductile-brittle transition temperature, which is associ-
ated with the appropriate microstructural design, once impact
toughness in steels is driven by different microstructural con-
stituents.
These steels with high strength and high toughness have
been widely applied in pipelines, ship building and various
manufacturing industries [2]. In the same way, Zhang et al.
[6] state that these changes in the steelmaking technology
and steel rolling process are a challenge for the production of
welding consumables and joining technology. It is important
to mention that, in contrast to production of wrought steel,
the strength and toughness of weld metals must generally be
achieved by means of alloying [7]. As a consequence, due to
the complexity of welding processes and limitations of heat
inputs and, consequently, cooling rates, the toughness of the
weld metal at low temperature is lower than the base metal
one [2].
Considering that the microstructure of weld metals with
yield strength of 600 MPa or higher consists basically of bainite
and martensite, instead of a microstructure with the predom-
inance of acicular ferrite, the basic composition design of the
weld metal should be different for each case [8]. In fact, for
those applications, where the strength of weld metal consist-
ing of acicular ferrite is not sufficient, the addition of specific
solid solution strengtheners and other alloying elements is
necessary in order to retard the austenite/ferrite transforma-
tion so as to produce martensitic welds with the required high
strength [9].
For applications with stringent requirements of very high
strength, in particular, such as naval vessels and offshore
structures [10,11], there is an additional challenge, once qual-
ification standards are limited to 120ksi (830 MPa) and do not
take into consideration the influence of post welding heat
treatment (PWHT) [12,13], which can be crucial in order to
restore the properties of the base metals and relieve the resid-
ual stresses [14,15]. Consequently, works involving the effect of
the PWHT on the mechanical properties of high strength steel
weld metals are limited, once this condition is not required
for qualification of welding consumables, except for specific
cases [10].
Although PWHT usually presents a tendency to pro-
mote a reduction of mechanical properties [16–18], mainly
the ultimate tensile strength, which is the critical property
[19], it may cause unpredictable changes in the microstruc-
ture of hardened or high strength steel weldment, which is
extremely complicated and normally very sensitive to heat
[20]. However, even with all limitations, some previous works
evaluating the behavior of high strength steel weld met-
als obtained by shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process
[17,21–23] revealed that a good relationship between mechan-
ical strength and impact toughness can be obtained.
Based on this scenario, this work studies the influence
of welding thermal cycle and PWHT on the mechanical
and microstructural properties of high strength steel weld
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2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2018.05.007
22°
13 mm
19 mm
50.8 mm 9.5 mm
Fig. 1 – Weld joint geometry (mm).
metals obtained by gas metal arc welding process (GMAW), in
comparison with a weld metal produced by SMAW process,
in order to evaluate if the use of GMAW process can promote
an improvement in productivity of high strength steel welds
while maintaining good quality even with a lower level of
reheating [24–27].
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Materials
Plates with dimensions of 19 × 300 × 700 mm of an ASTM A 36
steel were used as base material.
Covered electrodes with 4.0 mm diameter according to
the AWS 5.5.class E12018-M [12] and wire rods with diam-
eter of 1.2 mm, according to the AWS 5.28 class ER 120S-G
specification [13] for GMAW process, were used as welding
consumables for SMAW and GMAW processes, respectively.
Table 1 shows the chemical composition of the welding con-
sumables as informed by the manufacturers.
2.2. Welding
As the objective of the work is to study the weld metal, a joint
geometry illustrated in Fig. 1, with the root opening of 13 mm
was adopted, in order to minimize the influence of the dilution
with base material.
Weld metals were obtained in the flat position, 200 ◦ C pre-
heat, direct current, electrode positive by SMAW and GMAW
processes using covered electrodes with 4.0 mm diameter
according to the AWS 5.5. class E12018-M [12] and wire rods
according to the AWS 5.28 class ER 120S-G specification [13],
respectively. For GMAW process, a mix of 20%CO2 –80%Ar was
used as shielding gas.
The welding parameters are shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2
shows the deposition sequence. Cooling times were calculated
for the position where test pieces for mechanical properties
were removed according to EN 1011-2 Annex D [28].
In order to evaluate the possible effect of cooling rates on
the mechanical properties of GMAW welds obtained in the
present work, an additional analysis with different preheats
was performed. Table 3 shows the welding parameters for the
experiment.
After welding, magnetic particle and ultra sound inspec-
tions were performed and no welding defects were observed
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Table 1 – Chemical composition of the welding consumables.

