Electron beam weld modelling of ferritic steel: effect of prior-austenite grain size on transformation kinetics

Abstract
Ferritic steels experience solid-state phase transformation (SSPT), which causes volumetric changes due to differences in the atomic packing density of different phases in the steel. The importance of the prior austenite grain size (PAGS) as an input physical variable is assessed, for adequately modelling the anisothermal SSPT during welding of ferritic steels. The knowledge of the PAGS value pre-requires a thorough microstructural study of each particular weld, information that might be difficult to acquire. A relationship between hardness, PAGS and phase fractions is proposed to be used to feed in weld models. The case of a single-pass, autogenous, reduced-pressure electron beam weld is used for this study. The adequacy of the finite-element weld model in predicting the micro-constituents, the hardness and the residual stress is demonstrated via comparing the predicted results of the thermo-metallurgical and stress analyses with the set of corresponding experimental data. This work aims at providing a better understanding of the impact of PAGS on transformation kinetics and best practice guidelines for modelling, using an extensively validated electron beam weld model as baseline. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Description
Keywords
Electron beam welding, Phase transformations, Microstructure, Grain size, Austenite, Residual stresses, Simulation, Ferritic steels
Citation
Vasileiou, A. N., Hamelin, C. J., Smith, M. C., Francis, J. A., Sun, Y. L., Flint, T. F., Xiong, Q., & Akrivos, V. (2020). Electron beam weld modelling of ferritic steel: effect of prior-austenite grain size on transformation kinetics. Paper presented at the 30th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM2021), Athens, Greece, 15–18 June 2020. In Procedia Manufacturing, 51, 842-847. doi:10.1016/j.promfg.2020.10.118
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