Effect of Heat Treatments on Welding Residual Stresses of 18% Ni Maraging Steel

18% Ni 마레이징강의 용접 잔류 응력에 미치는 열처리의 영향

One of the most interesting and promising steel groups considered for the rocket motor case, aircraft and aerospace component is the maraging(martensitic plus aging) nickel steel, developed by International Nickel Company in 1960. This material attains a very high strength with good fracture toughness by simple heat treatments which do not involve a quenching. Full strength can be obtained by "maraging" at 480.deg. for 3 hours for the 18% Ni maraging steel. The effect of heat treatments was considered on the residual stress field of 18% Ni maraging steel weldments. In experiments, various heat treatments such as stress relieve heat treatment, aging and solution heat treatment were carried out of the GTA weldments and the residual stresses were measured by using the hole drilling method. Whereas the conventional pattern of residual stress shows the stresses to be maximum along the weld centerline with tensile stress extending into the heat affected zone, the pattern in maraging steels shows the centerline stress to be compressive. After welding, a series of aging, solution heat treatment and solution heat treatment plus aging treatment were carried out and the residual stresses were measured to reveal that these heat treatments almost completely remove the welding residual stresses.