Temperature, stress and microstructure in 10Ni5CrMoV steel plate during air–arc cutting process

Although the air–arc cutting process has been widely used in the material processing engineering, little information about temperature, stress and microstructure in the plate air–arc cut is known. A three-dimensional finite element model including the material removal and the thermal effect of the arc is developed to study the temperature and stress fields of 10Ni5CrMoV steel plate during air–arc cutting process in this paper. The microstructures and micro-mechanical properties of the parts near the groove especially in heat affected zone (HAZ) are studied by experimental methods, and they also can be used as a method to verify the numerical results. Effects of stresses induced by air–arc cutting process on the initial residual stress fields of base materials are also researched. The results show that the cooling velocity in HAZ is higher than the one of the welding process for the same base material, and the zone with high temperature is very narrow, which means that the temperature gradients near the groove are very steep during the air–arc cutting process; this special temperature field depresses multiphase transformations and coarse microstructures. The evolution of the stress during the air–arc cutting is described, and the numerical results indicate that the characteristics of the evolution of stresses and the residual stresses distribution in the plate in air–arc cutting process seem to be similar to the ones of the butt welding for flat plates. The influences of air–arc cutting process on initial stress fields present two aspects: thermal effect and material removal effect, and the former plays a primary role. Both numerical temperature and stress fields are compared with the experimental ones. It is very important for researchers to clarify the temperatures, stresses and microstructures in the plate during air–arc cutting process, and understand fully the mechanism of influences of air–arc cutting on the plate; it is also very valuable for engineering application of the air–arc cutting process.