Weld metal C Si P S Mn Mo Ni Cr Cu

SMAW 0.06 0.38 0.010 0.005 1.40 0.60 2.17 0.85 0.03
GMAW 0.10 0.70 0.010 0.010 1.70 0.50 1.90 0.30 0.07

Table 2 – Welding parameters and calculated cooling times.

Process Current (A) Voltage (V) Welding energy (kJ/mm) Number of passes t8/5 (s) Deposition rate (kg/h)

SMAW 192 28 1.49 31 12.2 1.99

GMAW 200 24 1.33 17 10.2 3.22

26 28 30 31 29 27 14 15 16 17
20 22 25 24 23 21
12 13
19 mm

19 mm
15 17 19 18 16
11 13 14 12 10 11
9 8 10 8 9
6 5 7 6 7
3 4 4 5
2 1 2 3
1

50.8 mm 9.5 mm 50.8 mm 9.5 mm

SMAW GMAW

Fig. 2 – Deposition sequence.

2.3. Post-welding heat treatment (PWHT) 2.5. Thermodynamic calculations

The weld metals were tested in both conditions: as-welded
and after PWHT performed at 600 ◦ C for 1 h followed by air
cooling.
2.4. Metallographic examination
Metallographic analysis of the weld metals was carried out
by optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) in secondary electron mode and electron backscattered
diffraction (EBSD), in samples removed from regions related
to the positioning of the Charpy-V notch.
Quantitative analysis of the columnar and reheated regions
at the position relative to the Charpy-V notch was performed
on the OM screen, in order to evaluate the influence of differ-
ent number of passes on reheating of the weld metals.
Additionally, quantitative analysis of microstructural con-
stituents was performed by point to point counting technique
using a 10 × 10 grid on the SEM screen. At least 1000 points
were counted for each weld metal.
The samples were prepared with emery paper up to 1200
mesh and diamond paste with 6, 3 and 1 ␮m for final polishing,
followed by nital 2% etching. The EBSD maps were collected
with SEM operating at 20 kV and with a step size of 1–4 ␮m on
samples polished with colloidal silica.
In order to evaluate the evolution of the phases resulting from
the welding procedure, thermodynamic calculations were per-
formed using Thermo-Calc software with TCFE8 database [29].
Due to the influence of the multiple passes on the evolu-
tion of the microstructure of the weld, for SMAW and GMAW
processes, isopleth diagrams were elaborated to present the
effect of chromium segregation on phases formation. Addi-
tionally, diagrams presenting the evolution of phases with
temperature, a step diagram with mass fraction of all phases
versus temperature and an isopleth diagram with tempera-
ture versus mass fraction of Cr were constructed for each
process.
2.6. Mechanical tests
Specimens were removed at 2 mm down the surface for ten-
sion, impact Charpy-V and microhardness tests.
Tension tests at room temperature, were performed on test
specimens removed longitudinally to the weld metals (all weld
metals) according to ASTM A 370 [30] and ASTM E8 [31]; with
gauge length and diameter of 50 and 8.75 mm, respectively.
Charpy-V impact tests at −60, −40, −20, 0 and 20 ◦ C
temperatures were also performed on standard test pieces
(10 × 10 × 55 mm) removed transversally to the weld bead,
according to ASTM A 370 [30] and ASTM E23 [32]. The notch was

Table 3 – Welding parameters and calculated cooling times for GMAW process with different preheats.
Preheat (◦ C) Current (A) Voltage (V) Welding energy (kJ/mm) Number of passes t8/5 (s)

150 220–236 29–30 0.94 19 4.1

250 180–188 21–22 1.53 14 17.6

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Table 4 – Chemical composition of the deposited weld metals (wt,%).

