Hardening Embrittlement and Non-Hardening Embrittlement of Welding-Heat-Affected Zones in a Cr-Mo Low Alloy Steel.

The embrittlement of heat affected zones (HAZs) resulting from the welding of a P-doped 2.25Cr-1Mo steel was studied by the analysis of the fracture appearance transition temperatures (FATTs) of the HAZs simulated under a heat input of 45 kJ/cm with different peak temperatures. The FATTs of the HAZs both with and without tempering increased with the rise of the peak temperature. However, the FATTs were apparently lower for the tempered HAZs. For the as-welded (untempered) HAZs, the FATTs were mainly affected by residual stress, martensite/austenite (M/A) islands, and bainite morphology. The observed embrittlement is a hardening embrittlement. On the other hand, the FATTs of the tempered HAZs were mainly affected by phosphorus grain boundary segregation, thereby causing a non-hardening embrittlement. The results demonstrate that the hardening embrittlement of the as-welded HAZs was more severe than the non-hardening embrittlement of the tempered HAZs. Consequently, a post-weld heat treatment should be carried out if possible so as to eliminate the hardening embrittlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]