Effects of post-weld heat treatments on

the microstructure, mechanical and

corrosion properties of gas metal arc
welded 304 stainless steel
Taiwo Ebenezer Abioye
Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure, Akure, Nigeria
Igbekele Samson Omotehinse
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure, Akure, Nigeria
Isiaka Oluwole Oladele
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure, Akure, Nigeria
Temitope Olumide Olugbade
Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure, Akure, Nigeria, and
Tunde Isaac Ogedengbe
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure, Akure, Nigeria

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of post-annealing and post-tempering processes on the microstructure, mechanical
properties and corrosion resistance of the AISI 304 stainless steel gas metal arc weldment.
Design/methodology/approach – Gas metal arc welding of AISI 304 stainless steel was carried out at an optimized processing condition.
Thereafter, post-annealing and post-tempering processes were performed on the weldment. The microstructure, mechanical and electrochemical
corrosion properties of the post-weld heat treated samples, as compared with the as-welded, were investigated.
Findings – The as-welded joint was characterized with sub-granular grain structure, martensite formation and Cr-rich carbides precipitates. This
made it harder than the post-annealed and post-tempered joints. Because of slower cooling in the furnace, the post-annealed joint contained Cr-rich
carbides precipitates. However, the microstructure of the post-tempered joint is more refined and significantly devoid of the carbide precipitates.
Post-tempering process improved the elongation (23%), tensile (10%) and impact (31%) strengths of the gas metal arc AISI 304 stainless steel
weldment, while post-annealing process improved the elongation (20%) and impact strength (72%). Owing to the refined grain structure and
significant elimination of the Cr-rich carbide precipitates at the joint, the post-tempered joint exhibited better corrosion resistance in 3.5 Wt.% NaCl
solution than the post-annealed and the as-welded joints.
Originality/value – The appropriate post-weld heat treatment that enhances microstructural homogeneity and quality of the AISI 304 gas metal arc
welded joint was determined.
Keywords Mechanical properties, Microstructure, Corrosion resistance, AISI 304 stainless steel, GMAW, Heat treatments
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction 2019), automotive exhaust system in automotive industry (Hong

and Shin, 2017) and nuclear reactor and heat exchangers in the
Austenitic stainless steels including AISI 304 grade have been the power generation industry (Arivazhagan et al., 2011). The
materials of choice for fabricating components and tools which fabrication of these components usually requires joining of
require a combination of high strength and excellent corrosion various parts. The joining of these parts is often accomplished
resistance in service environments (Ma et al., 2016). AISI 304 has with welding technology. The joining is often done using
found extensive applications in the fabrication of food and different welding techniques, including arc, resistance, laser and
beverage equipment in the food processing industry (Hotz et al.,

The authors appreciate the technical support provided by the LAFBART

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Automobile Company, Akure, Nigeria. The technical assistance rendered
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1708-5284.htm by the technical staff of the Industrial and Production Engineering
Department and Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal University
of Technology, Akure, is also appreciated.
World Journal of Engineering
17/1 (2020) 87–96 Received 13 November 2019
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1708-5284] Revised 13 December 2019
[DOI 10.1108/WJE-11-2019-0323] Accepted 27 December 2019

