Trans Indian Inst Met
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12666-021-02274-x
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Evolution of Microstructure and Texture in UNS S32750 Super
Duplex Stainless Steel Weldments
Tushar Ramdas Dandekar1 • Aman Gupta1 • Rajesh Kisni Khatirkar1
Ranjeet Kumar2 • Ashvin D. Gaikwad3
Received: 16 January 2021 / Accepted: 23 April 2021
Ó The Indian Institute of Metals - IIM 2021
Abstract Super duplex stainless steel (UNS S32750) butt
joints were prepared using ER2594 and ER2595 electrodes
by shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process. The heat
input used during welding was in the range of
0.75–0.81 kJ/mm. Microstructure and texture across the
weldments were investigated using optical microscope,
scanning electron microscope, and electron backscat-
tered diffraction. The solidification mode in the fusion
zone (FZ) was found to be ferritic, and the microstructure
mainly consisted of Widmanstatten austenite (WA), grain
boundary austenite (GBA), and inter-granular austenite
(IGA). The base metal (BM) had * 50% ferrite and 50%
austenite. The ferrite proportion changed significantly in
FZ and heat-affected zone (HAZ) after welding. Austenite
in the BM showed strong Brass ({110} \ 112 [), Cu
& Rajesh Kisni Khatirkar
rajesh.khatirkar@gmail.com; rajeshk@mme.vnit.ac.in
Tushar Ramdas Dandekar
tushar.dandekar3@gmail.com
Aman Gupta
amangpta@gmail.com
Ranjeet Kumar
kumarranjeet205@gmail.com
Ashvin D. Gaikwad
ashvingaikwad@yahoo.co.in
1
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering,
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT),
South Ambazari Road, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440010, India
2 to 26%) and Ni (1% to 7%) making them more economical
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi
110016, India
3
Weldfast Electrodes Pvt. Ltd, D-57-59, Hingna Industrial
Area, MIDC, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440016, India
•
({112} \ 111 [), Goss ({110} \ 110 [), and S
({123} \ 634 [) components, while ferrite showed strong
a (RD// \ 110 [) and c (ND// \ 111 [) fibres. The tex-
ture of ferrite was stronger than that of austenite. The
austenite and ferrite in the FZ (cap pass) obeyed Kurdju-
mov–Sachs (K–S) orientation relationship. Further, the
hardness of ER2595 weldments was found to be higher
than that of ER2594 weldments.
Keywords Duplex stainless steel
Microstructure

