Metallurgical Study of Friction Stir Welded High Strength Steels for Shipbuilding

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is one of the most recent welding processes, invented in 1991 by The Welding Institute. Recent developments, mainly using polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools, broaden the range of use of FSW to harder materials, like steels. Our study focused on the assembly of high yield strength steels for naval applications by FSW, and its consequences on the metallurgical properties. The main objectivewas to analyze the metallurgical transformations occurring during welding. Welding tests were conducted on three steels: 80HLES, S690QL and DH36. For each welded sample, macrographs, micrographs and micro-hardness maps were performed to characterize the variation of microstructures through the weld.