Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158

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Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Influence of welding process on Type IV cracking behavior of P91 steel

M. Divya a, C.R. Das a,n, S.K. Albert a, Sunil Goyal a, P. Ganesh b, R. Kaul b, J. Swaminathan c,
B.S. Murty d, L.M. Kukreja b, A.K. Bhaduri a
a
Metallurgy and Materials Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102, India
b
Laser Materials Processing Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452013, India
c
National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur 831007, India
d
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Influence of laser welding (LW) and shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) processes on Type IV cracking
Received 15 October 2013 behavior of modified 9Cr–1Mo (P91) steel has been investigated in this paper. The study involved
Received in revised form comparison of stress rupture lives of modified 9Cr–1Mo steel weldments prepared by SMAW and
24 June 2014
continuous wave CO2 laser welding processes. Width of the heat affected zone (HAZ) in laser weldment
Accepted 24 June 2014
Available online 1 July 2014
was found to be 1.0 mm, whereas it was
2.5 mm in SMAW weldment. The rupture lives of laser
weldment were found to be higher than SMAW weldment at higher stress level and comparable at lower
Keywords: stress level. Under similar stress levels, the creep rupture lives of 875 1C heat treated specimens were
Laser welding found to be lower than that of the base metal and cross weld specimen. These results clearly suggest that
Shielded metal arc welding
the instability of microstructure in the intercritical heat affected zone (ICHAZ) is responsible for lower
P91 steel
creep rupture lives of P91 steel weldment than the base metal. The experimentally observed variations
Type IV cracking
Lath martensite in creep cavitation have been corroborated with the results of finite element (FE) analysis.
Finite element analysis & 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Creep strength of the high chromium ferritic steels weldments
is inferior to that of the base metal. These weldments fail in the
weakest regions of the heat affected zone (HAZ), which is
sandwiched between the base metal on one side and the weld
metal on the other side. Creep cavitation in these regions becomes
the life limiting factor for the welded components during high
temperature service. Failure of the weldment in these regions
under creep conditions is known as “Type IV” cracking. Type IV
cracking is associated with the microstructural degeneration in the
HAZ of the weldment during welding and long-term service
exposure [1–8]. The microstructure in the HAZ is influenced by
the peak temperatures experienced during weld thermal cycles.
Based on these peak temperatures, the phase transformation occur
locally which causes variations in microstructure in the HAZ.
Therefore, the HAZ can be divided into three zones, viz., coarse
grain (CGHAZ), fine grain (FGHAZ) and intercritical (ICHAZ) heat
affected zone. Among these zones, FGHAZ and ICHAZ are the
weakest regions. These regions experience peak temperatures for
extremely short duration during welding which are expected to be
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 91 44 27480118.
E-mail address: chitta@igcar.gov.in (C.R. Das).
just above Ac3 (FGHAZ) and between Ac1 and Ac3 (ICHAZ) tem-
peratures. This causes solid state phase transformation and the
transformation products are distinctly different than those of the
base metal and weld metal. Lath martensite forms in the FGHAZ
have less carbon than those forms in the CGHAZ. In addition to
that, the precipitates do not dissolve completely in this region. As a
result, the strength of this region is less compared to the CGHAZ.
But in the ICHAZ, the partial transformation of tempered lath
martensite to austenite as well as partial dissolution of precipitates
takes place during heating cycle which results in formation of low
carbon martensite during cooling. During post weld heat treat-
ment (PWHT) less precipitates form in these regions compared
to the CGHAZ. However, the coarsening of partially dissolved
precipitates occurs rapidly resulting in the drop in hardness and
strength in the FGHAZ and ICHAZ. Higher strength of CGHAZ/weld
metal and the base metal than the weakest regions imposes a
microstructural constraint to the deformation behavior in these
regions which leads to the development of multi-axial loading
conditions under creep condition [1–5]. This constraint effect leads
to the creep cavitation induced intergranular failure during long-
term service. To mitigate the “Type IV” cracking in 9Cr steels,
advanced 9–12Cr ferritic steels have been developed in recent
years [6–8]. Stable microstructure of these steels at high tempera-
ture improves the creep strength. On the other hand, use of
advanced welding processes, like laser and electron beam welding

