Materials and Design 109 (2016) 615–621

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Materials and Design

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Gas metal arc welding of dissimilar AHSS sheets

Kornél Májlinger a, Eszter Kalácska a, Pasquale Russo Spena b,⁎
a
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Bertalan Lajos str. 7, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary
b
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Faculty of Science and Technology, Piazza Università 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Dissimilar gas metal arc welding

(GMAW) between TWIP and TRIP steels
has been investigated.
• After a pilot experimentation, proper
welding parameters have been set to
obtain sound TWIP/TRIP joints.
• Microstructure, hardness, mechanical
strength and failure mode describe
joints quality and their mechanical per-
formance.
• The fracture of the welded tensile sam-
ples always occurred within the fusion
zone in a ductile manner.
• GMAW can be a solution to assemble
car body parts made of TWIP and TRIP
steels.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is one of the most common methods used in the automotive industry to assem-
Received 30 May 2016 ble car body parts of dissimilar high strength steels. Load bearing capacity of these components depends largely
Received in revised form 7 July 2016 on the quality (e.g. absence of cracks, microstructure and mechanical strength) of weldments. In this context,
Accepted 17 July 2016
GMAW, with the use of an austenitic steel filler, of a new advanced high strength TWIP sheet steel and a TRIP
Available online 18 July 2016
sheet steel is investigated in this research. Quality of butt weld beads being examined in terms of processing, mi-
Keywords:
crostructure, and mechanical properties. The grain coarsening and microstructural changes, as well as volumetric
Advanced high strength steel fraction of each phase, in the heat affected zone at the TWIP and TRIP side of the joint were also determined. The
Transformation induced plasticity steel optimal heat input range needed to obtain good quality joints was determined, achieving ultimate tensile
Twinning induced plasticity steel strengths over 585 MPa and fracture elongations over 9%.
Gas metal arc welding © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Quantitative metallography
Mechanical strength