EBSD
SMAW
Hardness
Texture

K–S orientation relationship
1 Introduction
Duplex stainless steels (DSSs) are extensively used in gas
transfer pipelines, chemical industries, and oil production
industries [1–4]. In most DSSs, microstructure consists of
austenite (c, FCC) and ferrite (d, BCC) in nearly equal
proportion in solution-annealed (SA) condition. These
steels exhibit an exceptional combination of corrosion
resistance and mechanical properties due to the synergetic
effects of the presence of both austenite and ferrite [5–8].
These steels are usually classified based on the amount of
alloying element and pitting resistance equivalent number
(PREN) as lean, standard, super, and hyper-DSSs. PREN,
which represents the resistance to localized pitting corro-
sion, can be calculated from the chemical composition [9].
DSSs have different proportions, in weight %, of Cr (20%
than austenitic stainless steel (ASSs) [8]. The presence of
austenite improves the ductility and toughness, whereas the
presence of ferrite reduces stress corrosion cracking (SCC)
and improves yield strength (usually better than ASSs like
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304, 304L, 316, and 316L) [10, 11]. Welding is one of the
most used methods for fabrication in industries. It can alter
the microstructure, phase proportion as well as the distri-
bution of chemical elements in different zones of the
weldments. It has been reported [12, 13] that the deviation
of phase proportion from base metal (BM) (50:50 ratio of
austenite:ferrite) can reduce the corrosion resistance and
degrades the mechanical properties. Shielded metal arc
welding (SMAW) process is the most widely used welding
technique because of its ease of use and cost-effectiveness.
In order to maintain the desired c–d phase balance, heat
input and weld chemistry during welding need to be opti-
mized [6, 14]. However, it also depends upon many other
parameters of SMAW process such as the diameter of
electrode, arc length, electrode type, polarity, and relative
motion between electrode and workpiece [15]. The high
inputs promote easy transformation of austenite from fer-
rite to obtain the favourable combination of c–d phase.
However, it leads to wider HAZ, brittle intermetallic phase
formation, and coarse-grained weld deposits [16, 17].
Further, it has been reported [18] that very low heat inputs
lead to the formation of high ferrite with excessive chro-
mium nitride due to faster cooling. Therefore, it is neces-
sary to control the welding parameters to obtain optimum
microstructure. Muthupandi et al. [6] reported that the
influence of weldment composition has significant effects
on the c–d phase proportion than the cooling rate. The
austenite proportion lower than 25% is considered unac-
ceptable for industrial applications [19]. Previous investi-
gation [20] showed that the ER2595 electrode provides
better pitting corrosion resistance and is expected to per-
form better than weld produced by ER2594.
A study of texture in DSS welding is an important field
of understanding for the above-mentioned issues [21].
Aguiar et al. [22] studied the texture evolution in 2304 lean
DSS after welding using electron backscattered diffraction
(EBSD). EBSD is an advanced technique which can
quantify the phases, as well as provide information about
the morphology (including precipitation distribution) [22].
Heating or cooling during welding in DSSs weld leads to
phase transformation, which can result in the existence of
crystallographic orientation relationship (OR) between
ferrite and austenite. These ORs are generally close to
Kurdjumov–Sachs (KS) or Nishiyama–Wasserman (NW)
relationships in DSSs [21]. Shamanian et al. [23] reported
that after dissimilar welding between AISI 316L ASS and
UNS S32750 DSS, weld metal texture consists of Kurd-
jumov–Sachs (K–S) crystallographic orientation relation-
ship between austenite and ferrite. In recent years, various
studies on the effect of filler material on structure–property
relationship [24, 25] and texture evolution [26, 27] of DSS
weld have been carried out. Most of these studies are
focussed on UNS S32205 DSS. Studies on the evolution of
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texture and microstructure in UNS S32750 are still miss-
ing. The aim of the present investigation is to achieve
insights into microstructural changes and textural evolution
of UNS S32750 super DSS weldments produced by
SMAW process. UNS S32750 super DSS plates were
welded using two electrodes (ER2594 and ER2595). The
effect of weld chemistry on the microstructure and texture
evolution was investigated using EBSD.
2 Experimental
Figure 1 shows the experimental set-up for SMAW pro-
cess, unwelded and welded sheets. The chemical compo-
sition (in weight %) of the hot-rolled sheet of UNS S32750
DSS is given in Table 1. The hot-rolled sheet was subjected
to SA at 1030 ± 5 8C for 3 h to homogenize the
microstructure and chemical composition. The initial
dimensions of sheets were 200 mm 9 100 mm 9 5.5 mm
(length 9 breath 9 thickness). Subsequently, SMAW
process was used to weld the sheets using two fillers (1)
ER2594 (conventional) and (2) ER2595 (new) with
3.5 mm diameter and chemical composition as given in
Table 1. Multi-phase with direct current electrode positive
(DCEP) polarity was used as it exhibits higher deposition
with cleaning action. Welding parameters as given in
Table 2 were employed to produce the weldments. During
welding (2 mm of root face with 608 groove angle [28]),
1.5 mm gap was maintained between the sheets. Welding
was done in 3 passes—the first pass being the root pass, a
second and third pass (known to be cap pass) was used with
nearly identical welding parameters to produce the weld-
ments. Sample preparation was carried out as per the
ASTM E3-95 [29] for microstructural examination.
Metallographic characterization was carried out after
grinding the samples with SiC emery papers up to 2000 grit
size, polishing with velvet cloth using alumina slurry
(0.3 lm) and diamond suspension (0.1 lm). Etching was
done with Kalling’s reagent [30]. Reflected light optical
microscope (Axiolab, ZEISS, Germany) equipped with
image analysis software (Axiovision) was used to obtain
the microstructures. Scanning electron microscope (SEM,
JEOL 6380 A, Japan) equipped with Bruker XFlash, Ger-
many, energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS) was used to
obtain surface morphology and localized chemical com-
position of austenite and ferrite. An EDAX, USA EBSD
system attached to FEI Quanta 3D (the Netherlands) SEM
was used to obtain the orientation information. The
accelerating voltage used was 20 kV, working distance
15 mm, 15nA probe current, and 0.5 lm step size. The
post-processing of EBSD data was carried out with OIM
software (version 7.2) [31]. A mild clean-up was applied to
remove the wild spikes from the raw data (neighbour
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Fig. 1 a Experimental set-up for shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), b unwelded plates, and c welded plates. Figure is not to scale