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2014.06.089
0921-5093/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158
for joining the steels, reduces the width of the HAZ significantly.
This is due to the localized heating/cooling during thermal cycling
in advanced welding process compared to SMAW or TIG process.
This has a beneficial effect in improving the creep life of weld-
ments [9].
Attempts have been made to estimate the stress and strain
distributions developed across the weldment and its consequences
on type IV creep cavitation [5,10–13] using finite element (FE)
analysis. Hayhurst et al. have extensively used physically based
continuum damage mechanics (CDM) coupled with FE analysis to
estimate the creep damage evolution and failure life of the butt-
welded components [14–17]. Hall and Hayhurst [16] and Perrin
and Hayhurst [17] had developed creep constitutive equations of
weldments considering the physical processes of dislocation sub-
structural evolution, carbide coarsening and creep cavity nuclea-
tion and growth under multiaxial state of stress. These creep
constitutive equations were incorporated in the finite element
model to study the stress and strain distribution, creep damage
evolution and failure life of the weldments [14–17].
Though, there are a large number of publications on creep
deformation of SMAW, TIG and submerged arc weld joints, similar
emphasize is not given to the effect of welding techniques on
creep deformation behavior of weldment of P91 steels prepared by
LW and SMAW processes. Therefore, the objective of the present
study is to understand the creep deformation behavior of P91 steel
weldments, prepared using LW and SMAW processes and under-
standing there deformation behavior using FE analysis.
2. Experimental details
Normalized and tempered (N&T) P91 steel was received in tube
and plate forms. Normalizing and tempering temperatures were
1050 1C for 30 min and 760 1C for 60 min, respectively. Plates of
250  150  12 mm3 were used for preparation of SMAW weld-
ments and tubes having outer diameter of 34 mm and wall
thickness of 2.5 mm were used for laser weld joints fabrication.
E9016 B9 electrodes were used for preparation of the weld pads
using SMAW process. Preheating and interpass temperatures were
maintained in the range of 200–250 1C. Welding parameters used
for preparation of weld pads are given in Table 1. In order to
remove the diffusible hydrogen, weld pads were subjected to post
weld heating at 250 1C for 30 min.
LW was performed with indigenously developed 5 kW contin-
uous wave (CW) CO2 laser machine. The raw laser beam, emanat-
ing from the laser system was folded by a 451 plane mirror and
subsequently focused with a 100 mm focal length ZnSe lens.
Focusing lens was mounted on a water-cooled copper nozzle.
Autogenous laser welding was performed by rotating the tube
which was to be joined with the focused laser beam. During the
course of laser welding, argon gas was passed through the nozzle
that served the dual purpose of shielding the materials to be
welded as well as protecting the ZnSe lens from damage due to
possible particulate emissions from the material. Experimental
parameters used for laser welding of P91 tubes were laser power:
4.15 kW; specimen rotation speed: 12 rpm (corresponding linear
speed ¼21.4 mm/s). Weldments were further subjected to
Table 1
Welding parameters used for welding of P91 steel plate using SMAW process.
Welding process Current (A) Voltage (V) Heat input (kJ/mm)
SMAW 80–90 12 1.0
149
radiographic examination and found to be free from defects. These
weldments were subjected to PWHT at 760 1C for 3 h in a muffle
furnace.
For microstructural observations, the weldment with the
dimensions of 10  5  3 mm3 and 10  5  2.5 mm3 were taken
from both the weld pads and then polished metallographically up
to diamond (1 mm) finish followed by chemical etching using
Villella's reagent. The microstructures of etched specimens were
observed under an optical electron microscope and a scanning
electron microscope (SEM). These specimens were also used for
hardness measurements across the weld interface. The Vickers
microhardness tests were carried out using a Shimadzu HMV2000
machine with 50 and 500g load. Creep tests on SMAW weldments
were carried out at stress levels of 80, 100 and 120 MPa on
specimens having 50 mm gauge length, 6 mm gauge diameter
and total specimen length of 100 mm. On the other hand, the
creep test on LW specimens was carried out having the dimen-
sions of 25 mm gauge length, 5.5 mm width and 2.5 mm thickness
with total length of 60 mm. To compare the results, the creep tests
of base metal were also carried out under similar testing
conditions.
In order to understand the microstructural features of ICHAZ
and CGHAZ, the base metal was heat-treated at temperatures of
8751 and 1175 1C for 5 min, in a muffle furnace, which are
experienced in the HAZ of the weldment during welding. These
temperatures were chosen considering the transformation start
(Ac1) and transformation finish (Ac3) temperature values for this
steel, which are 836 1C and 900 1C respectively, at a heating rate of
50 1C min  1. Though the transformation temperatures increase
with heating rate, the equilibrium transformation temperature
would be lower than that of the non-equilibrium transformation
temperatures. It may be noted that the heating and cooling rates
experienced during welding are higher substantially than that is
regularly used in a furnace. Therefore, the heating rate commonly
used in a furnace cannot simulate the actual heating rates
experienced in arc welding. Gleeble thermal cycle is commonly
used for microstructural simulation. However it does not produce
uniform microstructure with sufficient dimensions and so the
standard tensile creep tests cannot be carried out. Considering
this limitation associated with actual microstructure simulation in
Gleeble, the furnace heating has been considered in the present
investigation. Specimens heat-treated at 875 1C were subjected to
creep under similar testing conditions for base metal and weld-
ments. Though Type IV cracking is reported to occur in the FGHAZ
or ICHAZ of the weldment, for easiness ICHAZ was considered in
this study. Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) and trans-
mission electron microscopic techniques were used for the micro-
structural characterizations.
To understand the creep deformation and fracture behavior of
weldment, analysis of the stress and strain distribution across it
during creep exposure was carried out by FE analysis. Norton's
creep law relating the steady state creep rate with applied stress
(_εs ¼ Aσ n , where ε_ s is the strain rate (h  1), σ is the stress (MPa) and
A and n are the constants) was used as a constitutive equation.
The FE simulations were carried out using ABAQUS 6.10 commer-
cial software. Specimens were modeled using 3D 8 noded brick
elements for cylindrical specimens and C3D8R elements for plate
type specimens. Half of the specimen length was modeled in
analysis because of geometrical and loading symmetry. In order to
understand the effect of HAZ width on triaxiality, FE analysis was
carried out on cylindrical specimens considering width of the
ICHAZ of 0.5 and 1.5 mm. Young's modulus and Poison's ratio of
the different constituents of the ferritic steel weldment were
chosen as 109 GPa and 0.3 respectively [18]. Analysis was carried
out at a stress of 100 MPa up to 5000 h of creep exposure as the
stress distribution saturated beyond 5000 h.
150 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158

