Role of evolving microstructure on the mechanical behaviour of P92 steel welded joint in as-welded and post weld heat treated state

An autogenous gas tungsten arc welded P92 weld joint was subjected to two different post weld heat treatment (PWHT). One PWHT involved tempering of the as-welded sample at 760 °C for 2 h (referred to as PWDT) followed by natural air cooling. The other PWHT involved normalizing (re-austenitizing) the as-welded sample at 1040 °C for 40 min followed by PWDT (referred as PWNT). The cross-section of the as-welded sample exhibited a higher degree of microstructural heterogeneity. Both the PWDT and PWNT heat treatment procedures reduced the heterogeneity gradient along the weld cross section. The heat affected zone (HAZ) of the as-welded and PWDT samples showed Charpy toughness values of 3 ± 4 J and 64 ± 6 J, respectively, which were lower than that of the base metal (72 ± 5 J). The PWNT treated sample exhibited a HAZ Charpy toughness value of 83 ± 4 J which was higher than that of the base metal. The brittle mode of the fracture with river patterns was observed for the as-welded and PWDT treated sample while a ductile mode of fracture with fine and shallow dimples was observed for the PWNT condition. The PWNT treatment resulted in dissolution of the ferrite patches and formation of a uniform microstructure along the weld cross section. The PWNT treated samples exhibited the lowest yield strength to tensile strength ratio supporting the enhanced ductility as a result of this re-austenizing heat treatment. The as-welded and PWDT treated weld joints showed the presence of detrimental δ ferrite phase in the weld fusion zone and the coarse grained heat affected zone. The PWNT completely removed the δ ferrite patches from the microstructure whereas the PWDT treatment merely reduced the range of the hardness of the δ ferrite from 179 to 301 HV (as welded) to 204-228 HV.