Microstructure and mechanical properties of a laser welded low carbon-stainless steel joint

This article reports on an experimental investigation to understand and subsequently control the alloying composition in laser welding of austenitic stainless steel and low carbon steel. An energy dispersive spectrometer was used to analyse the alloying composition, while microscopy and tensile tests were used to study the microstructure, and mechanical performance of the welded joint respectively. The investigation revealed that above a certain specific point energy the material within the melt pool is well mixed and the laser beam position can be used to control the mechanical properties of the joint. This finding was confirmed using a numerical model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of melt pool dynamics. Strategies to control the composition leading to dramatic changes in hardness, microstructure and mechanical properties of the dissimilar laser welded joint are discussed.