Table 2
Chemical composition of plate and tube in wt%.

Elements C Cr Mo Si Mn V S P Ni Al N Nb Fe

Plate 0.100 9.500 1.00 0.480 0.390 0.250 0.009 0.021 0.14 0.024 0.065 0.100 Bal.
Tube 0.09 9.00 0.89 0.25 0.40 0.20 0.008 0.020 0.15 0.02 0.050 0.065 Bal.
SMAW weld metal 0.100 9.00 1.00 0.24 0.700 0.170 0.012 0.009 0.500 0.03 0.055 0.06

Fig. 1. (a) Secondary electron image of N&T P91 base metal, (b) bright field TEM image of N&T P91 steel base metal, (c) EDS spectra obtained from a large precipitate marked
with a black arrow and (d) EDS spectra obtained from a smaller precipitate marked with a white arrow.

Fig. 2. Macrostructure of weldments of P91 steel prepared using (a) SMAW and (b) laser welding processes.

Fig. 3. Secondary electron image of weld metal (a) SMA weld metal and (b) laser weld metal.
 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158 151

3. Results and discussion
3.1. Microstructure of base metal and weld metal
Chemical composition (wt%) of tube and plate is given in
Table 2. Secondary electron image of base metal in tempered
condition is shown in Fig. 1(a). The microstructure of P91 steel
consists of tempered lath martensite, where M23C6 precipitates are
present along the lath, packet, block and prior austenite grain
boundaries. For these steels, two types of precipitates are reported
in literature [5,19]. Bright field transmission electron microscopic
(TEM) image of normalized and tempered steel is shown in Fig. 1(b).
The EDS spectra obtained from the bigger and fine precipitate
located at the boundaries and those inside the lath martensite are
shown in Fig. 1(c) and (d) respectively. EDS analysis confirmed that
the bigger precipitates present at the boundaries were enriched in
chromium, iron, molybdenum and carbon and its stoichiometry is
similar to that of M23C6 precipitate [20,21]. On the other hand, the
fine precipitates present inside the lath martensite were carboni-
trides either rich in Nb or V. These observations are in agreement
with those reported in literature [20,21]. Niobium and vanadium
rich carbides, nitrides and carbo-nitrides (MX) are reported to
improve creep strength of this steel [21].
Macrostructure of SMA and laser weldments is shown in Fig. 2(a)
and (b). It is clearly evident from the macrographs that the width
of the HAZ is higher in SMA weldment than that of the laser
weldment. Microstructures of SMA and laser weld metals are
shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b) respectively. From these secondary

