Influence of surface remelting on distribution of residual stresses in medium alloy—medium carbon steel gas tungsten arc weldment

Abstract

The influence of surface remelting on the residual stress distribution in the fusion weld of a medium alloy—medium carbon steel was investigated using X-ray diffraction. It was observed that the sense of residual stresses changes from tensile stresses in the as-welded condition to compressive stresses after surface remelting. The microstructure of the remelted region exhibited fine martensitic microstructure compared with the as-welded microstructure. The observed residual stress distribution was found to be in agreement with hardness data. This study is of significance as this is the first report of surface remelting of a fusion zone to alter residual stresses.