Investigation on Effect of Heat Input on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Hadfield Steel Weld Joints in SMAW Process

In this investigation, the effect of heat input of SMAW process on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Hadfield steel weld joints was investigated. For this purpose, 4 annealed sheets with thickness 2 mm prepared from Hadfield steel and then welding applied by SMAW process with 6.75 and 11.25 kJ/mm heat input values. The evaluation of the microstructures of welding joints was conducted by optical microscopy and the joints mechanical properties were examined by tensile, charpy impact and microhardness measuring tests. The results indicated that by increasing the heat input in the SMAW process, microstructure consisted from smaller grains, and strength and microhardness increased but impact energy was reduced.