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electron beam welding techniques (Ahire et al., 2018). Though (PWHTs) have been found as another method of eliminating
advanced welding techniques such as laser welding and friction these carbides in the welded joint (Pouraliakbar et al., 2014;
stir welding are now being used for joining steels and other Mayr et al., 2018). For example, Nam et al. (2018) carried out
metals, gas metal arc welding (GMAW) and gas tungsten arc PWHT (at 850°C and 1050°C) of a submerged arc-welded 304
welding (GTAW) are preferred for welding thick sections of hard stainless steel to homogenize the microstructure and improve the
metals in civil construction, ship building and some pipelines toughness of the welded joint. It was found that heat treatment at
construction (Abioye et al., 2019a). Compared with the 1,050°C resulted in nearly complete dissolution of Cr-carbide
aforementioned advanced welding techniques, joining thick and elimination of delta ferrite in the welded joint. This
components with GMAW and GTAW is cheaper and more eventually resulted in improved fracture toughness. In addition,
flexible. the influence of PWHT at different temperatures (350°C, 650°C
GMAW is a process that melts and joins metals by heating and 1,050°C) followed by air-cooling and water quenching on
them with an arc established between a continuous feed wire the pitting corrosion resistance of duplex stainless steels weld has
electrode and the workpiece. The molten weld pool is protected been studied by Sim et al. (2019). The ferrite content in the
by inert shielding gas, which is usually argon. The process has welded joint reduced significantly with increasing solution-
been found suitable for joining metals and metal alloys. It can annealing temperature to 1,050°C because there was sufficient
weld thicker sections of hard metals (e.g. steels) at higher speeds. time for austenite formation. The solution annealing at 1,050°C
The use of continuous wire feeding system gives high wire with 2 h soaking time produced no significant weight loss after
deposition rate and deeper penetration. As a result, it can the corrosion test. Deraman and Berhan (2014) have also
produce weldments of excellent strength and high surface established that PWHT (quenching 1 tempering) of AISI 304
integrity (Ahmed and Al-Quensi, 2016). Several works have been stainless steel gas metal arc weldment resulted in slight decrease
reported on the GMAW of AISI 304 SS and other steels. For in the hardness of the joint.
example, the metallurgy and impact toughness of the gas Till date, and to our knowledge, investigation and comparison
tungsten arc AISI 304 L weldment have been investigated by of the effects of different PWHTs on the microstructure,
Kumar and Shahi (2016). It was found that the impact toughness mechanical and corrosion properties of the AISI 304 gas metal arc
was adversely affected by the carbide precipitation, which weldment has not been extensively done. Therefore, this work
increased as the heat energy input increased. Other researchers in aims at establishing and comparing the effects of the annealing
this area have also identified the precipitation of chromium and tempering processes on the microstructure, mechanical and
carbides in the welded joint of stainless steels as a major cause of corrosion properties of AISI 304 gas metal arc weldments.
extremely high hardness in the heat affected zone (HAZ) and
welded joint. This eventually resulted in high brittleness and poor
2. Materials and methods
fracture toughness of the weldment (Bal et al., 2019; Sérgio et al.,
2014). In addition, corrosion damage is more severe at the joint 2.1 Materials
because of the presence of different compounds (e.g. carbides) of AISI 304 stainless steel obtained from The Metal Centre,
different electrochemical potentials. The difference in the Wednesbury, UK, was used as the base metal, while an ER 309 L
electrochemical potentials often initiates galvanic corrosion. wire of diameter 0.8 mm was used as the filler or electrode. The
These defects and poor performance are usually traced to base metal was machined into eight plates of dimension 100 50
microstructural inhomogeneity caused by the precipitation of the 8 mm. The adjoining side of each plate was tapered by 30° so as
various chromium carbides (CrC) during weld pool solidification to create a V-groove of about 60° when two plates are clamped
(Abioye et al., 2019c). Afolabi et al. (2011) established that the together using butt joint configuration. Prior to the welding, the
corrosion resistance of tempered AISI 304 and AISI 316 in 1.0 M adjoining sides were cleaned with wire brush and later washed so
oxalic acid solution reduced as the tempering temperature as to remove all forms of surface contaminants. Table I presents
increased from 150°C to 350°C. Increase in the tempering the chemical composition of the base metal and the filler wire.
temperature favoured higher formation of chromium carbide in
the metals. More so, the major cause of stress corrosion cracking 2.2 Welding processes
(a common failure encountered in boiler components made of The entire welding process was performed using Riland NBC
stainless steel) has been identified as the formation of carbide 300 MIG welding machine (LAFBERT automotive company,
precipitates in the HAZ of the stainless steel weldments Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria). Four weldments were produced
(Gopalakrishman et al., 2014). These carbides precipitate in the using optimum process parameters and conditions that were
joint whenever stainless steels are subjected to a temperature previously established by the authors (Abioye et al., 2019b), as
range of 550°C-850°C during welding. The CrC precipitation is presented in Table II. Each weldment was made in six passes
caused by the strong affinity between carbon and Cr elements with a root gap of 0.8 mm allowed in-between the plates prior
(Ghorbani et al., 2017). to the welding process. All the passes were in the same
Several efforts have been geared towards eliminating the direction.
carbides during welding. Foremost in this regard was the control
and reduction of the heat energy by using expensive techniques
Table I Chemical composition of as-received AISI 304 material
such as laser and electron beam welding (Kumar and Shahi,
2011). Also, elements such as Nb, V and Ti, which have higher Element Fe C Cr Ni Mn Si P S
affinity for carbon than Cr, have been added (Vach et al., 2008). AISI 304 71.15 0.08 18.58 7.86 1.78 0.42 0.1 0.03
Use of filler metal of negligible carbon content is another method E309L 62.84 0.08 22 12 2 1 0.05 0.03
that has been tried. Recently, post-weld heat treatments