Fig. 4. Microstructures of HAZs of SMAW weldment (a) CGHAZ, (b) FGHAZ and (c) ICHAZ; microstructures of HAZs of laser weldment (d) CGHAZ, (e) FGHAZ and (f) ICHAZ.
(For interpretation of the references to color in this figure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
152 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158
electron images it is clearly evident that precipitates are coarser in
SMA weld metal than that of the laser weld metal. This difference
is attributed to single and multiple thermal cycles experienced in
laser and SMA weld metals respectively.
3.1.1. Microstructure of weldment
SEM photomicrographs of HAZ for SMA weldment taken at a
distance of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.8 mm from the weld interface are shown
in Fig. 4(a)–(c). Similarly, SEM photomicrographs for laser weld-
ment are shown in Fig. 4(d)–(f) which are taken at distances of 0.1,
0.3 and 0.75 mm from the weld interface. Generally, thermal
cycles experienced in the HAZ are characterized by the peak
temperatures which lead to the phase transformation in HAZ.
The prior austenite grains observed at a distance of 0.5 mm from
the weld interface are relatively coarser as the peak temperature is
much higher than Ac3 transformation temperature. This causes
complete dissolution of precipitates resulting in increased carbon
content in solid solution. As a result marteniste formed in this
region has higher tetragonality and prominent straight edges as
marked in Fig. 4(a) [3].
Peak temperatures experienced at 1.0 mm and 0.3 mm dis-
tances from the weld interface of SMA and laser weldments were
just above the Ac3 temperature. In this temperature range, chro-
mium rich carbides do not dissolve completely on heating during
welding [22,23]. These undissolved precipitates act as pinning
sites and restrict the coarsening of austenite grains at lower
temperature in this region.
Therefore, fine prior austenite grains (3–8 μm) were observed
in this region, which is known as FGHAZ [22]. On the other hand,
the peak temperature experienced at 1.8 mm and 0.75 mm dis-
tances from the weld interface of SMA and laser weldments was
just above the Ac1 temperature but below the Ac3 temperature.
Thus, very fine austenite grains (1–2 μm) nucleate along the prior
austenite grain boundaries, lath, block and packet boundaries
during heating. This region is known as ICHAZ [3,8]. Austenite
formed in this region is lean in alloying elements, precisely carbon,
is well reported in literature [3]. Consequently the martensite
formed does not have a typical lath morphology due to low c/a
ratio [2,3,5]. Presence of very fine grains is indicated by red arrows
in Fig. 4(c) and (f). From these figures, it is clearly evident that
substructure is completely developed in ICHAZ of SMA weldment
as compared to laser weldment. It is worth noting that the dwell
time at a particular peak temperature in the HAZ is smaller for the
Fig. 5. IPF maps of (a) CGAHZ and (b) FGHAZ of SMAW weldment.
laser weldment than that of SMA weldment. Accordingly the
width of the HAZ is smaller in the laser weldment as observed,
Fig. 2(b). As TEM specimen preparation is difficult from actual
weldment, an EBSD study was carried out for SMA weldment as
different regions in this HAZ of the weldment were much bigger
than that of the laser weldment.
The inverse pole figure (IPF) maps obtained from CGAHZ and
ICHAZ of the weldment are shown in Fig. 5(a) and (b). The prior
austenite grain boundaries are prominent in Fig. 5(a) unlike in
Fig. 5(b) where refined/recovered grains are observed. The big
dark regions were observed at the grain boundaries in IPF map
(Fig. 5(b)). This could be due to higher step size (0.5 mm) used for
