Effect of Heat Input of Submerged Arc Welding Process on the Corrosion Behavior of API X42 Gas Pipeline Steel Weld Joint

The effect of heat input of submerged arc welding process on the corrosion bahavior of weld metal of API X42 gas pipeline steel weld joint was investigated. For this purpose, 6 annealed sheets of 15mm thickness were prepared from the X42 microalloyed steel. Submerged arc welding process with varying heat input of 37.8, 18.9 and 12.6 kJ/mm was used for joint welding. Then potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy methods were used to evaluate the corrosion behavior of the welded joints (in 3.5% NaCl solution). The evaluation of the microstructures of the welded metals in the weld joints were conducted using the scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction was used for the analysis of the phases formed in the weld metal microstructure. Scanning electron microscopy observations and patterns obtained from the X-ray diffraction showed that the increase in heat input resulted in the increase in the amount of ferrite. The grain size also increased. Corrosion test results showed that by increasing the heat input of the weld process, the corrosion resistance increased.