Microstructural Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Fusion Welds and Simulated Heat-Affected Zones in an Iron-Copper Based Multi-Component Steel

NUCu-140 is a copper-precipitation strengthened steel that exhibits excellent mechanical properties with a relatively simple chemical composition and processing schedule. As a result, NUCu-140 is a candidate material for use in many naval and structural applications. Before NUCu-140 can be implemented as a replacement for currently utilized materials, a comprehensive welding strategy must be developed under a wide range of welding conditions. This research represents an initial step toward understanding the microstructural and mechanical property evolution that occurs during fusion welding of NUCu-140.;The following dissertation is presented as a series of four chapters. Chapter one is a review of the relevant literature on the iron-copper system including the precipitation of copper in steel, the development of the NUCu family of alloys, and the formation of acicular ferrite in steel weldments. Chapter two is a detailed study of the precipitate, microstructural, and mechanical property evolution of NUCu-140 fusion welds. Microhardness testing, tensile testing, local-electrode atom probe (LEAP) tomography, MatCalc kinetic simulations, and Russell-Brown strengthening results for gas-tungsten and gas-metal arc welds are presented. Chapter three is a thorough study of the microstructural and mechanical property evolution that occurs in the four critical regions of the HAZ. Simulated HAZ specimens were produced and evaluated using microhardness, tensile testing, and charpy impact testing. MatCalc simulations and R-B strengthening calculations were also performed in an effort to model the experimentally observed mechanical property trends. Chapter 4 is a brief investigation into the capabilities of MatCalc and the R-B model to determine if the two techniques could be used as predictive tools for a series of binary iron-copper alloys without the aid of experimentally measured precipitate data.;The mechanical property results show that local softening occurs in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) as a result of either full or partial dissolution of the copper-rich precipitates responsible for strengthening. Re-precipitation of the copper-rich precipitates was observed during the cooling portion of the weld thermal cycle but the resultant precipitate phase fractions were too low to fully recover the lost strength. The coarse-grained HAZ and fusion zone exhibited an acicular type microstructure which led to improved tensile properties when compared to the other regions of the HAZ. MatCalc simulations displayed excellent agreement with the precipitate parameters measured experimentally using the LEAP. The R-B model was shown to provide reasonable agreement under select conditions, but in general was determined to be overly sensitive to small variations in precipitate parameters. As a result in should be considered a qualitative tool only for precipitate radii less than ∼2 nm. Finally, it was determined that the current generation of MatCalc software was unable to accurately capture the precipitate evolution of various binary iron-copper alloys when experimental data sets were not available for calibration of the model parameters.