In situ monitoring of weld transformations to control weld residual stresses

The level of residual stresses generated in fusion welds has been a major area of interest for many years. For steels, a major influence on the final state of stress is through martensitic transformation. This is because the martensitic transformation is accompanied by significant shear and volume strains. One way to mitigate the development of residual stress is by controlling the onset of the transformation such that the associated strain is able to compensate for thermal contraction all the way down to ambient temperatures. In the past it has only been possible to follow the evolution of the phase transformation during cooling of the weld metal using indirect methods such as dilatometry and differential scanning calorimetry. This paper describes the first work in which the phases present are characterized directly during the cooling of reheated weld metal at conditions typical of those encountered during welding by installing a thermomechanical simulator on a synchrotron diffraction beam line at ESRF.