Weld metal C Si P S Mn Mo Ni Cr Cu V Ceq Pcm

SMAW 0.06 0.46 0.022 0.005 1.37 0.60 2.17 0.84 0.033 0.012 0.73 0.26
GMAW 0.09 0.54 0.013 0.010 1.58 0.43 1.72 0.28 0.03 0.005 0.61 0.26

Ceq = C + Mn/6 + (Cr + Mo + V)/5 + (Ni + Cu)/15 (wt%); and Pcm = C + Si/30 + Mn/20 + Cu/20 + Ni/60 + Cr/20 + Mo/15 +V/10 + 5B (wt%).

Table 5 – Results of tensile tests.

Weld metal Condition YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) El (%) RA (%)
19 mm

2 mm
SMAW As-welded 839 909 17 59
PWHT 786 892 17 56
GMAW As-welded 774 875 18 64
9.5 mm PWHT 774 841 16 52
50.8 mm

YS, yield strength; UTS, ultimate tensile strength; El, elongation; RA,
Fig. 3 – Position of Charpy-V impact test specimen. reduction of area.

Fig. 5 shows the refined microstructure of the weld

located in the thickness section at a position corresponding to
the weld metal center line (Fig. 3).
Vickers microhardness tests were also performed, with a
load of 500gf, at points located within the weld metal in region
related to the positioning of the Charpy-V notch.
2.7. Chemical analysis
Chemical composition of the weld metals was performed by
spectroscopy of optical emission in order to evaluate the main
chemical elements at the position where the Charpy-V notch
were positioned.
3. Results
Table 4 shows the chemical composition of the deposited weld
metals where it can be noted the main differences relative
to the elements Cr and Ni, as consequence of composition of
welding consumables (Table 1). In addition, it is important to
observe the low influence of dilution on the chemical compo-
sition in the weld metal center line, where the analyses were
performed.
Fig. 4 shows the macrographies of the welded joints, where
it can be noted the effect of different number of passes for
each process. As consequence, the percentage of columnar
region was 54% and 73% for SMAW and GMAW processes,
respectively.
metals, when observed by OM. In order to clarify the occur-
rence of tempered martensite (M) and tempered bainite (B),
SEM analysis was necessary (Fig. 6), which revealed a similar
microstructure for both weld metals.
PWHT promoted a more intense precipitation of carbides
(Fig. 6), with different results for each weld metal, as conse-
quence of the chemical composition (Table 3), mainly Cr and
Mo, as evidenced by Thermo-calc analysis (Figs. 7 and 8).
Table 5 shows that both welding processes promoted high
strength, being the results obtained by SMAW process higher
than those obtained by GMAW process.
PWHT promoted only a slight reduction on the mechanical
strength (Table 5) and microhardness (Fig. 6).
Fig. 9 presents the results of impact of toughness for both
weld metals. It is noted that the best results were observed for
GMAW process.
4. Discussion
4.1. Influence of the welding process on the
mechanical properties
Table 2 shows that the deposition rate of GMAW process was
higher than the one for SMAW process, being 3.32 kg/h and
1.99 kg/h, respectively. These results are in accordance with
other researchers [23,33–35]. Consequently, GMAW process is
able to provide a significant gain in productivity, once it allows

Fig. 4 – Macrography of the welded joints. Etching: nital 2%.

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Fig. 5 – Microstructures of the region corresponding to Charpy-V notch position of the weld metals (OM). Etching: nital 2%.

SMAW
(88%
martensite)

SEI 20.00kV Mag: 3000 x WD:21.62 5 μm SEI 20.00kV Mag: 3000 x WD:21.73 5 μm

317 HV0.5 289 HV0.5

GMAW
(89%
martensite)

SEI 20.00kV Mag: 3000 x WD:20.00 5 μm SEI 20.00kV Mag: 3000 x WD:20.51 5 μm

310 HV0.5 285 HV0.5

Fig. 6 – Microstructures of the region corresponding to Charpy-V notch position of the weld metals consisting of tempered
martensite and tempered bainite (SEM). M – martensite; B – bainite. Etching: nital 2%.

