Characterization on strength and toughness of welded joint for Q550 steel

Q550 high strength steel was welded using gas shielded arc welding and three different welding wires without pre- or post-heat treatments. The paper investigates the influence of welding wire on the microstructure, tensile strength and impact toughness of Q550 steel weld joints. Results showed that the microstructure of the weld metal of joints produced using ER50-6 wire was a mixture of acicular ferrite and grain boundary ferrite including pro-eutectoid ferrite and ferrite side plate. Acicular ferrite was mainly obtained in the weld metal of the joints produced using MK·G60-1 wire. Pro-eutectoid ferrite was present along the boundary of prior austenite. Crack initiation occurred easily at pro-eutectoid ferrite when the joint was subjected to tensile. Tensile strength and impact toughness were promoted with increasing acicular ferrite. Tensile strength of the joint fabricated using MK·G60-1 wire was close to that of base metal. And tensile samples fractured at location of the fusion zone, which had lower toughness and thus became the weak region in the joint. Impact absorbing energy was the highest in the heat affected zone. Fibrous region in fracture surfaces of impact specimens was characterized as transgranular fracture with the mechanism of micro-void coalescence. Acicular ferrite microstructure region corresponded to relatively large dimples while boundary ferrite microstructure corresponded to small dimples.