Measurement of mechanical properties in a 316L stainless steel welded joint

The aim of this study was to measure the mechanical properties of weld material taken from a single weld bead laid down on a 316L steel plate. Due to the low available volume of weld material, microsamples with a total length of 5.5 mm were used. The Digital Image Correlation method (DIC), which enables measurement of mechanical properties of very small samples, was employed for the strain measurements in a uniaxial tensile test. Samples were cut out from three different zones of the specimen: plate, weld, and the heat affected zone. The material from heat affected zone showed the highest value of the Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) (580 ± 7 MPa) and yield strength (339 ± 6 MPa). Plate material had lower UTS (559 ± 5 MPa) and yield strength (304 ± 7 MPa). The lowest values of UTS (526 ± 6 MPa) and yield strength (291 ± 8 MPa) have been revealed for the weld. The values obtained for UTS, yield strength and elongation to failure for the plate material were compared with data obtained using standard test specimens. No significant differences between results obtained for the microsamples and standard samples have been found.