1. Introduction
Presently, the automotive industry is increasingly pay attention to
environmental sustainability and to ensure vehicles with an improved
passenger safety (i.e. crashworthiness). To cope with these aims, high
strength steels (HSSs) and advanced high strength steels (AHSSs) are
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pasquale.russospena@unibz.it (P. Russo Spena).
more and more employed to fabricate car body components for vehicle
chassis and passenger compartment. The most common steel grades of
these categories are dual phase (DP) steels, transformation-induced
plasticity (TRIP) steels, multi-phase (MP) steels and hot stamping
boron steels. These steel grades are generally joined together by
means of different welding techniques, usually spot, arc and laser
welding, in a similar or dissimilar (different steel grades welded togeth-
er) configuration. In this regard, welded joints of HSSs and AHSSs can
often exhibit relative low mechanical properties as compared with the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.07.084
0264-1275/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
616 K. Májlinger et al. / Materials and Design 109 (2016) 615–621
Table 1
Measured chemical composition of TWIP and TRIP steels and nominal composition of the
filler metal.
Chemical composition (wt.%)
Material C Mn Si Al Ni Cr
TRIP 0.27 2.1 1.52 0.25 – –
TWIP 0.51 15.0 0.46 1.00 – 0.13
AWS 307 0.08 6.62 1.45 – 9.03 19.1
parent materials since the heat input alters considerably the original mi-
crostructures in the fusion zone and in the heat affected zone (HAZ). For
this reason, new AHSSs are under research and development not only in
order to improve final performance of car body parts, but also to limit
the harmful effects of welding practises on mechanical properties of
joints, mainly regarding strength and toughness.
Twinning induced plasticity steels (also known as TWIP steels) are
one of the most promising AHSS grades to be used in the car industry.
These are fully austenitic steels - with a high amount of manganese
(10–30 wt.%) and a variable carbon content (0.05–0.70 wt.%) - that
offer an attractive combination of mechanical strength and toughness;
ultimate tensile strength over 1000 MPa and elongation at fracture
over 45% can be achieved for TWIP steels [1,2]. These properties make
TWIP steels prone to be subjected to sheet forming operations for the
fabrication of car body parts also with very complex geometries. Howev-
er, the difficulty to produce zinc coated TWIP steel sheets has limited
their use to a very few uncoated structural components. Moreover, dis-
similar laser welding of TWIP steels with traditional and advanced high
strength steels usually leads in the weldments to the formation of brittle
martensite and/or manganese segregations at the grain boundaries of
dendrites in the fusion zone [2], which have harmful effects on mechan-
ical strength and toughness. The occurrence of these microstructural is-
sues can be only prevented with the employment of proper filler metals.
Studies about similar and dissimilar welding of TWIP steels by spot and
laser welding are in the literature. Russo Spena et al. [4,5] investigated
the similar and dissimilar spot welding of TWIP steel grades and other
AHSSs, defining proper ranges of welding parameters to obtain sound
quality joints free from defects (such as cracks or metal expulsion).
Mujica et al. [6,7] studied similar and dissimilar laser welding of TWIP
steels from a microstructural and mechanical standpoint, thus deter-
mining the effects of the joining process in reducing mechanical
strength of metal parents and generating residual stresses along weld
seams. Rossini et al. [3] and Wang et al. [8] carried out similar works
on dissimilar laser welding of TWIP steels with other AHSSs and ferritic
steels, respectively. Behm et al. [9] also assessed the quality of dissimilar
laser joint of a TWIP and a ferritic steel by evaluating weld penetration
depth at varying welding speeds. Halbauer et al. [10] determined the mi-
crostructure and mechanical properties of TWIP steel joints realized by
electrode beam melting. Arc welding processes on quality of dissimilar
