Wear behaviour of a steel weld-joint

A series of experiments has been carried out to examine the dry sliding wear behaviour of the different regimes of a single pass steel weld-joint vis-à-vis their microstructures and micro-hardness characteristics. Wear tests have been performed on two types of specimen configurations: first, on limited regions of the weld-joint exhibiting a specific microstructure, and second, continuously from the weld metal to the base metal via the heat affected zone (HAZ). The former type of experiments was found capable in delineating the wear characteristics of the base metal, weld metal and the different regimes of the HAZ. The wear behaviour of the varied regimes of the weld-joint, specifically that of the different sub-zones of the HAZ, has been explained using their microstructures, initial micro-hardness, work hardening during wear and their inherent residual stresses. This is a first report on the sequential wear behaviour of a weld-joint.