2017.07.15.23.03.10 2017.07.15.18.16.41
TCFE8: C, CR, FE, MN, MO, NI, SI,V TCFE8: C, CR, FE, MN, MO, NI, SI,V
W(C)=6E-4, W(SI)=4.6E-3, W(MN)=1.37E-2, W(MO)=6E-3, W(NI)=2.17E-2, W(C)=9E-4, W(SI)=5.4E-3, W(MN)=1.58E-2, W(MO)=4,3E-3, W(NI)=1.72E-2,
W(CR)=8.4E-3, W(V)=1.2E-4, P=1E5, N=1 W(CR)=2.8E-3, W(V)=5E-5, P=1E5, N=1
10° 1 2 1 2
1 10° 1 1 1
11 1
1
2 1 2
1
2 2
2
Mass fraction of all phases

Mass fraction of all phases

10-1 2 10-1 2
2
2
2

10-2 3 3
10-2
3 3 6 6
3 6
4
5
5 5
4
4
10-3
500 550 600 650 7004 750 800 850 900 10-3
500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900
Temperature °C

SMAW GMAW

Fig. 7 – Step diagram of mass fraction of all phases versus temperature for weld metals.

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Isopleth T-Cr for SMAW sample Isopleth T-Cr for GMAW sample
2017.07.15.01.09.13 2017.07.15.00.57.01
TCFE8: C, CR, FE, MN, MO, NI, SI, V TCFE8: C, CR, FE, MN, MO, NI, SI, V
N=1, P=1.01325E5, W(C)=6E-4, W(SI)=4.6E-3, W(MN)=1.37E-2, W(MO)=6E-3, N=1, P=1.01325E5, W(C)=9E-4, W(SI)=5.4E-3, W(MN)=1.58E-2, W(MO)=4.3E-3,
W(NI)=2.17E-2, W(V)=1.2E-4 W(NI)=1.72E-2, W(V)=5E-5
750 750

700 700
Temperature_celsius

Temperature_celsius
650 650

600 600

550 550

500 500
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Mass_percent CR Mass_percent CR

SMAW GMAW

Fig. 8 – Isopleth diagrams (temperature versus mass fraction of Cr) for weld metals. The hatched region indicates the M7C3
field for SMAW process and the M23C3 region for GMAW process. The red lines in both figures indicate the Cr content.

140 140

120 PWHT
Absorbed energy (joules)

120
Absorbed energy (joules)

100 100 As welded

80 80
As welded
60 PWHT 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40

Tempering temperature (°C) Tempering temperature (°C)

SMAW GMAW

Fig. 9 – Results of Charpy-V impact tests.

the deposition of the required material in 61% of the time for cooling times of about 3–13 s and 5–15 s between 800 and
spent by the SMAW process. 500 ◦ C, indicating that the results obtained in the present
It is important to mention that, although a lower number work agree with these works (Table 2).
of passes had promoted a higher percentage of colum- In general, a good relationship between mechanical prop-
nar region for GMAW process (54% for SMAW and 73% for erties depend on the Ni and Mn contents [38–40,43–50],
GMAW process), which can have a significant effect on the particularly, when nickel is added to C-Mn deposits, it is nec-
mechanical properties of the welded joint [2,24,25,27], some essary to reduce the manganese content to maintain optimal
works [22,23,34,36,37] show that, for weld metals with higher impact toughness in balance [51]. Based on Keehan et al. [45],
strength, it is possible to achieve good mechanical proper- Lalam et al. [47], Murugananth et al. [49] and Zhang et al. [50]
ties even with higher productivity processes, once the high findings, the chemical composition observed in the present
hardenability of the weld metals promotes the occurrence of work (Table 4) indicates that good mechanical properties are
similar microstructural constituents in both columnar and expected, mainly due to the contents of Ni, Mn and C. In
reheated regions [22,23,34,36,38–40]. the particular case of the weld metals studied in the present
According to Pirinen et al. [41], the microstructure and work, the association of similar cooling times (Table 2) and
mechanical properties of high strength steel welded joints same value of the parameter Pcm (Table 4) allows a compari-
are determined by the chemical composition of the weld and son between the weld metals obtained by SMAW and GMAW
of the parent metal, as well as by the cooling rate. Depending processes.
on the chemical composition and cooling rate, the obtained This is confirmed when analyzing the evidences shown
mechanical properties may be different, being these results in Fig. 10, which presents the results obtained in the
reported also by other works [19,40,42,43]. In this regard, present work in comparison with various experimen-
Keehan et al. [40] and Ismar et al. [42], working with SMAW, tal works that studied high strength steel weld metals
suggest that high strength and good toughness are obtained [1,17,21,22,34,36,45,46,52–56]. It can be noticed that the