joint between TWIP steels and other HSS and AHSS, instead, have not
completely investigated yet. Russo Spena et al. [11,12] preliminarily in-
vestigated arc welding (MIG) of TWIP and other AHSSs (such as DP steel
and 22MnB5 hot stamping boron steel) by evaluating microstructural
and mechanical properties of joints, as well as considering the effects
of microscopic welding defects on tensile strength and fracture mode
of welded samples. However, they did not regard how welding process-
ing (i.e. parameters) could influence joints quality. In particular, the
larger heat input involved during arc welding makes this joining process
more problematic than spot and laser welding techniques. This is mainly
due to the difficulty to limit thermal deformation of sheets, welding de-
fects (such as burn through and cracks) and an excessive heating of par-
ent materials (i.e. large heat affected zones). Therefore, the assessment
of the quality of dissimilar joints of TWIP steels, in terms of processing,
microstructure, and mechanical properties, is of outmost importance
for their full exploitation in the automotive industry. In this context,
this study investigates the joint quality of dissimilar butt-welded TWIP
and TRIP steels by pulsed gas metal arc welding (GMAW), with austen-
itic steel filler wire and pure argon as shielding gas.
A pilot experimentation was carried out to define proper joining
process parameters to obtain TWIP-TRIP joints free of defects. Welded
Fe joint quality was then assessed in terms of mechanical strength by
means of uniaxial tensile tests performed on welded samples cut per-
Bal.
Bal. pendicularly to the weld bead line. Optical microscopy and scanning
Bal. electron microscopy (SEM), as well as Vickers microhardness test
were performed to evaluate the microstructural changes of the TWIP-
TRIP joints from the weld bead, through the HAZ, to the base materials.
A fractographic examination was also carried out to evaluate the mode
of fracture of the welded joints and to assess the possible presence of
microscopic welding defects.
2. Materials and experimental methods
A TWIP steel (grade TWIP1000) and a hot-dipped zinc coated TRIP
steel (grade HCTC800T or ISO 1.0948) were selected for the dissimilar
butt joints GMAW tests. The thickness of the TWIP and TRIP sheets
was 1.4 ± 0.05 mm and 0.9 ± 0.05 mm, respectively. An Ø 0.8 mm aus-
tenitic stainless steel wire, grade AWS ER 307 Si, was used as the con-
sumable electrode. This sort of filler was needed to promote the
formation of a weld bead with an austenitic microstructure, thereby
avoiding the formation of brittle microstructures (e.g. martensite, bai-
nite) or harmful second phases (e.g. manganese segregations). Table 1
summarizes the chemical composition of TWIP and TRIP steels, mea-
sured by optical emission spectroscopy (PMI master sort) and X-ray
fluorescence spectroscopy, and the nominal composition of the con-
sumable wire electrode.
For the welding tests 100 × 50 mm pieces were cut from the sheets
without edge chamfering. The AHSS sheets were cleaned before the
welding with acetone. The sheets were butt welded perpendicularly
to the roll direction to obtain 100 × 100 mm specimens. For the welding
tests, a Rehm Mega PULS 300 GMAW machine automated with a
Yamaha linear drive was used. The welding torch was perpendicular
to the sheets, the distance to the thicker sheet being 10 mm. Pure
argon 4.6 (99.996% Ar) shielding gas was applied on both the face and
root side to protect the weld bead from environmental contaminants
and oxidation, both with a flow rate of 10 l/min. The wire feed rate
was about 3.5 m/min. The sheets were mechanical clamped before
welding; they were not in direct contact to each other, at the end of
the sheets 1 mm gap (corresponding to the 1% of weld bead length)
was left to provide co-axial joints. The thickness step of the sheets was
on the torch side. A schematic drawing of the clamping device can be
seen in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of the clamping device used during the welding tests.
 K. Májlinger et al. / Materials and Design 109 (2016) 615–621 617