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Table II Welding process parameters 2.6 Corrosion test

The electrochemical corrosion test of the as-welded and
Parameter Symbol Value Unit
PWHTed samples was performed using potentiodynamic
Wire feed rate WFR 84 mm/s method. The test was carried out according to the guidelines
Voltage V 22 V stated in ASTM standards G5-94 and G61-86 respectively.
Speed S 4.5 mm/s Samples of size 10  10  8 mm was cut at the joint and then
Current I 120 A mounted by using moulding epoxy. The samples were ground
Shielding gas flow rate GFR 10 l/min and then cleaned using acetone and then dried. A polymetric
coating was applied to some portion of the sample surface
leaving about 64 mm2 uncovered. During the test, the
2.3 Post-weld heat treatment uncovered surface (working electrode) was exposed to the test
Various PWHT processes were carried out on three weldments solution (3.5 Wt.% NaCl solution) at room temperature using
by first heating them in an electric furnace up to a temperature of a three electrode cell. A platinum wire served as the counter
about 1,050°C. Then, the heated weldments were soaked at this electrode while Ag/AgCl electrode served as the reference
temperature for about 30 min before being cooled at different electrode. The electrochemical study was carried out at a scan
rates. A weldment was cooled slowly in the furnace after being rate of 1 mV/s and an open current potential duration of 600 s.
switched off so as to anneal the sample. Another sample was
cooled in a still air so as normalize it, while the third sample was
tempered by being rapidly quenched in water and then reheated
3. Results and discussion
to a temperature of about 400°C before cooling in the furnace. 3.1 Microstructure analysis
Figure 1 shows the AISI 304 stainless steel weldments
2.4 Microstructure analysis produced via GMAW technique. Based on visual inspection,
Samples of dimension 10  10  8 mm were cut across the cross- the joints are devoid of cracks and pores except for the presence
section of the as-welded and post-weld heat treated (PWHTed) of few spatters on the surface. The optical images showing the
weldments. The samples were cut in the middle of the joints interface between the weld zone and HAZ of the base metal
because it is believed that it takes few seconds before the welding before and after the heat treatment processes are shown in
process stabilizes while joining the plates. The samples were Figure 2. It is observed that the interfaces of the entire
ground and polished to 1 m m surface finish. Thereafter, the weldments are free of defects including pores and cracks. This
polished surfaces were etched in 15 ml HCl 1 10 ml HNO3 1 indicates that strong fusion exists between the base metal and
10 ml CH3COOH solution. The grain structure and bonding the weld joint for the optimal parametric setting used for this
quality at the interface were examined using optical microscopy welding process. An evolution of columnar dendrites growing
while the phase composition and constitution were investigated nearly perpendicular to the interface was observed in the entire
using a combination of scanning electron microscopy and energy weldments. It was obvious that the interface acted as the
dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). heterogeneous nucleation sites for the dendrites evolution
which grows along the heat flux direction. The heat is mainly
2.5 Mechanical tests transferred via conduction mode from the core of the weld zone
Vickers microhardness measurements were performed across (i.e. weld pool) to the HAZ and then, the entire base metal.
the welded joint starting from the HAZ to the welded zone. In all the welded joints (both the as-welded and PWHTed), the
This was done for the as-welded and PWHTed samples by HAZ appears to be coarser than the weld zone. This is probably
applying 300 gF load for a dwell time of 10 s. A minimum because of the faster cooling (i.e. rapid solidification) occurring in
spacing of about 1.5 mm was allowed in-between two the weld zone. Consequently, better grain refinement was
successive indentations so as improve the reliability of the observed. The HAZs acted as the heat sink. Therefore, larger
results obtained. Also, tensile test was done using Instron grains were found in these zones. Comparing the HAZ of the three
universal testing machine at a constant cross-head speed of samples, the size of grains in that of the post-annealed sample
0.5 mm min 1. Three tensile specimens (cut across the joint) appears to be the largest. This is because slow cooling in the
were prepared from each weldment following ASTM E8/E8M- furnace during annealing favours coarsening effect. In the post-
13. The average of the results obtained from the three tempered sample, the size of grains in the HAZ reduced
specimens represents the tensile properties of the weldment. significantly. The reduced grain size can be traced to fast cooling
The base metal specimens were also prepared and tested
following similar standard. Charpy impact test was performed Figure 1 Fabricated AISI 304 stainless steel gas metal arc weldments
following ASTM E23 standard. The Charpy impact test
specimens were machined to dimensions 55  10  6 mm (sub-
sized). Three specimens were produced from each weldment
and the base metal. The V-notch made at the centre of each
sample which is the centre of the welded joint for all weldment.
The samples were impacted, at room temperature, with a
punch of 25 kg impact load. The mechanical tests were
performed in the School of Materials and Minerals Resources
Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal,
Malaysia.