the data acquisition which was bigger than the microstructural
features. Regular grains observed in Fig. 5(b) as compared to
acicular morphology in Fig. 5(a) clearly indicate that the lath
martensite is present in the CGHAZ. The features with similar color
in the map indicate the regions having the same orientation. The
plots of grain orientation spread (GOS) for CGHAZ and ICHAZ are
shown in Fig. 6, which show marginal shift of GOS towards the left
for ICHAZ as compared to CGHAZ. Cheong and Weiland reported
that the GOS value decreased during the recrystallization in Al
alloy indicating recovery/recrystallization [24]. Similar observa-
tions were made in ICHAZ of the SMA weldment. This is in
agreement with lower dislocation density in this region as
compared to CGHAZ [3,5]
3.1.2. Microstructure of simulated HAZ
Bright field TEM images of P91 specimens which were sub-
jected to heat treatment at 1175 and 875 1C are shown in Fig. 7(a)
Fig. 6. Grain orientation spread for CGHAZ and ICHAZ of SMAW weldment.
 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158 153

and (b). The morphology of the features observed in these images weldment. This is in agreement with microstructural observation
is in good agreement with that observed in SEM images (Fig. 4) as shown in Fig. 4(f). These hardness variations clearly demonstrate
well as IPF maps (Fig. 5). Lath martensite with fine precipitates at that the width of the HAZ is lower for laser weldment as observed
the lath boundaries stacked parallely is clearly evident in Fig. 7(a). in macrographs (Fig. 2).
On the other hand, the specimen heat treated at 875 1C showed
presence of large precipitates at the boundaries and substructure
3.3. Creep deformation
(Fig. 6(b)). Presence of large precipitates inside the grain/substruc-
ture suggests the coalescence of boundaries leaving the precipi-
The comparison of creep curves of P91 base metal and heat
tates inside the grain [25].
treated specimens (875 1C/5 min) at a stress level of 120 MPa and
600 1C is shown in Fig. 9. Commonly, creep deformation of this
steel is characterized by a negligible instantaneous strain due to
3.2. Microhardness distribution
initial loading, a small transient creep strain or primary creep,
where the creep rate decreases as a function of time followed by a
The hardness distributions across the weld interface of P91
minimum creep rate region and finally tertiary or accelerated
weldments of SMA and laser weldments after PWHT are shown in
creep region, where the creep rate increases. The accumulation of
Fig. 8(a) and (b). The hardness values of SMA and laser weld
creep strain is high in tertiary creep as compared to that in
metals were found to be
400 to 450 HV0.05 and 420–450 HV0.05
respectively. This marginal difference could be due to the differ-
ence in cooling rate experienced in the respective weld metals
which also resulted in marginal difference in microstructural
features. The hardness values of the CGHAZ at 0.5 and 1.0 mm
distance from the weld interface of SMAW and laser weldments
were 495 and 510 HV0.05 respectively. The hardness value
decreased to 240 HV0.05 at 1.8 mm distance in the ICHAZ of the
weldment prepared by SMAW process whereas the hardness value
was 250 HV0.05 at 0.75 mm distance from the weld interface for
laser weldment. Lower hardness value observed in this region as
compared to CGHAZ is in agreement with that of the microstruc-
tural features observed in respective regions as discussed in
Section 3.1. The hardness values in all the regions of HAZ
decreased after PWHT. It is important to note that the hardness Fig. 9. Creep curves of base metal and simulated ICHAZ (875 1C/5 min) tested at
dip was not observed in laser weldment as was observed in SMA 600 1C and stress level of 120 MPa.