Table 2
Etchants used to detect the different phases in TRIP steel in optical microscopy (refer to [13]).

Color of the met. phases after etching

Etchant Chemical composition Etching time (s) Austenite Ferrite Martensite Bainite

Nital 2% 98 ml ethanol + 2 ml HNO3 10–15 Not etch. Bright Dark Not etch.
Le Pera 100 ml H2O + 1 g Na2S2O5, 100 ml ethanol +4 g C6H3N3O7 7–12 Not etch. Tan White Black
Riggsbee & Vander Arend 2 g (NH4)2S2O8 + 2 ml HF + 50 ml CH3COOH + 150 ml H2O 20–60 Lighter than ferrite Bright Darkened Not etch.
Kalling 2 g CuCl2 + 40 ml HCl + 40 ml C2H6O 10–12 White Light brown Black Brown
Marder & Benscoter Pre-etching with Nital 2% 1–2 White Off white Dark Not etch.
100 ml H2O + 10 g Na2S2O5, 20

Table 3
Results of the preliminary welding tests in terms of TWIP-TRIP joint quality.

Current (A) Voltage (V) Weld. speed (cm/min) Linear energy (kJ/m) Weld geometry

29.5 14.8 4.65 451 Not enough melting

30 15.0 4.60 470 Not enough melting
30 16.1 4.57 508 Minor deformation (shielding gas problems)/good joint
30 16.4 4.57 517 Good joint
30 17.2 4.40 563 Major deformation (arc burned on the TWIP side)
30 17.3 4.40 566 Major deformation (arc burned on the TWIP side)
31 16.3 4.40 551 Major deformation (disturbance in root side shielding gas flow)
31 17.3 4.40 585 Major deformation (arc burned on the TWIP side)
Major deformation (disturbance in root side shielding gas flow) good joint
32 16.3 4.40 569 Major deformation (disturbance in root side shielding gas flow)
32 17.3 4.40 604 Good joint
33 16.3 4.40 587 Good joint
34 16.0 4.40 593 Good joint
36 16.2 4.40 636 Minor deformation
37 16.3 4.40 658 Minor deformation
37 17.3 4.40 698 Burn through
37.4 17.4 4.40 710 Burn through
38 16.3 4.40 676 Minor deformation
38 16.3 4.57 651 Minor deformation

