Earticle

The microstructure and mechanical properties of the heat-affected zone welded using the GTAW process on SDSS material used in offshore structures were analyzed. The chemical composition of the specimen material was analyzed using XRF. The microstructure of the heat-affected zone where the plate was welded was examined by SEM, and the ferrite volume fraction was assessed using the point count method of ASTM E562. A lot of ferrite was formed in the overheated weldment region, and In the weld cap where the cooling rate was fast, ferrite was not converted back to austenite and the microstructure was not uniform. From the ferrite phase fraction, it was shown that it can be applied to the pitting resistance equivalent numbers through changes in mechanical properties according to welding conditions.

In this study, the measurement of FN (ferrite volume fraction) and the solution annealing ratio at a temperature of $1130^{\circ}C$ were determined with 15A elbow fittings of shell cast SSC13, and the corrosion resistance with and without austenitizing solution annealing were investigated in comparison with AISI304. The delta ferrite phase was observed in the material due to the slow cooling effect of the shell mold casting. However, the delta ferrite phase decreased gradually with the solution annealing at a temperature of $1130^{\circ}C$. The hardness generally decreased with a heat treatment; however, its corrosion resistance was improved with the heat treatment. In addition, when a passivation treatment was applied, its corrosion ratio showed the lowest value. The pattern of general corrosion decreased due to the decrease in the delta ferrite phase with the solution annealing treatment. Consequently, it is suggested that the corrosion resistance of SSC13 elbow fittings can be improved by increasing the ratio of any solution annealing treatment used and by decreasing the ferrite phase. The relationship between the ratio of solution annealing and delta ferrite is expressed as follows: SA (solution annealing ratio,%) = 98 - FN (ferrite volume fraction, %).

In this study, submerged arc cladded Fe-Cr-Ni-Mo-CuWNbV-C stainless steels containing various Cr contents between 11.2 wt.% and 16.7 wt.% were prepared with fixed C content at about 0.14 wt.%. Using these alloys, changes in microstructure, tensile property, and thermal fatigue property were investigated. Phase fraction of delta-ferrite was increased gradually with increasing Cr content. However, tensile strength, hardness, and thermal fatigue resistance appeared to be decreased. When the microstructure of delta-ferrite was observed, it was revealed that the mesh structure retained up to about 15% Cr content. Although thermal fatigue resistance was almost the same for Cr contents between 11.0 and 14.5 wt.%, it was significantly decreased at higher Cr contents. This was evident from mean value of crack lengths of 10 largest ones. Evaluation of thermal fatigue resistance on alloys with various Cr contents revealed the following important results. First, the reproducibility of ranking test was excellent regardless of the number of cycles. Second, thermal fatigue resistance was increased in proportion to true tensile fracture strength values of overlay materials. Finally, the number of thermal fatigue cracks per unit length was increased with increasing true tensile fracture strength.