Sensitization of 21% Cr Ferritic Stainless Steel Weld Joints Fabricated With/Without Austenitic Steel Foil as Interlayer

The effects of sensitization heat treatment on the microstructure and electrochemical behavior of 21% Cr ferritic stainless steel weld joints with or without 309L austenite stainless steel as an interlayer were investigated. The joints were processed by pulsed gas tungsten arc welding. With the interlayer, grains in weld bead were refined, and almost fully ferrite. When the joints with the interlayer were maintained at 500 °C for 1 and 4 h, no microstructure changes occurred, whereas Widmanstatten austenite and needle-like austenite formed in the weld bead after sensitization at 815 °C for 1 h. In general, sensitization treatment worsens the corrosion resistance of welds, but the resistance of samples with the 4-h treatment at 500 °C recovered in part compared to those subjected to sensitization at 500 °C for 1 h. This could be due to Cr diffusion from the ferrite that heals the chromium-depletion zone along the grain boundary. However, an increase in temperature does not have the same effect. The corrosion morphology of samples in the weld bead is different from those in base metal after heat treatment at 500 °C for 1 h; in base metal, pitting corrosion occurs, whereas grain boundary corrosion occurs in the weld bead. Corrosion morphology is closely associated with precipitation and segregation along the grain boundary.