Fig. 7. Bright field TEM image of base metal heat treated at (a) 1175 1C and (b) 875 1C for 5 min.

Fig. 8. Distribution of hardness values across the weld interface of weldment prepared using (a) SMAW and (b) laser welding processes.
154 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158

transient and secondary creep regimes. It was observed that the precipitate in wt% is found to be Cr: 19.6, Fe: 47, Mo: 28.8, Ni:
sudden accumulation of creep strain occurred in all the specimens 1.4 and Si: 1.9 which is rich in solid solution alloying elements and
as a result of necking just prior to fracture (Fig. 9). Fig. 9 also this phase is known as the Laves phase.
reveals that the creep life of heat treated specimen (875 1C/5 min) The plots of variation in rupture life as a function of applied
is lower than that of the base metal under the same stress level. stress are shown in Fig. 11. It is clearly evident that the rupture life
Fig. 10(a) and (b) shows the bright field TEM images, obtained of the base metal is higher than the SMA as well as the laser
from the shoulder and the gauge region of the base metal speci- weldment. The rupture life of the heat treated ICHAZ specimen
men, creep tested at 120 MPa and 600 1C. From these secondary (875 1C/5 min) is found to be lowest among all specimens under
electron images it is apparent that the recovery was less in the similar test conditions. From Fig. 11 it is clear that the rupture life
shoulder region than in the gauge region. This also suggests that of laser weldment tested at 120 MPa is higher than the SMA
the coarsening of precipitates was more in the gauge region than weldment. But, with decreasing applied stress the differences in
the shoulder region. This observation is in line with that reported rupture lives diminished. It is believed that the triaxial stress state
by Watanabe et al. [5]. in the weldment, prepared by different welding processes, would
Abe et al. correlated the decrease in creep rate with the
formation of fine Laves phase in 9Cr steel [25,26]. Other research-
ers reported that the precipitation of Laves phase results in the
decrease of solid solution strengthening in the vicinity thereby
decreasing creep strength [26–29]. At the initial stage of Laves
phase precipitation, it impedes the movement of dislocations
resulting in lower creep rate. The recovery of dislocations within
the lath boundaries and recombination of two boundaries can
result in the disappearance of lath boundaries, leaving a row of
M23C6 carbides inside the matrix. These two simultaneous metal-
lurgical processes result in lath coarsening [25]. Reduction in
number of precipitates in the gauge section of the specimen as
compared to the shoulder region is clearly evident from the TEM
images shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b). EDS spectra taken from one of
the precipitates at the substructure boundary, indicated by an Fig. 11. Applied stresses vs. rupture life plots for base metal, SMAW and laser
arrow in Fig. 10(b), is shown in Fig. 10(c). Composition of this weldments.