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Figure 2 Optical images showing the weld grain structure and weld-base metal interfacial bonding of (a) AISI 304 SS, (b) as-welded, (c) post-annealed
and (d) post-tempered samples

during water quenching which precedes tempering process. It has Based on their white colour contrast and angular shape, the
been established in the past that rapid cooling favours grain precipitates were adjudged to be secondary carbides (Bal et al.,
refinement because there is no sufficient time for the grain growth 2019; Ghorbani et al, 2017). To confirm this, EDX analysis was
(Kose and Topal, 2019). As a result, shorter grains are formed. conducted on the phases. The results as presented in Table III
Figure 3 shows the optical micrographs of the core of the weld revealed that the white contrast angular precipitates are richer in
zones of the as-welded and the PWHT samples. The weld zone of chromium (64 Wt.%), while the matrix has 21 Wt.% Cr
the post-annealed sample [Figure 3(b)] is characterized with larger content. Therefore, the precipitates are Cr-rich carbides formed
dendrites compared to the base metal and post-tempered sample. due to Cr migration to the grain boundaries. Owing to the
This was probably because of the slow cooling of the sample in the strong affinity of Cr for Carbon (C), it was believed that Cr have
furnace during post-annealing process. easily combined with C and formed Cr-rich precipitates at the
The backscattered electron (BSE) mode scanning electron grain boundaries during the weld pool solidification.
images of the core of the weld zone of the as-welded and the The weld zone of the PWHTed samples [Figures 4(b) and
PWHTed joints are presented in Figure 4. As revealed in 4(c)] shows different microstructure depending on the type of
Figure 4(a), the weld zone of the as-welded joint was PWHT process applied. With post-annealing process, slow
characterized with sub-granular grain structure and formation cooling in the furnace allows for the retention of the Cr-rich
of two distinct phases which are: carbides in the grain boundaries. However, the presence of the
1 grey-contrast continuous matrix; and Cr-rich carbides is significantly absent in the weld zone of the
2 white contrast precipitates at the grain boundaries post-tempered sample. The carbides were believed to have

Figure 3 Optical images showing the weld zone morphology of the (a) as welded, (b) post-annealed and (c) post-tempered samples

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Figure 4 BSE/SEM micrographs of the weld zone of the (a) as welded, Figure 5 Microhardness profile of the as-welded and post-weld heat
(b) post-annealed and (c) post-tempered samples treated samples