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Table 1 Chemical composition (in weight %) of UNS S32750 super DSS (base metal), ER2594 and ER2595 electrodes
C Cr Ni Mo Mn N P Cu W Fe

UNS S32750 0.03 24.90 6.43 3.64 0.8 0.26 0.03 - - 63.5
ER2594 0.03 24.61 8.61 3.8 0.81 0.25 0.03 - - 61.86
ER2595 0.02 25.11 6.09 3.79 0.8 0.23 0.02 0.5 0.83 62.61

Table 2 Processing parameters for shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process
Electrodes
Welding Parameters ER2594 ER2595

Current (A) 111 124

Voltage (V) 25 25
Speed (mm s-1) 2.25 2.71
Welding efficiency (%) 65% 65%
Heat input 0.80 0.74
Polarity DCEP DCEP

confidence index (CI) correction with 0.05 CI and single
iteration). Kernel average misorientation (KAM, 2nd
nearest neighbour) maps were obtained from the EBSD
data to show the local misorientation developments. During
analysis, data points/pixels with \ 0.1 CI were excluded,
where CI represents the accuracy of indexing in an EBSD
scan [32]. A Mitutoyo, Japan micro-hardness tester was
used to measure the micro-hardness of the samples (load
300 g with 12 s dwell time).
3 Results and discussion
Figure 2 shows the phase map/diagram obtained from
Thermo-CalcTM software for base metal, ER2594, and
ER2595 electrode, where input is the chemical composi-
tion. For all the three compositions, the probability of
formation of r phase is negligible after approximately
1050 °C. Figure 3 shows the secondary electron SEM
image of the complete weldment (showing various
regions), secondary electron SEM image of UNS S32750
BM in solution annealed (SA) condition, and EDS spec-
trum of austenite and ferrite in the BM. The black dots in
Fig. 3a depict the location of hardness measurements. SA
sample consists of a banded structure of austenite and
ferrite (Fig. 3b) where grains are seen elongated in the
rolling direction (RD) of the sheet. Figure 3c and d shows
the EDS spectra for austenite and ferrite, respectively.
Austenite is rich in austenite stabilizing elements (Ni) and
ferrite in ferrite stabilizing elements (Cr and Mo). Figure 4
shows optical micrographs of WZ (cap pass) for both the
fillers at low as well as high magnifications. The
microstructures are similar showing the presence of Wid-
manstatten austenite (WA), grain boundary austenite
(GBA), and inter-granular austenite (IGA). During initial
stage of cooling, nucleation of GBA occurs at the ferrite (d/
d) grain boundaries. Temperature range of 800 to 1350 °C
has been reported to be favourable temperature range for
re-precipitation of the GBA [33]. Similarly, nucleation of
WA occurs from austenite at the ferrite (d/d) grain
boundaries [34] and grows inwards in the ferrite grain.
Temperature range of 650 to 800 °C has been reported to
be favourable temperature range for formation of WA [35].
Perren et al. [35] reported that WA has lower amount of Cr,
N, and Mo, since it forms after the GBA and also most of
the alloying elements are consumed by the GBA. On the
other hand, formation of IGA occurs within the ferrite
grains. The IGA not only requires lower temperature, but
also needs more undercooling as a driving force for its
formation than GBA and WA, since it is controlled by
lattice diffusion [36]. Slower rate of the lattice diffusion in
comparison with grain boundary diffusion leads to limited

