CHARACTERIZATION OF CHROMIUM NITRIDE PRECIPITATION IN THE HEAT AFFECTED ZONE OF THE SUPERDUPLEX STAINLESS STEEL UNS S32750: AN EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

It is well known that pitting corrosion resistance of duplex and superduplex stainless steels strongly depends on microstructural characteristics such as ferrite/austenite proportion, presence of intermetallic phases and elemental partitioning between the austenite and ferrite phases. In particular, during the welding operation, very fine chromium nitrides may precipitate within ferrite grains of the heat affected zone drastically reducing the corrosion resistance of welded joints of duplex and super duplex stainless steels. However, due to their small size and low distribution, analyzing the chemical composition and crystallography of chromium nitrides is quite difficult and only a restricted number of advanced techniques of investigation may discriminate their signal from the surrounding matrix. This work is aimed at supporting the microstructural characterization of a welded joint of a superduplex stainless steel by means of a field-emission gun scanning electron microscope. Sub-micron chromium nitride precipitates, identified within the ferritic grains of the heat affected zone, are recognized to be the main reason for the reduced pitting corrosion resistance of the analyzed welded joints. The results are supported by a multi-pass welding process numerical simulation aimed at estimating the cooling rates promoting chromium nitride precipitation in the heat affected zone.