An assessment of microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of dissimilar welds between Inconel 718 and 310S austenitic stainless steel

• Three filler metals including Inconel 625, Inconel 82 and 310 SS were used.
• A columnar to equiaxed dendritic structure was seen for IN-625 weld metal.
• A granular austenitic microstructure obtained for Inconel 82 weld metal.
• Microstructure of 310 weld metal includes solidification cracks along SSGB.
• IN-82 weld metal showed the highest corrosion potential.

In the present study, dissimilar welding between Inconel 718 nickel-base superalloy and 310S austenitic stainless steel using gas tungsten arc welding process was performed to determine the relationship between the microstructure of the welds and the resultant mechanical and corrosion properties. For this purpose, three filler metals including Inconel 625, Inconel 82 and 310 stainless steel were used. Microstructural observations showed that weld microstructures for all filler metals were fully austenitic. In tension tests, welds produced by Inconel 625 and 310 filler metals displayed the highest and the lowest ultimate tensile strength, respectively. The results of Charpy impact tests indicated that the maximum fracture energy was related to Inconel 82 weld metal. According to the potentiodynamic polarization test results, Inconel 82 exhibited the highest corrosion resistance among all tested filler metals. Finally, it was concluded that for the dissimilar welding between Inconel 718 and 310S, Inconel 82 filler metal offers the optimum properties at room temperature.