Study on the impact toughness and crack propagation behavior of Ti microalloyed weathering steel laser-MAG hybrid welded joints

In this work, the effect of Ti microalloying on the impact toughness of weathering steel laser-MAG hybrid welded joints was investigated and the corresponding crack initiation and propagation mechanisms were revealed. The results show that the impact toughness of heat affect zone (HAZ) increased by 39.4% and weld metal (WM) by 70.9% compared to Ti-free weathering steel welded joints. The degree of improvement in impact toughness gradually increases with the direction from BM (base metal) to WM. In the WM, Ti element can refine the precipitations and reduce the shape and size of M-A constituents. Furthermore, the microstructure in the WM exhibits the obvious preferred orientations, i.e., the maximum IPF intensity value are concentrated around the [111] pole (the slip direction of BCC structure), which is more prone to slip under external forces. In the HAZ, the addition of Ti mainly plays a role in decreasing the size of precipitations, inducing AF precipitation and increasing the homogeneity of grain size. Therefore, the impact toughness of WM and HAZ for Ti microalloyed weathering steel welded joints is improved by hindering the crack propagation. In addition, in the WM, the main crack path is flatter and the number of secondary cracks is more than that in the HAZ, indicating that the impact toughness of WM is poorer.