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Fig. 2 Calculated phase fraction (in mole) using the Thermo-CalcTM software for a base metal (UNS S32750 DSS), b ER2594 electrode, and
c ER2595 electrode. Y-axis is plotted in mole fraction, where 1 mol is Avogadro’s number of total atoms

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Fig. 3 a Secondary electron scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of complete weldment showing different regions, b secondary electron
SEM image of solution-annealed (SA) UNS S32750 DSS sample, c energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) spectrum of austenite (marked as 1 in
(b)), and d EDS spectrum of ferrite (marked as 2 in (b)) for SA DSS base metal

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Fig. 4 Light optical microscopy (LOM) images of cap pass for ER2594 ((a) and (c)) and ER2595 ((b) and (d)) weldments. The images show
ferrite ( d), austenite (c), grain boundary austenite (GBA), inter-granular austenite (IGA), and Widmanstatten austenite (WA)
growth of the IGA. Therefore, the cooling rate acts as the
driving force to decide the final microstructure and corre-
sponding mechanical properties. It can be noticed that
ER2594 filler shows considerably higher IGA than ER2594
filler. Initially, grain boundaries remain occupied with the
coarsened GBA due to a lower cooling rate. Further, the
lower cooling rate increases austenite progressively due to
the growth of WA and IGA. Slower cooling rate is a
favourable condition for the reformation of austenite due to
prolonged dwell time, which allows the diffusion of sta-
bilized elements such as N and Ni [37]. Both weldments
have been found to be completely free from the presence of
intermetallic/precipitates like r, v, etc. in the microstruc-
ture. Muthupandi et al. stated [6] that the probability of
formation of Cr2N precipitates is higher in high energy
density processes (e.g. laser beam welding) than in low
energy density processes (e.g. SMAW). In the present
study also, Cr2N precipitates are not observed in the WZ
(cap pass as well as root pass). Figure 5a and b shows the
secondary electron SEM image of cap pass and Fig. 5c and
d shows the light optical micrograph of HAZ (interface). It
can be observed that the WA initiates from the grain
boundaries and advances towards the interior of grains,
while IGA is formed within the grains. Both weldments
show similar morphological features and the width of HAZ
is found to be approximately 60 to 80 lm. The width and
grain size of HAZ are largely influenced by peak temper-
ature in HAZ. Austenite–ferrite ratio and heat input during
welding are deciding factors for the width of HAZ. How-
ever, HAZ is found to be relatively narrow due to opti-
mized welding parameters. Even, the higher value of heat
input ([ 1.5 kJ/mm) exhibits the * 60 to 80 lm of HAZ
width.
Figure 6 illustrates the EBSD phase map of both the
weldments. The volume fraction of the ferrite in the weld
zone increases after welding (see Fig. 6c and d).
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Fig. 5 Secondary electron SEM images of cap pass for a ER2594 and b ER2595 weldments. c and d show the base metal (BM), heat-affected
zone (HAZ), and weld/fusion zone (WM) for ER2594 and ER2595 weldments, respectively
Ferritization in the WZ can be one of the possible causes
for increased volume fraction, which is the result of
austenite to ferrite transformation taking place at elevated
temperatures during welding. Figure 7 shows EBSD
inverse pole figure (IPF) maps for austenite and ferrite.
Microstructurally, it can be observed that WA has nearly
same orientation as that of the GBA. Ferrite grains in the
WZ had dendritic structure (hence observed as elongated in
the IPF maps). Figure 7b and c shows EBSD IPF maps for
austenite and ferrite measured in the interface between BM
and WZ for both weldments (showing HAZ). For both
weldments (lower left part in Fig. 7b and c), the
microstructure shows small growth compared to a base
metal (Fig. 7a). On the other hand, the austenite phase
shows no crucial change in microstructure, when compar-
ing two weldments interface region. This is mainly due to
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the high temperature caused during welding, which leads to
fully ferritization of the microstructure at the time of
heating. Therefore, significant morphological change is
observed in ferrite only for both the condition. During
cooling, solidification follows ferritic mode, and subse-
quently, austenite is formed on grain boundaries as well as
the interior of grains by solid-state transformations as
shown in Fig. 7b and c. It can be noticed that needle shaped
austenite is formed due to rapid solidification and lower
base metal temperature prior to welding [23]. Figure 7d
and e illustrates the EBSD IPF maps of austenite and ferrite
of WZ. The dendritic structure of ferrite and GBA and WA
growing from the interfaces are expected to follow an
orientation relationship (OR). The crystallographic pre-
ferred orientation plays a vital role in governing the
physical and mechanical properties of the metals [21, 23].
Trans Indian Inst Met

