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Improvement of sulfide stress corrosion cracking resistance of the Inconel 625/X80 weld overlay by post-weld heat treatment

  • Metals & corrosion
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Abstract

The effect of post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) on the microstructure, penetration and distribution of hydrogen, and sulfide stress corrosion cracking (SSCC) behavior was investigated to improve the cracking resistance of Inconel 625/X80 dissimilar weld overlay. Among nine candidate PWHT procedures, only the PWHT at 620 °C/20 h could improve the SSCC resistance of the overlay as no crack but only shallow pits were observed in the fusion boundary (FB) region. This PWHT procedure decreased the microhardness, increased the fraction of low-angle grain boundaries, eliminated the susceptible microstructure to hydrogen embrittlement, and therefore enhanced the SSCC resistance of the heat-affected zone. Further, in addition to the decrease of misorientation at the FB, the enhanced SSCC resistance of the FB after PWHT was mainly owing to precipitation of dispersed M23C6 carbides, which may reduce the amount of diffusible hydrogen within the martensite layer and prevent localized hydrogen concentration from reaching the cracking threshold.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52001264)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of New Energy and Materials, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

    Lijin Dong, Guiyu Wu, Yan Zhang, Zhenyan Shi, Qinying Wang & Li Liu

  2. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2G6, Canada

    Shidong Wang

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Contributions

Lijin Dong: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, funding acquisition, writing—original draft. Guiyu Wu: writing—original draft, investigation; Yan Zhang: investigation; Zhenyan Shi: investigation; Shidong Wang: supervision; Qinying Wang: supervision, funding acquisition; Li Liu: validation: supervision.

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Dong, L., Wu, G., Zhang, Y. et al. Improvement of sulfide stress corrosion cracking resistance of the Inconel 625/X80 weld overlay by post-weld heat treatment. J Mater Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-09731-0

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