established that rapid cooling of the stainless steel weld-pool

favours the formation of martensite in austenite matrix.
Cooling is believed to be rapid because it largely took place via
completely dissolved while heating up to 1,050°C and were conduction through the HAZ to the base metal which acted as
unable to re-precipitate in the grain boundaries because of the heat sink. Cooling was also enhanced by convention
rapid cooling in water while carrying out post-tempering because of exposure of the weld pool to the atmosphere and
process. More so, the microstructure of the post-tempered also via radiation. The Cr-rich carbide formation coupled with
welded joint is better grain-refined and more homogeneous possible presence of martensite (hard phase) accounts for the
compared with the as-welded and post-annealed samples, as high hardness in weld zone of the as-welded sample, as
seen in Figure 4. compared to the HAZ and other samples.
The lowest hardness demonstrated by the post-annealed
3.2 Hardness sample in the weld zone can be possibly traced to the reduction
Figure 5 shows the hardness profiles of the HAZs and weld zones of the residual stress in the weldment after annealing process.
of the as-welded and PWHTed samples. It is evident that the as- Slow cooling of the samples in the furnace after heating beyond
welded sample shows the highest hardness (218 HV0.3) in the recrystallization temperature caused reduction in the residual
weld zone. After the PWHT processes, the hardness of the stress. Also, the slow cooling favours the formation of softer
samples in the weld zone reduced. The annealed sample showed ferrite phase (continuous matrix) at low carbon content (<0.1
the lowest hardness with a value of 197 6 1.3HV0.3 whereas the per cent). Hence, annealing the weld sample resulted in
post tempered sample exhibited an average hardness of 211 6 1.9 significant reduction in hardness. Compared with the post-
HV0.3 in the weld zone. The average hardness of the as-welded annealed sample, the better hardness properties exhibited by the
and PWHTed samples in the HAZ showed no significant post-tempered sample can be attributed to well refined grain
difference as it ranges between 200 and 210 HV0.3. An important structure exhibited by the sample, as shown in Figure 4. Also,
observation is that the hardness of PWHTed samples is relatively quenching of the thermally treated sample in water would have
more uniform across the entire weldment. However, the as- favoured the formation of martensite in the austenite matrix.
welded sample showed otherwise as the weld zone exhibited Austenite is a high temperature phase (relatively hard) while
significantly higher hardness compared to the HAZs and the base martensite is a harder phase formed due to rapid solidification of
metal, as shown in Figure 5. The hardness of the base metal (i.e. molten steel. Though the hardness of the tempered sample is
as-received metal) was measured to be 204.8 6 1.1 HV0.3. closer to the as-welded sample, the slight gap in the hardness
The significantly high hardness in the weld zone of the as- could be traced to the noticeable presence of Cr-rich carbides in
welded sample can be traced to the formation of the Cr-rich the as-welded joint. These carbides are significantly missing in
carbides around the grain boundaries and possible formation of the post-tempered joint, as previously explained in section 3.1.
martensite. Martensite is believed to have been formed in the
weld zone of the as-welded sample because of the rapid cooling 3.3 Tensile properties
of the weld pool after the welding process (Abioye et al., The summary of the tensile test results including the tensile
2019b). Chuaiphan and Srijaroenpramong (2014) have strength and the elongation of the as-received, as-welded and

Table III EDX Analysis of the white precipitates and grey matrix as identified in the Figure 3
Phase Fe Cr Ni Mn
White precipitate 9.9 6 0.4 64.3 6 1.3 24.2 6 1.5 1.6 6 0.2
Grey-contrast continuous matrix 63.3 6 1.7 21 6 1.2 12.5 6 0.8 3.2 6 0.2