The wire distance from the surface was 10 mm, the welding polarity
was DC+ (direct current, wire positive) with impulse arc. A previous
GMAW pilot experimentation was carried out with the aim to define a
proper welding parameter window to obtain TWIP-TRIP joints free of
defects. The variable parameters were the welding speed (vweld), cur-
rent (I) and voltage (U). The resulting specimens were evaluated on
the basis of the macroscopic joint appearance by visual and stereo mi-
croscope examinations, including the bead size on the face and root
side (approximately 1–1.5 mm), full weld penetration and absence of
cracks. Only the sound joints were investigated further by metallogra-
phy, hardness and tensile testing. Optical microscopy was performed
on the cross section of samples extracted from the welded sheets to ex-
amine the microstructure of the base materials and weldments. These
samples were mechanically ground, polished and etched, and then ex-
amined by means of optical and SEM microscopy. An image analysis
software was used on both the optical and SEM micrographs to estimate
the volume fraction of the different microstructural phases in TRIP and
TWIP steels. As recommended by Vander Voort [13], for the quantitative
phase analysis carried out on the optical micrographs of TRIP steel and
of the joints HAZ at the TRIP side, different etchants were adopted to de-
tect austenite, ferrite, martensite and bainite. The types of etchants and
their effects on the different phases in TRIP steel are listed in Table 2.
For the TRIP base material, Le Pera etchant was used to detect bai-
nite, Marder & Benscoter etchant for austenite, and Nital for martensite.
The amount of ferrite was defined as balance. Riggsbee & Vander Arend
etchant was also used to determine the austenite ratio. Le Pera etchant
was used to assess the grain size of the TWIP steel.
After welding, another etching strategy proved to be adequate for a
quantitative phase analysis of HAZs. Kalling etchant was used to detect
martensite (black), Nital for ferrite (white) and Marder & Benscoter
etchant for austenite (white). The amount of bainite was defined as bal-
ance. Marder & Benscoter etchant was used to etch the HAZ of the TWIP
steel.
The apparent grain size of the base materials and of the welded micro-
structures (HAZ and fusion zone) was determined according to EN ISO
643 standard [14], and then converted into ASTM E112 standard [15].
Micro Vickers hardness tests were performed on the metallographic
samples to evaluate microstructural changes throughout the weldments.

Fig. 2. Typical weld defects obtained during the pilot experimentation: a) major burn through, b) minor uneven face side, c) uneven root side. A good TWIP-TRIP joint is shown in d).
618 K. Májlinger et al. / Materials and Design 109 (2016) 615–621
Fig. 3. Quality of the TWIP-TRIP joints (based on visual examination) depending on the
heat input during welding.
In particular, hardness measurements were made perpendicularly to the
welding line, across the fusion zone, HAZs, and base materials. Vickers in-
dentations were performed using a step size of 0.1 mm and a 100 g load
(HV0.1), based on the ASTM E384 standard [16].
Five standard flat tensile samples, with a 12.5 × 1 mm cross section
and a proportional gauge length (11.3√s0), were cut from the welded
samples by milling, and subsequently ground by a metallographic
grinding/polishing machine (continuous water rinsing on a P2500 SiC
paper) to achieve an even cross section throughout the whole specimen.
Fig. 4. Microstructure of the base materials in as-received conditions: a) TRIP steel SEM micrograph (A: austenite; B: bainite; F: ferrite); b) TWIP steel optical micrograph.
Fig. 5. Optical microscopy: effect of the different etchants on TRIP and TWIP steels.
The tensile samples were cut the way their longitudinal axis being per-
pendicular to the welding line. Tensile tests were performed under
quasi-static loading condition, using a constant crosshead speed of
1 mm/min, according to EN ISO 6892-1 standard [17]. Tensile tests
were also carried out on TWIP and TRIP steels for comparison (at least
three samples were tested to have consistent results). After these
tests, a SEM examination was carried out on the fracture surfaces to
evaluate the fracture modes of the welded samples and to detect the
possible presence of microscopic welding defects.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Preliminary welding tests
With preliminary welding tests, see Table 3, a parameter window to
properly join TWIP and TRIP sheets was determined. The welding pa-
rameters were varied in the following ranges: I = 30–37 A; U = 16–
17 V; vweld ≈ 4–5 cm/min, as shown in Table 3. The welded specimens
were qualified by visual and stereo microscope examinations as good
joints, minor defect (joints with uneven weld bead or root) and major
defects (cracks or other weld defects). Fig. 2 summarizes the typical
weld defects and a good TWIP-TRIP joint obtained from the pilot exper-
imental test.
The linear energy, Q, defines the heat input per unit length of weld-
ment provided to the metal sheets during the joining process. This fac-
tor gives an indication about the amount of thermal energy that should
be provided in order to obtain sound joints. Q can be calculated as
Q ¼ k U I=vweld ð1Þ
 K. Májlinger et al. / Materials and Design 109 (2016) 615–621 619

