Effects of gravity on mechanical properties of GTA welded joints

Stainless steel alloy 316 weld samples were subjected to spot gas tungsten arc welding at 1G (G = 9.8 m/s2) and 3.6G accelerations. The cross sections of the fusion zones were polished, etched, and measured in order to perform measurements on the microstructure. Measurement and observation results indicated that increasing in buoyancy driven flow produced wider but shallower welds during spot GTA welding. Tensile testing showed no noticeable differences in peak loads between samples welded at 1G and 3.6G. Tensile ductility was lightly less for the 3.6G samples.