EVALUATION OF SENSITIZATION IN GAS TUNGSTEN ARC WELDED AISI 304 STAINLESS STEEL

In this study, the temperature distribution of an AISI 304 stainless steel during gas tungsten arc welding is modeled by using the Goldak's three-dimensional moving heat source. A C++ program is developed in order to employ the heat inputs into finite difference thermal simulation of the welded plate. By simulating the temperature distribution and shape of the weld pool, effect of welding parameters such as current and welding speed on the sensitization, weld width and weld depth are evaluated. Results show that the width and depth of weld and sensitized zone increase with raising the current while the sensitization location decreases. The effect of welding speed is vice versa. To verify the simulated results, currents of 160, 200 and 240 A and welding velocity of 2 mm/s are selected for experiments. Good agreement is obtained between the simulated and experimental results.