Table 4
Average grain sizes and phases of the different zones of a TWIP-TRIP weldment. Distance
from the weld center: HAZ1 1 mm, HAZ2 3.5–4 mm at the TRIP side; HAZ1 1.5–2 mm,
HAZ2 2.5–3 mm at the TWIP side. n.a. not applicable.

Grain size Metallographic phases

Position d (μm) ASTM Ferrite Bainite Martensite Austenite

TRIP BM 2.6 14.0 60.2 25.2 2.4 12.2

TRIP HAZ1 75.6 4.5 16.5 35.6 45.8 2.1
TRIP HAZ2 50.1 5.5 29.8 28.9 33.9 7.4
Weld bead n.a. n.a. – – – 100
TWIP HAZ1 47.4 6.0 – – – 100
TWIP HAZ2 20.9 8.0 – – – 100
TWIP BM 4.9 12.5 – – – 100

where k is the efficiency of the welding process (k = 0.8). From this

equation, it is clear that linear energy take into account the combined ef-
fect, in terms of heat input, of the welding parameters employed during
the preliminary welding tests. From Fig. 3, it is clear that the GMAW
joining of these two steel grades needs care, a drop in root side shielding
gas pressure can cause worse joint quality, and if the arc is on the TWIP
steel side can cause major defects because of the thin material thickness.
Overall, the heat input Q needs to be in the 500–650 kJ/m interval to
achieve a good weld quality.
3.2. Microstructure and hardness
TWIP steel exhibits a fully austenitic microstructure with an appar-
ent grain size of 4.9 μm, Fig. 4(a). TRIP steel has a mixed microstructure
that consists of ferrite, bainite, retained austenite and martensite, Fig.
4(b). Overall, the apparent grain size of TRIP microstructure is 2.6 μm.
The effects of the different etchants used to detect the amounts of the
different microstructures in the optical micrographs of TRIP steel are
shown in Fig. 5. The overall results of the quantitative phase analysis per-
formed on both the optical and SEM micrographs are reported in Table 4.
A stereo microscope image of a sound TWIP-TRIP joint and some mi-
crographs obtained from different zones of the weld bead can be seen in
Fig. 6. Overall, the joint does not exhibit any sort of macroscopic defects
and the weld bead is homogenously distributed between the two steel
sheets. The grain size and the volume fraction of the phases in the differ-
ent weld zones displayed in Fig. 6 are also listed in Table 4.
The weld bead is full austenitic due to the composition of the filler
metal employed and shows the typical dendritic solidification pattern.
No second phases or segregations have been detected in this region.
Fig. 7. Typical Vickers microhardness of a TWIP-TRIP weld bead. The maximum standard
deviation of hardness measurements is ±5 HV0.1.
The TWIP sheet remains fully austenitic after the welding process.
No phase transformations occurred at the TWIP side owing to the nature
of this steel: the HAZ only exhibits a grain recrystallization close to the
fusion zone and a grain coarsening farther away. The average apparent
grain size measured close to the fusion zone (HAZ1 region in Fig. 6(a)) is
about 50 μm. It reduces continuously moving away toward the base
metal, the grain size in the HAZ2 region of Fig. 6(b), at 1.5–2 mm from
the border of the fusion zone, is about 20 μm. The microstructure re-
mains unaffected beyond 6–6.5 mm from the border of the weld bead.
At the TRIP side, the HAZ consists of martensite next to the fusion
zone: this region austenitized during the joining process and then
cooled rapidly, thus promoting the formation of this phase. The mate-
rials did not austenitized away from the fusion zone, therefore, previous
ferrite softened, bainite and martensite tempered, while retained aus-
tenite tended to transform into bainite. The amounts of the different mi-
crostructural phases changed significantly throughout the HAZ at the
TRIP side. Moving from the base material to the fusion zone, ferrite de-
creased from ~60% to 16% and austenite from ~12% to 2%, whereas mar-
tensite and bainite phases increased from 25% and 2.4% to ~ 36% and
~46%, respectively. The TRIP steel side of the joint suffered from a larger
grain coarsening in the HAZ than TWIP steel. The grain size of the BM in-
creased from about 3 μm to 50 μm in HAZ2 region and to 76 μm in HAZ1.