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PWHTed samples are presented in Table IV. It is evident that Figure 6 Tensile test specimens after fracture
the as-received metal (i.e. base metal) has the highest tensile
strength and elongation of 515 6 5.6 MPa and 43.8 6 1.1 per
cent. The as-welded sample exhibited tensile strength value of
416 6 5.8 MPa and elongation of 12.4 6 1.3 per cent, which
are, respectively, 80.8 per cent and 28.3 per cent of the base
metal. The drop in the tensile strength and significant drop in
the elongation (i.e. ductility) can be traced to high hardness
exhibited by the weldment due to the precipitation of the hard
and brittle Cr-rich carbides around the grain boundaries.
The possible formation of martensite is also a cause of the
reduction in tensile strength and elongation in the as-welded
sample. It has been established that harder materials are more
brittle and exhibit low ductility. Figure 6 presents the tensile
test specimens after testing. Unlike the as-received metal which
fractured near one of the grips, the as-welded specimen
fractured at the middle of the weld joint. This is believed to be
the region where localized stress and strain are quickly built up
because of large difference in hardness between the weld zone
and HAZ (Ogedengbe et al., 2018). As a result, fracture
occurred at this region after necking.
trace of flat surface. According to Bobbili et al. (2016), presence
Post-annealing of the weldment resulted in 5 per cent
of dimples indicates occurrence of ductile fracture while
reduction in the tensile strength and 20 per cent increase in
elongation when compared with the as-welded sample. The formation of flat surface is an evidence of brittle fracture. The
reduction in the tensile strength after post-annealing process as-welded sample comprise of both large dimples and some flat
was earlier reported by Emre and Kacar (2015) while studying surfaces. This indicates the fracture mechanism in the as-
the effects of PWHT on the mechanical properties of dissimilar welded is both ductile and brittle.
friction stir welded N80 grade steel and 42CrMo4 grade The occurrence of brittle fracture mode in the as-welded
medium-carbon steel. However, the tempered sample showed sample can be traced to the exceptionally high hardness found
significant improvement in both the tensile strength and in the joint. This made the joint to be brittle. The PWHTed
elongation (i.e. ductility). The tempered sample showed tensile sample has collection of small dimples called microvoids. The
strength of 458 6 8.1 MPa and elongation of 15.3 6 1.2 per predominant presence of small dimples in the post-tempered
cent. This is an improvement of about 10.1 per cent in tensile samples can be attributed to occurrence of grain refinement
strength and about 23.4 per cent in elongation over the as- (Panigrahi and Jayaganthan, 2011) while that of the post-
welded sample. The improvements are due dissolution of the annealed sample is because of the reduction of the residual
precipitated carbides during the PWHT as well as refined-grain stresses at the joints. According to Jamaludin et al. (2015), high
and more homogeneous microstructure of the weld zone after ductility can be explained by observing the small and deep
the tempering process. Dissolution of carbides improves the dimples on the fracture surface of the sample. As a result, the
toughness while better grain refinement impedes dislocation ductility was improved and this is proved by the occurrence of
movement which invariably improves toughness. Also, some small dimples in the entire fracture surfaces of the PWHTed
retained martensite during rapid cooling of heated sample in samples after the tensile test.
water is believed to have improved the strength of the sample.
The lower strength demonstrated by the post-annealed sample,
as compared with the as-welded sample, is probably because of 3.5 Impact strength
dominant formation of softer ferrite phase which otherwise Figure 8 shows the impact energy of the as-received (i.e. base
improved the ductility of sample. metal), as-welded and PWHTed samples. It is evident that the
base metal has the highest impact energy (62 6 2.0 J) while the
3.4 Fracture surface analysis as-welded sample shows the least impact energy with a value of
Figure 7 presents the SEM (secondary mode) micrographs of 32 6 1.8 J. After the as-welded samples were subjected to
the fractured samples after the tensile test. The base metal and PWHT processes, the impact energy of the samples
the PWHTed samples showed evidence of ductile fracture significantly increased. The post-annealed sample showed the
because the entire samples, as seen in Figures 7(a), 7(c) and highest impact energy with a value of 55 6 0.9 J while the
7(d), comprises dimples of different sizes with no significant tempered sample showed the value of 42 6 1.2 J.

Table IV Tensile properties of the gas metal arc weldment before and after PWHT processes
Samples Post-annealed Post-tempered As-welded Base metal
Tensile strength (MPa) 397 6 4.5 458 6 8.1 416 6 5.8 515 6 5.6
Elongation (%) 14.9 6 0.6 15.3 6 1.2 12.4 6 1.3 43.8 6 1.1

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Figure 7 SEM micrographs showing fracture surface after tensile test

Figure 8 Impact energy of the base metal, as-welded and post-weld high brittleness at the joint. As a result, the toughness of the
heat treated samples weldment at the joint is reduced.
Increase in the impact energy of the as-welded samples after
PWHT processes could be associated with phase
transformation of the samples and effect of the stress relief. In
the case of post-annealing process, the slow cooling of the
sample in the furnace after heating above recrystallization
temperature would have resulted in stress relief hence,
increased ductility. This is because of the predominant
formation of soft ferrite matrix in the microstructure of the
annealed sample. Improvement in the impact energy shown by
the post-tempered sample over the as-welded is adjudged to be
because of the refined grain structure and dissolution of the Cr-
rich carbide precipitates. Refined grain structure impedes the
dislocation movements therefore, increases the toughness.
Elimination of carbides in the weld joint microstructure
reduced the hardness and brittleness at the joint. Hence, the
toughness was improved.

