Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal.

(2014) 3:138146
DOI 10.1007/s13632-014-0130-z

TECHNICAL ARTICLE

Effect of Welding Heat Input on Microstructure and Mechanical

Properties of HSLA Steel Joint
Honggang Dong Xiaohu Hao Dewei Deng

Received: 27 November 2013 / Revised: 25 February 2014 / Accepted: 10 March 2014 / Published online: 29 March 2014
Springer Science+Business Media New York and ASM International 2014

Abstract Gas tungsten arc welding of HSLA steel was

conducted with different welding heat inputs, and the
influences of welding heat input on the microstructure,
Vickers hardness, and impact toughness of heat-affected
zone (HAZ) in prepared joints were systematically investigated. The microstructure in HAZ with low welding heat
input mainly consisted of martensite, and the microhardness of coarse grain HAZ was measured higher than that of
fine grain zone. The results show that increasing the
welding heat input could suppress the formation of martensite and reduce the microhardness of HAZ. However,
the impact toughness of HAZ was not monotonously
improved with the increase of welding heat input. It is
deemed that the coarsened grain, the formation of upper
bainite, and the non-uniform distribution of carbides and
inclusions in HAZ could degrade the impact toughness.
Tests demonstrate that the optimum comprehensive properties of HAZ were obtained when the welding heat input
was 0.67 kJ/mm.
Keywords Welding heat input
Microstructure

Hardness
Impact toughness
HSLA steel

Introduction
Due to the excellent mechanical properties and weldability,
HSLA steels have been widely used in various fields,
especially in the manufacturing of large-scale naval vessels
and air compressors [1]. As a result, welding of HSLA steels
H. Dong (&)
X. Hao
D. Deng
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University
of Technology, Dalian 116085, Peoples Republic of China
e-mail: [email protected]

123

is indispensable in these large-scale structures. Generally,

high welding heat input is employed because the HSLA
steel structures to be joined usually serve in large size.
However, Viano et al. [2] pointed out that high welding heat
input was often accompanied by wide heat-affected zone
(HAZ), and Li et al. [3] found that the impact toughness of
HAZ was deteriorated when high welding heat input was
applied. So it is necessary to pay more attention to the
influence of welding conditions, especially, the welding
heat input, on the mechanical properties of HAZ.
Extensive investigations have been conducted on the
influence of welding heat input on the microstructure and
mechanical properties of HSLA steel joints. Shome [4]
investigated the relationship between the heat input and the
austenite grain size, and noticed that the prior austenite grain
size was controlled by the peak temperature (Tp) in the
welding thermal cycle which was related to the welding heat
input. Spanos et al. [5] studied the effect of grain size on
hardness, and found that small austenite grain size could
result in higher hardness. Shome and Mohanty [6] also
reported that the toughness decreased with increasing the
austenite grain size. Moreover, Morito et al. [7] revealed that
close relation existed between the strength of lath martensite
in HAZ and the austenite grain size. However, few
researchers comprehensively discussed the relation among
the welding heat input, austenite grain size, hardness, and
impact toughness of HAZ, especially for HSLA steel.
Besides the prior austenite grain size, the properties of
HAZ are heavily dependent on the microstructure which is
determined by the phase transformation after welding. Dhua
et al. [8] found that the welding heat input played a significant role in the microstructure of the joints. However,
more attention should be paid to the influence of welding
heat input on the properties of HAZ, as the weakest region,
rather than the weld metal. Mukherjee and Pal [9]

Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

Table 1 Nominal composition
of HSLA steel in wt%

139

Si

Mn

Cr

Mo

Cu

Fe

0.130.18

0.170.37

0.500.80

2.202.50

0.770.90

\0.30

\0.03

\0.035

Bal.

Fig. 1 Schematic for gas tungsten arc welding of HSLA steel plate
without filler metal. The welding was performed by a travel
mechanism automatically

investigated the effect of welding heat input on the microstructure and properties of ferritic stainless steel, and they
found that higher welding heat input led to more martensite
and higher toughness. Ion et al. [10] discussed the variation
of the microstructure and hardness of HAZ with the welding
heat inputs, and proposed the HAZ microstructure/hardness
diagrams to guide the welding process. But the impact
toughness of HAZ was not considered which was decisive
for the properties of the joints. Bhadeshia et al. [11] built a
model of the microstructural transformation and believed
that the different phase transformation products were controlled by the cooling rate. Zhang et al. [12] studied the
influence of welding heat input on the toughness of coarse
grain HAZ. They found that when the welding heat input
was increased from 30 to 100 kJ/cm, self-tempered martensite with fine lath bainite in HAZ transformed to lath
bainite with ferrite, and the impact toughness of coarse
grain heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) decreased. Moreover,
Babu [13] demonstrated that the acicular ferrite produced a
beneficial effect on the properties of the joints. On the other
hand, as indicated by Bhadeshia et al. [11], the formation of
the acicular ferrite was mainly determined by the austenite
grain size, inclusions, and the cooling rate. Also, Lan et al.
[14] found that the medium cooling rate produced larger
volume fraction of acicular ferrite. Bhole et al. [15] reported
that the addition of Mo could promote the formation of
acicular ferrite, and the increase of acicular ferrite led to the
improvement of impact toughness in API HSLA-70 steel.
Furthermore, Harrison and Farrar [16] pointed out that the
high angle grain boundaries responded to the improvement
of impact toughness by acicular ferrite. However, there
were few reports about the formation of acicular ferrite and
the effect of welding heat input on the phase transformation
in HAZ of HSLA steel joints.
In practice, microcracks often initiate in HAZ of the
HSLA steel joints and cause severe economic losses,

especially when the welded structures are subjected to

working conditions with high pressure and large load.
Therefore, more attention should be paid to the properties of
HAZ in HSLA steel joints. In this paper, different welding
heat inputs were applied to gas tungsten arc welding
(GTAW) of HSLA steel plates in order to systematically
investigate the influence of welding heat input on the
microstructure and mechanical properties of HAZ. Subsequent tests and analysis were carried out to explore the
relationship between the welding heat input and the variation
of microstructure, hardness, and impact toughness of HAZ.