Fig. 6 Electron backscattered

diffraction (EBSD) phase map
(PM) of a BM, b ER2594/BM
interface, c ER2595/BM
interface, d ER2594 WM (cap
pass), and e ER2595 WM (cap
pass)

Dendrites generally growing by \ 100 [ texture during
welding and precipitation can result in brittle fracture,
which adversely affects the mechanical properties
[21, 38, 39]. It has been observed [23] that heat inputs,
weld chemistry, and dilution are inter-related which further
affects the grain orientation, phases, and corresponding
mechanical properties. Furthermore, it can be noticed that
the volume fraction of ferrite is significantly higher than
the austenite, which can lead to loss of toughness as well as
corrosion resistance [36]. Therefore, the microstructure

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Fig. 7 EBSD inverse pole

figure (IPF) map of ferrite and
austenite for a BM, b ER2594/
BM interface, c ER2595/BM
interface, d ER2594 WM (cap
pass), and e ER2595 WM (cap
pass)

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Fig. 8 a u2 = 45° constant section of orientation distribution function (ODF) showing texture components that typically occur in BCC metals
and alloys. u2 = 45° constant section of ODF of ferrite for (b) BM, c ER2594/BM interface, d ER2595/BM interface, e ER2594 WM (cap pass),
and f ER2595 WM (cap pass)

needs to be optimized by considering the parameters such
as WZ composition and weld temperature to get sufficient
toughness and better corrosion resistance [40].
Figure 8 shows the u2 = 45° constant section of orien-
tation distribution function (ODF) showing texture com-
ponents that typically occur in BCC metals and alloys and
u2 = 45° constant section of ODF of ferrite for BM,
ER2594/BM interface, ER2595/BM interface, ER2594
WM (cap pass), and ER2595 WM (cap pass). In BM, it is
observed that ferrite has a stronger texture (maximum
texture intensity of 8.26) and it is mainly composed of
strong rotated cube texture, i.e. {001} \ 110 [ and a weak
a-fibre (RD// \ 110 [) and c-fibre (ND// \ 111 [). For
both the weldments (ER2594 and ER2595), interface tex-
ture is a little different as it contains both (BM and WZ).
The formation of Goss ({110} \ 100 [) is observed in the
interfacial region. On the other hand, WZ have a different
texture than the base metal. Possible reasons for this dif-
ference may be complex solidification and grain growth
process and thus WZ texture can not lead to a meaningful