Fig. 10. Bright field TEM images of specimen creep tested at 120 MPa and 600 1C (a) shoulder and (b) gauge, and (c) EDS obtained from the precipitate marked with an arrow
in (b).
 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158 155

be different as the width of the HAZ would vary depending on the stress level is attributed to the higher triaxiality in the laser
process employed. The effect of width of ICHAZ on the creep weldment [30]. On investigating the increased rupture lives on
deformation is discussed in the next section. Higher rupture life 9Cr–3W–3Co–V–Nb–B weldments made from laser as well as
for laser weldment as compared to the SMA weldment at a higher electron beam (EB) welding process, Shaju et al. reported a

Fig. 12. Cavities in the (a) SMA weldment and (b) laser weldment tested at 120 MPa and 600 1C.

Fig. 13. The distribution of triaxiality factor across the round cross weld specimens considering the ICHAZ width of (a) 1.5 mm and (b) 0.5 mm.
156 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158

triaxiality factor as high as
3 in the FGHAZ for the EB weldments
at the midsection, parallel to the stress axis [5]. These authors
showed that the rate of decrease in creep strength was more for
the EB weldment having smaller HAZ width than that for the GTA
weldment. Commonly, the failure of cross weld creep specimen
occurs in the weld metal or base metal by tensile deformation at
relatively higher stress levels whereas; by creep cavitation at
relatively lower stresses in the ICHAZ. This is further supported
by the presence of more creep cavities in the ICHAZ of creep tested
cross weld specimen tested at lower stress levels than the one
tested at higher stress level. Therefore, the presence of metallur-
gical notch increases creep rupture life at higher stress levels
where metallurgical instability does not take place in a short
period of time. Goyal et al. reported that the increased creep
rupture life accompanied by the decrease in creep ductility
resulted from triaxiality introduced through the mechanical notch
[31]. Compared to SMA weldments, metallurgical notch (the size of
ICHAZ) in the laser weldments would be sharper, and due to high
principle stress along with high hydrostatic stress in the ICHAZ,
growth of cavities would be accelerated in the later [32]. As the
principal stress and hydrostatic stress increase with triaxiality, the
rupture life becomes marginally lower at lower stress levels for the
laser weldments. This difference in rupture lives of cross weld
specimens is more prominent at lower stress levels, which needs
further investigation. It is worth noting that all creep tested
specimens had failed in the ICHAZ of the weldment, which is