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JMRTEC-395; No. of Pages 11
1400
Ultimate tensile strength (MPa) 1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
0 20 40 60
Absorbed energy at 20o C ( joules)
Fig. 10 – Relationship between mechanical strength and
impact toughness for high strength steel weld metals in
comparison to several works [1,17,21,22,34,36,45,46,52–56].
present results are slightly superior than those obtained in
other works, which can be a consequence of the refined
microstructure with high volume fraction of tempered
martensite observed in both weld metals (Figs. 5 and 6), in
consistency with the chemical composition studied (Table 4).
In fact, Park et al. [57] state that the reason for the additional
strengthening in Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steel with higher Ni con-
tent could be an increase in the martensite fraction, as well as
a decrease in the effective grain size by Ni addition.
The higher values observed for SMAW process (Table 5) are
consistent with Surian et al. [19], Ramirez [58] and Talas [59],
who state that the weld metal strength increases with carbon
equivalent number (Table 4).
According to Narayanan et al. [60], the classification of
welding microstructures using optical microscopy proposed
by the International Institute of Welding [61] is sufficient
and very useful for traditional C–Mn and most low alloy
weld metals. However, for higher strength steel weld metals,
this classification system is not adequate to show detailed
differences of the refined weld microstructures, as observed
in the present work (Fig. 5). In fact, although a microstructure
composed by tempered martensite and tempered bainite
is expected, the resolution of this technique is unable to
clarify the main microstructural constituents, even with a
magnification of 1000X. In agreement with this statement,
Rabiei et al. [18] comment that detection of martensite in
steels with low carbon content is difficult, because the volume
fraction of octahedral spaces that are occupied with carbon
atoms is very small and martensite tetragonality descends to
nearly one. Therefore, in such steels with low carbon content,
the pick angles of martensite and ferrite are similar in XRD
pattern [62]. In this respect, although some methods are
used to evaluate the microstructure of high strength steels,
such as color metallography [62], ferrite scope [57] and X-ray
diffraction [57,62], SEM analysis is still an effective technique
to measure the volume fractions of martensite and bainite.
According to Park et al. [57], ferrite scope is not adequate to
differentiate martensite and bainite, because both phases
have ferromagnetic properties, while EBSD technique is more
appropriate to measure grain size, mainly in Ni-Cr-Mo sys-
tems due to its complex boundary morphologies, such as prior
austenite boundaries and packet boundaries. It is important
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to remember that analysis in high strength steel weld metals
are more complex, due to the reheating caused by the multiple
welding passes besides the low carbon content. Consequently,
the used of SEM for evaluation of the microstructure (Fig. 6),
showed the occurrence of tempered martensite and tempered
bainite as the main microstructural constituents.
SMAW The results obtained in the present work agree with other
GMAW authors [2,17,38,40,41,63] who studied high strength steel weld
metals and also observed a similar microstructure.
Although in higher strength steel weld metals martensite
80 100 120 140 160 is traditionally avoided due to its association with poor tough-
ness in welds, it should be recognized that not all martensite
is brittle even in the not tempered form [64]. Consequently,
low-martensite needs not to be avoided in an effort to make
stronger weld metals. These statements are in accordance
with the results obtained in the present work, once the results
of Charpy-V impact tests (Fig. 9) present adequate values even
for temperatures lower than −40 ◦ C. In addition, it can be
observed that the weld metal obtained by GMAW process, even
with a high percentage of columnar region, presented sim-
ilar results of impact toughness in comparison to the weld
metal obtained by SMAW, which can be associated with a bet-
ter balance of the chemical composition (Table 4). The lower
chromium content, in particular, is important due to its known
deleterious effect on impact toughness [17,51,54,65].
4.2. Effect of PWHT
According to Surian et al. [19], when designing an electrode for-
mulation starting with C-Mn consumables, the main concern
is to maintain the toughness requirements and to reach the
adequate tensile properties. Consequently, it can be a problem
in the present day to achieve the requirements for this prop-
erty when working with high and extra high strength steel
weld metals, mainly when PWHT is applied. Generally, it has
been shown that the application of a PWHT adversely affect
the UTS of weld metals [16–18,21,22,66–68] due to the over
tempering of the microstructure [69]. However, some works
[17,21,22,66] show that the higher is the UTS of the weld metal
the lower is the difference on this property, as observed in
the present work, where the difference for both weld met-
als were lower than 5% (Table 5). These results are expected,
once tempered martensite was the main constituent for both
weld metals (Fig. 6) and the effect of martensite tempering on
ultimate tensile strength is well known.
The same behavior was observed for impact results (Fig. 9),
which did not present significant differences due to the PWHT.
Indeed, high values of absorbed energy were also obtained
even for low temperatures for both weld metals.
The different behavior on the impact toughness presented
by the SMAW and GMAW welds can be due to the occurrence
of different carbides, as suggested by Thermo-Calc analysis
(Figs. 7 and 8). Actually, for the GMAW weld the Cr-rich M7 C3 is
estimated (∼0.7%), as well as the Mo-rich MC (∼0.25%), while
for the SMAW weld, the Cr-rich M23 C6 (∼0.9%) and the Mo-
rich M6 C (∼0.25%) are estimated (Fig. 8). The difference in
type of precipitated carbides (both Cr-rich and Mo-rich) can be
related to the difference in Cr/C and Mo/C ratios for the alloys
used for each process (Table 2). The higher Cr/C ratio for the
SMAW (SMAW = 14.0 and GMAW = 3.1) favors the precipitation
JMRTEC-395; No. of Pages 11
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8 j m a t e r r e s t e c h n o l . 2 0 1 8;x x x(x x):xxx–xxx