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b Fig. 9 a u2 = 0°, 45° and 65° constant section of orientation

distribution function (ODF) showing texture components that typi-
cally occur in FCC metals and alloys. u2 = 0°, 45° and 65° constant
section of ODF of austenite for (b) BM, c ER2594/BM interface,
d ER2595/BM interface, e ER2594 WM (cap pass), and f ER2595
WM (cap pass)

specific orientation. Figure 9 shows the u2 = 0°, 45°, and

65° constant section of orientation distribution function
(ODF) showing texture components that typically occur in
FCC metals and alloys and u2 = 0°, 45°, and 65° constant
section of ODF of austenite for BM, ER2594/BM interface,
ER2595/BM interface, ER2594 WM (cap pass), and
ER2595 WM (cap pass). It is and ER2595 WM (cap pass)
is mainly composed of strong Brass ({110} \ 112 [), Cu
({112} \ 111 [), Goss ({110} \ 001 [) and S
({123} \ 634 [) component. The appearance of these
texture components is known to be due to deformation
[21]. Unikrishnan et al. [41] studied the evolution of
microstructure using EBSD in the WZ and HAZ of 304L
ASS. They reported that EBSD can be a very useful tool to
study the microstructures in ASSs. Gerber et al. [42]
reported that if the stored energy in the material is low
during plastic deformation, it will exhibit partial retention
of deformation texture during annealing. It has been
reported [43] that the texture intensity of WZ is higher than
BM, which can be attributed to a higher cooling rate and
may be because of strong OR. The difference in the
austenite morphology (GBA, WA, and IGA) within ferrite
texture colonies is due to a difference in nucleation tem-
peratures, grain size as well as grain morphologies
[38, 44, 45]. Crystallographic texture of both the weld-
ments, i.e. ER2594 and ER2595 shows different texture
components as compared to BM and its obvious reason
could be multifarious solidification as well as grain growth.
ORs between the austenite and ferrite in welded DSSs
usually occur as Kurdjumov–Sachs (K–S) OR and/or
Nishiyama–Wasserman (N–W) OR [46, 47]. The ORs of
austenite and ferrite represent some degree of misorienta-
tion in habit plane between them, where {111} plane in
austenite must be parallel to the {110} in ferrite, i.e.
{111}c//{110}d. Additionally, for austenite, \ 110 [ di-
rection must be parallel to \ 111 [ direction in ferrite to
ensure K–S OR and to \ 100 [ direction in ferrite for the
N–W OR. The OR in the present DSS weldments was
analysed with ORTOOLS [48] and MTEX [49], both based
on MATLAB [50]. Figure 10 shows the misorientation
distribution for parent (ferrite) and child (austenite) for
weldments made with ER2594 and ER2595 electrodes and

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b Fig. 10 a Misorientation distribution of austenite and ferrite phase
boundaries for WM (cap pass), b deviation of the parent–child
boundaries (in °) from the variants considering Kurdjumov–Sachs
(KS) orientation relationship (OR) for ER2594 WM, and c deviation
of the parent–child boundaries (in °) from the variants considering KS
OR for ER2595 WM
deviation of parent–child boundaries (in °) for ER2594 and
ER2595 WZ (cap pass). There are 3 distinct peaks in the
parent–child boundary misorientation plot at * 30°, *
42°, and * 60° for both the weldments. The OR in
ER2594 and ER2595 WZ are 0.93° and 0.92° away from
the exact K–S OR. Therefore, most of the parent–child
boundaries are within 5° from the 24 variants of K–S OR as
shown in Fig. 10b and c. However, there is a small group
of boundaries (represented as point in Fig. 10b and c)
which is significantly away from the calculated variants.
These points possibly belong to * 30° and * 60° peak in
the misorientation plot. It has been reported [51, 52] that
Fig. 11 a Pole figure of ferrite grain for ER2594 WM (cap pass), b simulated locations of the 24 variants considering K–S OR and mean parent
orientation (ferrite) in (a), c experimental observation of the child (austenite) variants K–S OR, and d distribution of the 24 variants in that
particular grain
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the GBA and WA follow the K–S OR. Figure 11 shows the
orientation of a single ferrite grain, simulation of 24 vari-
ants as per K–S OR, distribution of variants obtained from
the EBSD experiments and the area normalized frequency
of occurrence of the different variants in that particular
grain. It is clear from Fig. 11d that there is a preference for
selection of variants number 17 in the selected grain.
Figure 12 illustrates KAM distribution curves for base
metal and WZ of ER2594 and ER2595 electrodes,
respectively. It can be observed that there is no significant
change in KAM values for BM. It can be noticed that the
average KAM values of ferrite decreases for both the
weldments compared to BM signifying lower value of
residual strain and dislocation density [23]. Further, there
can be change in the strain values due to melting and
solidification during welding. The phenomenon become
complicated by the evolution of austenite in ferrite due to
ferritic mode of solidification also. Table 3 shows that the
average micro-hardness of ER2595 weldment is higher
than ER2594 weldments viz. ER2595 weldment has 335
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Table 3 Average micro-harness (Hv) of various regions for both the

