Weldability of Austenitic Stainless Steels

Hot cracking is an important problem encountered during the welding of austenitic stainless steels. It is known that hot cracking occurs by the formation of low melting eutectic phases in the solidifying weld metal and in the heat-affected zone(HAZ), under the action of shrinkage stresses and restraint imposed on the joint (ref. 1-3). In the HAZ, cracking occurs by liquation of grain boundaries in the partially melted zone adjacent to the fusion line and in previously deposited weld metal in a multipass weld (ref.4).