of M23 C6 instead of M7 C3 , as well as the higher Mo/C ratio for 1200 200
Ultimate tensile strength
the SMAW (SMAW = 10.0 and GMAW = 4.8) favors the precipita- Impact toughness
1000

Absorbed energy at -200 C(joules)

tion of the Mo-rich M6 C instead of the MC. In Fig. 8, the isopleth

Ultimate tensile strength (MPa)

881
841
T-Cr for the GMAW weld shows the M7 C3 field for lower Cr con- 800
815

tent. As this alloy has a higher C-content than the one used 131
119
for the SMAW process, with increased Cr-content, a transition 600 100
98
to M23 C6 occurs. The isopleth T-Cr for the SMAW weld (Fig. 8)
400
reveals an extensive M23 C6 field. Due to the lower C content in
this weld, this precipitate is stable even for lower Cr contents.
200
Of utmost importance is the good correlation between
mechanical strength and impact toughness obtained after 0 0
4.1 10.2 17.6
PWHT, particularly for GMAW welds, indicating its use for Cooling times (s)
welding of high strength steels with higher productivity,
where the application of PWHT can be mandatory [21,23,70]. Fig. 11 – Influence of cooling times on the mechanical
properties of GMAW weld metals after PWHT.

4.3. Influence of cooling time for GMAW process

As discussed earlier, different cooling rates can promote
significant changes on the mechanical properties of high
strength steel weld metals [1,36,40–43]. Considering the good
behavior observed when using a preheat of 200 ◦ C, it was
decided to evaluate the influence of different cooling rates
on the mechanical properties of GMAW welds obtained in the
present work.
The results showed a tendency for reduction of mechanical
strength and an increase on impact toughness (Fig. 11), as
consequence of some important aspects such as: lower
percentage of martensite (Fig. 12), coarsening of the
microstructure (Figs. 12 and 13) and a higher proportion
of high-angle boundaries (>15%) (Fig. 14) [71–74].
4.4. Final comments
The changes in steelmaking and steel rolling technologies are
a challenge for welding consumables and joining technology.
This is more critical for strength levels superior to 830 MPa,
where no specific rules for approval of welding consumables
are available. In addition, for welding of high strength steels,
the main problem is the usual reduction of UTS due to the
need of PWHT [16–18,21,22,66–68].

SEI 20.00 kV Mag: 3000x WD: 22.39 5 μm

SEI 20.00 kV Mag: 3000x WD: 20.44 5 μm

Δt8/5 = 4.1s - (98% martensite) Δt8/5 -17. 6s (75% martensite)

Fig. 12 – Influence of cooling time on the microstructure of GMAW weld metals with different cooling times (SEM) Etching:
Nital 2%.

t8/5 = 4.1s t8/5 = 17.6s

Fig. 13 – Influence of cooling time on microstructure of GMAW weld metals as evidenced by EBSD analysis.

Please cite this article in press as: Jorge JC, et al. Influence of welding procedure and PWHT on HSLA steel weld metals. J Mater Res Technol.
2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2018.05.007
