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Fatigue Crack Growth on Flash Butt Welded and Laser Beam Welded Joints in a High-Strength Low-Alloy Steel

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Abstract

High strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels have been employed in the automotive industries to produce chassis, part of suspensions, and truck wheels, among others. They present good strength and mechanical toughness, in addition to good formability and weldability. However, good weldability depends on the welding process and parameters. For mechanical components with occurrence of cracks, fatigue life can be quantified by the fatigue crack growth stage. This paper aims to evaluate the fatigue crack growth in HSLA steel plates welded by flash butt welding and laser beam welding. The different welding processes and welding parameters used resulted in their distinct microstructures. The different microstructures showed significant differences in hardness; however, they showed no significant differences in fatigue crack growth. Moreover, the weld beads showed higher resistance to fatigue crack growth when compared to the base metal. For cracks propagating across the weld beads obtained by laser beam welding, with crack initiating at the base metal and growing toward the heat-affected zone and weld bead, a drop in the fatigue crack growth rate was observed as the crack tip approached the microstructure gradient found between these regions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to company IOCHPE-MAXION for making the steel plates available. To Eng. MSc. Carla I.S. Maciel for collaboration in some of the FCG tests conducted in this work. H.V. Ribeiro also acknowledges the Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (CAPES) for the scholarship. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca, CEFET/RJ, Rua do Areal, 522, Parque Mambucaba, Angra dos Reis/RJ, 23953-030, Brazil

    Henrique Varella Ribeiro

  2. Department of Materials Engineering, EEL-USP, University of São Paulo, Polo Urbo-Industrial, s/N, Lorena/SP, 12602-810, Brazil

    Henrique Varella Ribeiro, Filipe Corrêa Pinto & Carlos Antonio Reis Pereira Baptista

  3. Institute for Advanced Studies, IEAv-DCTA. Trevo Cel. Av. José Alberto Albano do Amarante, São José dos Campos/SP, 12228-001, Brazil

    Milton Sérgio Fernandes Lima

  4. Materials Engineering Department, SMM, EESC-USP, University of São Paulo, Av. João Dagnone, 1100, São Carlos/SP, 13563-120, Brazil

    José Benedito Marcomini

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  1. Henrique Varella Ribeiro
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Correspondence to Henrique Varella Ribeiro.

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Ribeiro, H.V., Lima, M.S.F., Marcomini, J.B. et al. Fatigue Crack Growth on Flash Butt Welded and Laser Beam Welded Joints in a High-Strength Low-Alloy Steel. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 31, 7686–7694 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-022-06795-4

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