Fig. 14. The distribution of triaxiality factor for flat cross weld creep specimen at (a) half depth and (b) 3/4 depth from the surface.
 M. Divya et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 613 (2014) 148–158
known as “Type IV” cracking. Fig. 12(a) and (b) shows creep
cavities observed in the ICHAZ of the creep tested specimens of
SMA and laser weldments respectively. Observation of higher
creep cavities in laser weldment compared to SMA weldments
agrees with the above discussion [30]. Failure of cross weld
specimens in the ICHAZ is further supported by lower rupture life
of ICHAZ simulated specimen, under the same tests conditions.
The hardness profile taken across the weld interface, shown in
Fig. 8(a) and (b), shows further dip in hardness in the ICHAZ of the
SMA weldment. It clearly suggests that microstructural damage
was more in the ICHAZ of SMA weldment compared to that in
laser weldment during welding. From the present investigation it
is understood that the width of the HAZ has a direct influence on
the creep rupture life of P91 steel weldments at higher stress level,
which was absent at lower stress level. Therefore, the use of
advanced welding process alone may not improve the creep
rupture life of P91 steel or similar steels where the microstructure
is unstable in HAZ at longer creep exposure. Present results and
those reported in literature suggest that the softening of the
microstructure leads to the formation of metallurgical notch (soft
zone) in the weldment. With the progress of the creep test, the
microstructure evolves continuously accompanied by decrease in
dislocation density and coarsening of precipitates in the ICHAZ or
FGHAZ. At lower stress levels, the creep cavitations take place due
to constrained deformation imposed by the surrounding hard
materials. This results in loss of ductility of the weldment.
3.4. Finite element analysis
It is important to understand the creep deformation and
damage accumulation in components after long-term service at
high temperatures. Though the replica method can be used for this
purpose, the application of this technique is limited to the surface
of the component. Therefore this technique cannot be used to
estimate the cavitation behavior which occurs in the interior of the
specimen. Difference in creep deformation characteristics of the
constituents of weldment leads to stress redistribution across it
[32]. Further, the constrained creep deformation results in multi-
axial state of stress across the weldment, as in the case of notched
specimens [33], which influences the creep deformation and
rupture behavior of the weldment. Hence, 3D FE analysis has been
carried out to understand the evolution of stress in the interior of
the weldment and its effect on creep cavitation. Since the creep
cavities were observed in the ICHAZ of the weldment predomi-
nantly, only this region was considered for the analysis. The width
of ICHAZ was considered based on hardness profile and micro-
structural variation across the respective weldments. The width of
ICHAZ in SMAW was around 1.5 mm and 0.2 mm for laser welding.
In the present study, the triaxiality was calculated from the
variation of different components of principal and von-Mises
stresses through the equation, Triaxiality Factor (TF) ¼
ðσ 1 þσ 2 þ σ 3 Þ=σ vm , where σ1 is the maximum principal stress and
σ2 and σ3 are intermediate and minimum principal stresses
respectively and σvm is the von-Mises stress. Triaxiality factor
calculated using FE analysis and found to be maximum at the
central region of HAZ for both the ICHAZ widths considered in this
analysis (Fig. 13(a) and (b)). The maximum value of TF decreased
with the increase in the width of ICHAZ. The maximum value of
TF was found to be around 2.45 for 1.5 mm width, whereas, 2.65
for 0.5 mm width. This suggests that the width of HAZ has
a significant influence on TF and rupture life. In addition to that,
the creep strain was also found to be maximum at the central
region of the ICHAZ in both the weldments. The distribution of TF
value for flat cross weld creep specimen prepared by using laser
welding process is shown in Fig. 14. The triaxiality factor with a
maximum value of 3.73 was found to be in the ICHAZ of the
157
weldment. Higher triaxiality in the ICHAZ of laser specimen is in
agreement with the observed high density of creep cavities in the
same location compared to SMAW cross weld creep specimen.
Here it is worth noting that the geometry may also have an
influence on distribution of TF. Near center region is expected to
deform in plane strain condition because of the constraint
imposed by the surrounding material. Whereas, near surface
region deforms under plane stress conditions because of the
relatively unconstrained free surface. From this argument, it is
clearly understood that the triaxiality would be higher at the
central region of the specimen in the homogeneous material [32].
In the present study, higher triaxiality was observed in the ICHAZ
than that of the other regions of the weldment. This is attributed
to the further constraint effect imposed in the soft ICHAZ by the
relatively harder surrounding material in the weldment (Fig. 14
(a) and (b)). This observation is in agreement with more cavities at
the middle of the specimen compared to the surface of the
specimen (Fig. 12).
4. Conclusions
Microstructural evolution in the HAZs of SMA and laser weld-
ments is similar but microstructural damage is less in laser
weldment. The width of the HAZ is significantly smaller for laser
weldment compared to the SMA weldment. Hardness dip
observed in the ICHAZ of SMA weldment was absent in the laser
weldments. Though the small width of HAZ improved the rupture
life of the laser weldment at higher applied stress, this beneficial
effect was absent at lower stress levels. All creep tested specimens
failed in the ICHAZ of the weldment due to lower creep strength of
this region. Relatively higher creep cavitation in the laser welded
specimen is in agreement with high triaxiality compared to the
SMAW specimen. From this study it is clear that the application of
laser welding alone may not improve Type IV cracking resistance
of the P91 steel weldment.
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