The Effect of Weld Metal Manganese Content on the Microstructure, Mechanical Properties and Hot Crack Susceptibility of Helically Welded Linepipes

The effect of manganese addition on decreasing hot crack susceptibility of submerged arc welding in microalloyed steels is well understood, but its increment should not cause unsuitable changes in metallurgical and mechanical properties of weld metal. Therefore, since weld metal Mn content in SAW process is mainly controlled by welding wire composition, the aim of this investigation is to study the effect of wire Mn content on the microstructure, mechanical properties and hot crack susceptibility of helical linepipes weld metal. In this regard, three different wires with 0.88, 1.05 and 1.54 wt% of Mn content were selected and welding was performed in both experimental and production process condition of X70 helical linepipes. As a result, 1.26, 1.44 and 1.67 wt% of Mn in weld metal was obtained respectively. Metallographical examinations using optical and scanning electron microscopy showed that, increasing the amount of Mn in weld metal, decrease the grain size of all phases (acicular ferrite, primary ferrite and ferrite with aligned second phase). Moreover, in the expense of increasing acicular ferrite, the volume fraction of primary ferrite (mostly grain boundary ferrite) and ferrite with aligned second phase decreased. Also, the results of mechanical properties indicated that the higher the amount of Mn, the higher the strength and hardness of weld metal, but in the case of impact toughness and tensile elongation, an optimum level was observed and lower toughness in the highest Mn content weld metal is attributed to the increasing hardenability and thus formation of martensite/retained austenite islands and grain boundary carbides in coincident sites of acicular ferrite grains. Moreover, analyzes in more than 1000m helical linepipes weld metal length showed that increasing weld metal Mn content up to 1.4wt%, reduced the possibility of hot crack formation from total percentage of 0.005 to around 0.001.