Study of microstructure and mechanical property relationships of A-TIG welded P91-316L dissimilar steel joint

The current work enunciated the effect of activating flux tungsten inert gas (A-TIG) welding on the microstructural, mechanical and corrosion behaviour of the 316L stainless steel (SS) and P91 steel weldment. The current study also demonstrated the comprehensive structure-property relationships of dissimilar joint weldment using the collective techniques of optical macro and microscopy, electron microscopy, and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. Microstructure study reveals the presence of delta ferrite, austenite and martensite in different zones of the weldment. The dissimilar steel weldment failed from the 316L side fusion boundary during the tensile testing. Maximum impact energy was absorbed by the 316L SS side heat affected zone (HAZ) while minimum by P91 steel side HAZ during the Charpy toughness test. The potentiodynamic test result suggested that the P91 side fusion boundary had minimum corrosion and pitting potential in all the weldment.