JMRTEC-395; No. of Pages 11
ARTICLE IN PRESS
j m a t e r r e s t e c h n o l . 2 0 1 8;x x x(x x):xxx–xxx
12
Δ 8/5 = 4.1s
Δ t8/5 = 17.6s
10
8 cess; and
rel. frequency (%)
6
4
2 Conflicts of interest
0
-2
0 10 20 30 40
Misorientation (deg)
Fig. 14 – Influence of cooling time on distribution of grain
boundary misorientation of GMAW weld metals.
According to Keehan et al. [40], in order to minimize
the PWHT effect, different approaches can be adopted. One
approach is to define an operational window within which
high strength and good toughness can be achieved, and a
second approach is to obtain a greater tolerance to varia-
tions in the weld thermal cycle with higher alloy content weld
metals. The last could be more appropriate to the present case,
because of the lower cooling rates due to the higher thick-
ness, different groove shape or higher preheat and interpass
temperatures, which are usually necessary when welding base
metals with different carbon equivalent values, being all these
procedures very familiar to manufacturing processes on the
shop floor.
Of the most importance is the good correlation between
mechanical strength and impact toughness obtained after
PWHT for GMAW welds even with different cooling times,
indicating the possibility of its use for replacement of SMAW
process in welding of high strength steels with higher pro-
ductivity in applications where the use of PWHT can be
mandatory.
5. Conclusions
Based on the aspects discussed and considering the exper-
imental conditions applied in the present work, the main
conclusions are:
(a) High strength steel weld metals obtained by GMAW can
reach mechanical properties equivalent to those provided
by SMAW process;
(b) It is possible to perform PWHT without significant changes
on mechanical properties;
(c) Thermodynamic estimation of phases showed that Cr-rich
and Mo-rich carbides are expected for the microstructure.
However, the stoichiometries of the carbides are depen-
dent on the Cr/C and Mo/C ratios. On the one hand, lower
Cr/C and Mo/C ratios favor the M7 C3 and MC carbides,
respectively, while, on the other hand, higher Cr/C and
Mo/C ratios favor the formation of M23 C6 and M6 C car-
bides;
Please cite this article in press as: Jorge JC, et al. Influence of welding procedure and PWHT on HSLA steel weld metals. J Mater Res Technol.
2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2018.05.007
9
(d) Longer cooling times show a tendency for improvement of
impact toughness and reduction on mechanical strength
of high strength steel weld metals obtained by GMAW pro-
(e) The use of GMAW process can promote an increase in pro-
ductivity of high strength steel welds with good quality.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
50 60
Acknowledgements
The authors want to thank CEFET/RJ, PUC-Rio, UFRJ, CTEx,
CNPq and FINEP for the support in the execution of the present
work.
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