Fig. 6. TWIP-TRIP joint and optical micrographs of the different zones of the welded joint.
620 K. Májlinger et al. / Materials and Design 109 (2016) 615–621

Table 5 hardness, and that the welded samples always broke in the fusion
Tensile properties of TWIP and TRIP steels, GMAW weld beads and filler metal. YS: yield zone (see Fig. 8) along with a considerable plastic deformation
strength; UTS: ultimate tensile strength; A11.3: elongation at fracture; Z: reduction of area;
FZ: Fusion Zone; n.a. not available.
(refer to the reduction of area in Table 5). In this case, the yield
strength of the weld bead can be computed as the stress at which the
Fracture UTS engineering stress vs. crosshead displacement curve first deviates
Steel location/mode YS (MPa) (MPa) A11.3 (%) Z (%)
from linearity.
TWIP -/ductile 540 ± 15 1030 ± 12 52 ± 2 9 ± 1.5 The ultimate tensile strength of the welded specimens is similar to
TRIP -/ductile 490 ± 14 795 ± 6 21 ± 1 8.5 ± 1
that of the AWS307 filler, namely from about 595 to 675 MPa, even
AWS307 -/ductile 450a 650a 42a n.a.
TWIP-TRIP FZ/ductile 350 ± 30b 635 ± 40 9.9 ± 0.6 39.5 ± 1 though the fracture elongations are notably different. As expected, this
a
is due to the more resistant steels that take part in the elongation of
Nominal.
b
Estimated.
the welded samples as compared to the filler metal. The welded sam-
ples display lower tensile strengths than the base materials, about 20
and 40% less than the TRIP and TWIP steels, and elongations at fracture,
Regardless of the different nature of the TRIP and TWIP steels, the rea-
about 80 and 50% less. However, the reductions in strength and elonga-
son for the larger grain coarsening at the TRIP side can mainly be attrib-
tion at fracture of the TWIP-TRIP samples are comparable with those ob-
uted to the ~55% less sheet thickness as compared to the other steel.
tained in previous studies about dissimilar arc welding of TWIP steels
TWIP steel has an average hardness of 240 HV0.1, while the hard-
with other HSS and AHSS steels [11,12].
ness of TRIP steel is 250 HV0.1. Fig. 7 shows the typical hardness profile
of a TWIP-TRIP butt-welded joint.
3.4. Fractographic examination of the tensile specimen
The fusion zone shows a hardness in a 200–230 HV0.1 range (the
slight scatter in hardness can be attributed to a local inhomogeneous di-
The tensile samples of TWIP and TRIP steels in as-received condition
lution) due to the fully austenitic microstructure present in this region.
broke in a ductile manner coherently to tensile properties of these
Based on the hardness profile, the extent of the HAZ at the TWIP side is
steels. The fracture of the welded samples always occurred within the
about 4 mm. There is an increase of hardness up to 2 mm from the bor-
fusion zone (Fig. 8(a) and (b)). Regardless of the tensile strength of
der of the fusion zone; this is attributed to the strengthening effect due
the welded samples, the mode of fracture was always ductile with the
to the continuous reduction in grain size. Based on hardness measure-
typical occurrence of dimples, Fig. 8(c).
ments, the HAZ at the TRIP side is about 6 mm wide, thus, it is larger
The fractographic examination of the welded samples has not
than that at the TWIP side, coherently to what was detected from micro-
highlighted any sort of microscopic defects, which could have influ-
structural examination. TRIP side austenitized close to the fusion zone
enced the strength and ductility of the joints.
during sheet joining; as a result, a hard martensite microstructure
with a peak of about 490 HV0.1 formed (the HAZ1 region of Fig. 6). In
4. Conclusions
the HAZ areas where a full austenitization did not occur, the weld
bead hardness reduces coherently to the phase transformations de-
This work has investigated the dissimilar welding of TWIP and
scribed previously, refer to Fig. 6. In particular, the hardness of the
TRIP steels sheets by means of GMAW technique, using an austenitic
HAZ2 region of Fig. 6 is about 300 HV0.1,
stainless steel filler. A proper welding parameter window has been
defined in order to obtain joints free of defects. The microstructure
3.3. Tensile test and mechanical properties of the dissimilar welded joints have
been assessed. The main results of this study can be summarized as
The main tensile properties of TWIP and TRIP steels are reported in follows:
Table 5. As well known, TWIP steel grades exhibit a significant combina-
tion of strength and ductility due to the twinning effect occurring during ­ GMAW welding of the examined TWIP and TRIP steel sheets can be ef-
plastic deformation. The tensile strength of TRIP steel grades depends fectively performed as the linear heat input is in the ~500–650 kJ/m
on the volume fraction of ferrite, bainite, austenite, and martensite. range.
The tensile properties and the fracture location of the TWIP-TRIP ­ Under the examined GMAW settings, the HAZ of the TWIP steel (aus-
welded samples are also reported in Table 5. Considering the complex tenitic grains) only exhibits a grain coarsening, whereas that at the
mechanical behavior of a weld joint, the beginning of the plastic TRIP side displays different microstructural transformations coherent-
deformation within the weld bead, and hence its yield strength, cannot ly to the distance from the weld bead.
be calculated precisely. In an attempt to define an elastic limit of TWIP- ­ The ultimate tensile strength of the welded joints is between 73% and
TRIP joints, the stress at which plastic deformation first occurs can be es- 84% of that of the weakest of the two steels (TRIP steel). Elongation at
timated assuming that the weld bead is the weakest (but most ductile) fracture of the welded joints is quite low than those of the parent
region of the welded samples. This assumption can be supported by metals, consistent with previous studies on dissimilar arc welding of
considering the chemical composition of the weld bead, its lowest TWIP steels.

Fig. 8. a) and b) Stereo microscope images of the surface at different magnifications and c) typical SEM micrograph of the fracture surface of the broken welded tensile specimens. Fracture
always occurred in the fusion zone.
 K. Májlinger et al. / Materials and Design 109 (2016) 615–621
­ The fracture of the welded joints always occurred within the weld
bead by a ductile mode of fracture (i.e. dimples). No microscopic
weld defects were detected on the fracture surfaces.
­ Overall, GMAW of dissimilar TWIP and TRIP steel combinations can be
a solution to assemble car body parts made of these steel grades, but
with the advantage that it can be automated, robotized and is faster
than TIG for example.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Free Univer-
sity of Bozen-Bolzano (P. Russo Spena), grant number: TN2001. This
paper was also supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (K. Majlinger), grant number: BO/
00294/14. Moreover, special thanks go to Enikő Réka Fábián for her
help with the metallographic sample preparation.
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