weldments
Base metal Heat-affected zone Weld zone (WZ), cap
(BM) (HAZ) pass

ER2594 285 278 318

ER2595 295 283 335

Hv, while ER2594 has 318Hv for the cap pass. As com-
pared to BM, both weldments have a higher average value
of hardness as shown in Fig. 13. Higher hardness for
ER2595 weldment can be attributed to the presence of Cu,
W, and N in the weld. This increase in strength is linked to
solid solution strengthening, since nitrogen is reported to
be an effective solid solution strengthening element
[53, 54]. Other factors which lead to the difference of the
hardness in weldment are associated with variation of
microstructure, compositional changes, and distribution of
micro-constituents [20]. The average hardness for ER2594
WZ (cap pass) has been found to be 318 Hv and 300 Hv for
root pass. This is possibly due to differences in the volume
fraction of ferrite in cap pass and root pass region. For ER
2594, ferrite content is 68% and 55% for cap pass and root
pass, respectively, as depicted in Fig. 13b and c. Ferrite is
harder than austenite in DSSs.

4 Conclusions

In this work, microstructure and texture developments were

investigated for welding of super duplex stainless steel
(UNS S32750) using the ER2594 and ER2595 electrodes
using SMAW process. The following conclusion can be
drawn:
- Weld zone (WZ) of both weldments (ER2594 and
ER2595) consisted of two-phase austenitic–ferritic
microstructure. The microstructures of the weld zone
comprised of Widmanstatten austenite (WA), grain
boundary austenite (GBA), and inter-granular austenite
(IGA). The ferrite proportion changed significantly in
cap pass and root pass of the WZ as well as the heat-
affected zone (HAZ).
- The crystallographic texture for both weldments was
different from BM; the WZ showed a much weaker
texture than the base metal (BM). Austenite in the BM
showed strong Brass, Cu, Goss, and S texture compo-
nents, while ferrite showed strong a and c fibres. The
WZ texture was a solidification texture.
- The WZ showed crystallographic orientation relation-
ship (OR) between austenite and ferrite. This OR was
Fig. 12 Kernel average misorientation (KAM) distribution for a BM, found to be close to K–S OR for most parent–child
b ER2594 weldment (cap pass), and c ER2595 weldment (cap pass)

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Fig. 13 a Micro-hardness across weld for ER2594 and ER2595 weldments, b PM of root pass ER2594, and c PM of cap pass ER2594
(red = ferrite and green = austenite)
boundaries, though there were boundaries which did not
follow the K–S OR. The average KAM values were
found to be higher for austenite than ferrite and in the
BM.
- The hardness of ER2595 WZ was higher than ER2594
due to solid solution strengthening because of the
presence of Cu, W, and N.
Acknowledgment The authors are thankful to Director, VNIT
Nagpur, for providing necessary facilities and constant encourage-
ment to publish this paper. The authors would like to acknowledge the
use of National Facility for Texture and OIM (A DST-IRPHA pro-
ject), IIT, Bombay for EBSD measurements.
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