Experimental Investigation of Electrode Drying and PWHT on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of P91 Steel Welding Joint

P91 steel is widely used in the construction of power plant components and the wider use of this steel is in the future planning of power plants in Iran. The preheating, the temperature control between the welding passes and the post-welding heat treatment, are required to obtain optimum toughness and creep resistance. Preheating, and most importantly post-heating are essential to prevent hydrogen remaining and the cracking problem. In this study, the effect of post-welding heat treatment (PWHT) and electrode drying on microstructure and mechanical properties of SMAW multi-pass weldment of P91 steel plate was studied by changing post-heating and baking processes. The optical microscope and FESEM microstructural studies, as well as ambient tensile tests, were done on a variety of different conditions from wet electrodes to post heated specimens that were used in order to evaluate the welding characteristics of SMAW process on the mentioned material. It was seen that utilizing wet electrodes with no immediate subsequent post-heating caused a noticeable decrease in tensile, and yield strength. On the other hand, post-heating treatment increases the number of precipitates in the weld metal and HAZ and the size of the primary austenite grains in the weld metal and HAZ becomes more homogeneous.