Residual stress- microstructure- mechanical property interrelationships in multipass HSLA steel welds

Higher levels of residual stresses in excess of yield strength of the both weld and parent metals were developed within the upper-layers of the modified short arc and flux cored arc welding combination of HSLA steel. The magnitude of the residual stresses was significantly reduced by increasing the heat input. High level of residual stresses was found to be correlated with the existing of microstructural constituents of bainite and Widmanstätten ferrite in the weld metal and HAZ of low heat input specimens. There was no substantial difference in the magnitude of the residual stresses, microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties when the direction of weld deposition was changed.