Influence of zirconium on microstructure and toughness of low-alloy steel weld metals

The influence of zirconium on microstructure and toughness of low-alloy steel weld metal was studied. Weld metals with different zirconium contents were obtained adding iron-zirconium alloy in the welding flux formulation. Weld metal chemical composition proved that zirconium was able to be transferred from the flux to the weld metal. The addition of zirconium refined the weld metal microstructure, increasing the acicular ferrite content. Weld metal toughness, determined by means of impact Charpy-V tests, showed that the zirconium addition is beneficial up to a content of 0.005 wt.%. Above this level, zirconium was not able to produce further microstructure refinement, although the toughness was reduced, possibly due to the formation of microconstituent such as the martensite-austenite constituent (M-A), which is considered to be deleterious to the weld metal toughness.