Enhancing fatigue resistance of activated tungsten inert gas welded UNS S32750 super duplex stainless steel by optimizing its technological properties

Abstract

In engineering industries and heavy manufacturing plants, fatigue life of joints plays a pivotal role in determining the overall life span of the welded joint. In this paper, an advanced fusion joining technique, namely activated tungsten inert gas welding, was used for joining UNS S32750 super duplex stainless steel, with ZnO as activation flux. For the enhancement of fatigue resistance of joints, important welding process parameters were fluctuated according to a developed central composite design model. Empirical relationships were developed between the process parameters and the fatigue strength of the joints, which was correlated with the number of cycles to failure (NCF). Using analysis of variance, the significance of the developed fatigue model was ascertained. Using response surface methodology, optimization of process parameters for enhancement of fatigue resistance was done. It was observed that at the optimized activated tungsten inert gas weld process parameters of travel speed of welding torch at 69.85 mm/min, weld current at 125.20 A, and shielding gas flow rate at 14.77 L/min, a high fatigue life of 7.66396 × 108 NCF was obtained and the model was validated to very high predictability. Microstructural variations in the fatigue-tested specimens were evaluated for identifying the grain modifications.