3.6 Corrosion resistance

The cyclic polarization curves for the as-welded, post-annealed
and post-tempered samples are presented in Figure 9. The
Low impact energy or toughness exhibited by the as-welded samples were cut from the centre of the joint. It can be inferred
sample can be partly traced to the thermal stress stored in the from the summary of curves presented in Table V that the post-
sample during welding operation. The high brittleness, due to tempered sample exhibited the highest corrosion performance.
high hardness of the weld zone of the as-welded sample, would The corrosion properties of the AISI 304 stainless steel (i.e. the
have also contributed to the low impact energy. Martensite base metal) has been investigated, under similar condition, by
formation and Cr-rich carbide precipitation during the author in the past (Abioye, 2017). The result is also
solidification of the molten pool which is responsible for the included in the Table V. Comparing the base metal with the as-
high hardness at the weld joint is believed to have caused the welded, the base metal exhibited better corrosion properties

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Figure 9 Cyclic polarization curves of the joints of the AISI 304 exhibited the highest corrosion potential ( 343 V). The
stainless steel gas metal arc weldments before and after post-annealing significant improvement exhibited by the post-tempering
and post-tempering treatments process is because of a number of factors. Firstly, the
dissolution of the precipitates in the post-tempered welded
joint would have reduced the effects of the galvanic corrosion
mechanism and Cr depletion around the grain boundaries.
Secondly, an improved microstructure which is because of
possible recrystallization of the grains to a more refined grain
structure is believed to have enhanced the corrosion
performance of the tempered joint.

4. Conclusion
The effects of post-annealing and post-tempering on the
microstructure, mechanical and corrosion properties of AISI
304 stainless steel gas metal arc weldment have been
investigated. The microstructure of the as-welded joint is
predominantly characterized with sub-granular grain structure
and formation of continuous matrix and Cr-rich precipitates.
Consequently, the as-welded joint exhibited higher hardness
than that of the post-tempered and post-annealed joints. The
hardness of the entire weldment (base metal 1 HAZ 1 welded
joint), after the PWHTs, is more uniform than that of the as-
Table V A Summary of the corrosion performance of the base metal, as welded. This was because of the stress-relieved effect of the
welded joint and PWHTed joints annealing and removal of the Cr-rich precipitates in the weld
Sample Log I ( m A cm 1) Ecorr (mV) joint subjected to post-tempering process.
Post-tempering process resulted in improvements of 10 per
As-welded (AW) 3.1  10 3
503.978
cent in tensile strength, 23 per cent in percentage elongation
Annealed (AN) 1.3  10 5 501.736
and 31 per cent in impact strength and significantly enhanced
Tempered (TP) 1.4  10 6 343.761
the corrosion resistance (welded joint) of the gas metal arc AISI
AISI 304 SS (base metal) 1.03  10 4 480. 452
304 stainless steel weldment. Post-annealing treatment of the
weldment showed 20 per cent and 72 per cent
because its current density is lower and its corrosion potential is improvements in elongation and impact strength, respectively,
higher than that of the as-welded sample. It was established in but 5 per cent deterioration in the tensile strength. Better
the past that low passive current density connotes high improvements obtained after the post-tempering treatment are
resistance to corrosion damage because formation of passive because of the refined grain structure and Cr-rich carbides
layer at low current density hinders severe loss of material (or dissolution in the welded joint. The entire post-weld heat
damage) at higher current density (Ghorbani et al, 2017; treated weldments exhibited ductile fracture mode while the as-
Brytan et al., 2016). Also, a material with higher corrosion welded sample showed a combination of brittle and ductile
potential (Ecorr) are known to be nobler (i.e. better corrosion fracture after being subjected to tensile test.
resistance) than another material with lower Ecorr (Chuaiphan
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Vach, M., Kuníková, T., Dománková, M., Ševc, P., Caplovič, 10.1186/s10033-019-0336-8.
L’., Gogola, P. and Janovec, J. (2008), “Evolution of
secondary phases in austenitic stainless steels during long- Corresponding author
term exposures at 600, 650 and 800°C”, Materials Taiwo Ebenezer Abioye can be contacted at: teabioye@
Characterization, Vol. 59 No. 12, pp. 1792-1798. futa.edu.ng

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