Effect of Welding Processes on Corrosion Resistance of UNS S31803 Duplex Stainless Steel

An attractive combination of corrosion resistance and mechanical properties in the temperature range -50 to $250^{\circ}C$ is offered by duplex stainless steel. However, undesirable secondary precipitation phase such as $\sigma$, $\gamma_2$ and $Cr_2N$ may taken place at the cooling stage from the welding processes. Therefore, this paper describes the influence of different welding procedures such as manual metal arc welding (MMA), tungsten inert gas welding (TIG) and vacuum brazing on corrosion resistance of the welded joint for UNS S31803 duplex stainless steel. Microstructure and chemical compositions of the welded joint were examined. The weight loss of specimens immersed in 6% $FeCl_3$ solution at $47.5^{\circ}C$ for 24-hours was determined and used to evaluate the pitting resistance of duplex stainless steel and their welds. The region of heat-affected zone of specimen obtained by the MMA is much wider than that resulted from TIG, therefore, the weight loss of welds by MMA was larger than that of weld by TIG. The weight loss of brazed specimens cooled from slow cooling rate was larger than those of specimens cooled from high cooling rate, because the precipitation of $\sigma$ phase. Beside that, the weight loss of brazed specimen is greater than those of the welded specimens. The galvanic corrosion was observed in brazed duplex stainless steel joints in the chloride solution.