Experimental
The nominal composition of the as-rolled HSLA steel is
given in Table 1, and the dimensions of HSLA steel plates
used in this paper are 200 mm 9 100 mm 9 6 mm. The
oxide film on the surface of HSLA steel plate was removed
with stainless steel brush and the grease was cleaned with
acetone. Since the aim of this paper is to investigate the
microstructure and corresponding properties of HAZ in the
joint, the effect of filler metal and groove design was not
considered for simplification, although the accepted sheet
thickness was 6 mm. Automatic autogenous GTAW of
HSLA steel was carried out, as shown in Fig. 1. Argon was
used as the shielding gas with a flow rate of 10 L/min. The
arc length was kept constant at 3 mm, corresponding to the
welding voltage of 11 V. The welding heat input (E) was
calculated with the formula: E = gIU/m, where I, U, v, and
g are the welding current, welding voltage, welding speed,
and arc efficiency, respectively. Here, the arc efficiency g
was set at 0.7 based on the simulation results by Mousavi
and Miresmaeili [17]. Dt8/5 is commonly used as the
cooling rate index to represent the cooling time from 800 to
500 C, and it could be calculated by the empirical equation: Dt8/5 = 5gE [18]. The other welding parameters,
resultant welding heat inputs, and Dt8/5 are listed in
Table 2. The specimen was etched with 4% nital solution
and microstructure observation was carried out with optical
microscopy (OM). At about 1 mm below the surface of the
weld, Vickers hardness test was conducted on the cross
section of the joints with a load of 300 g for 15 s to obtain
the distribution of microhardness in the HAZ and weld.
The distance between every two adjacent test points was
200 lm. Specimens were extracted by wire cutting for
standard Charpy notch (U-notch) impact test to evaluate
the impact toughness of HAZ. Figure 2 shows the location

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140
Table 2 Welding parameters,
welding heat input, weld
penetration, weld width, and
Dt8/5 for GTAW of HSLA steel

Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

Weld
width
(mm)

Dt8/5
(s)

Sample
no.

Welding
current,
I (A)

Welding
speed,
v (mm/s)

Welding
heat input,
E (kJ/mm)

Weld
penetration
(mm)

180

0.46

1.8

8.0

1.61

220

0.57

2.5

11.0

2.00

260

0.67

2.7

12.3

2.35

260

0.40

2.2

9.0

1.40

260

0.25

1.7

7.3

0.88

300

0.77

2.8

13.4

2.70

Fig. 2 Illustration of the location of the U-notch in the joint

of U-notch in the joint for impact test. Then the fractured

surface was examined with a scanning electron microscope
(SEM).

Results and Discussion

Microstructure
It can be seen in Fig. 3 that the microstructure of HSLA steel
base metal was typically granular bainite (GB) which consisted of carbides (black) and stripy ferrite (white). The
microstructure of HAZ under welding heat inputs of 0.25 and
0.67 kJ/mm are revealed in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. The
weld penetration and weld width increase with increasing the
welding heat input, as shown in Table 2 and Figs. 4(a) and
5(a). It was found that the microstructure in fine grain HAZ
(FGHAZ) of HSLA steel mainly consisted of fine grain lower
bainite. Small amount of martensite appeared in FGHAZ
when the welding heat input was 0.25 kJ/mm and it changed
to acicular ferrite and lower bainite after increasing the heat
input to 0.67 kJ/mm. In contrast, the microstructure in
CGHAZ is more complicated.
As reported by Lan et al. [14], lath martensite (M), lath
bainite (B), retained austenite, and various ferrites (F) with
different morphologies could be observed in HAZ of HSLA
steel joints. When different welding heat inputs were used,
the HSLA steel base metal near the fusion line experienced
different thermal cycles, and different microstructures were

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Fig. 3 Microstructure of the as-rolled HSLA steel base metal. GB

granular bainite, F ferrite

formed in HAZ. When the welding heat input was only

0.25 kJ/mm, the cooling time (Dt8/5) was about 0.88 s, and
this fast cooling rate easily produced brittle and hard phases
in HAZ. It can be seen in Fig. 4(b, c) that lath martensite
dominated in the narrow CGHAZ, but lower bainite with a
little martensite formed in FGHAZ. The microstructure in
HAZ with welding heat input of 0.40 kJ/mm consisted of
lath martensite and some bainite, and Dt8/5 was up to 1.4 s
corresponding to the increase of heat input. The increase of
Dt8/5 restrained the phase transformation of martensite and
produced some lath bainite in HAZ. This mixed microstructure of lath martensite and bainite was similar to that
observed by Shome et al. [19] who believed that martensite
was the main microstructure in HAZ of HSLA-80 steel and
HSLA-100 steel-welded joints. Although martensite could
improve the strength, Thewlis [20] stated that it usually led
to high hardness and was harmful to the impact toughness of
HAZ. And similar conclusions were obtained by Zhang

Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

141
b Fig. 4 Microstructure in HSLA steel joint with welding heat input of

0.25 kJ/mm (a) cross section, (b) FGHAZ, (c) CGHAZ, and (d) FZ.
B bainite, M martensite, AF acicular ferrite, PF primary ferrite, BM
base metal, FGHAZ fine grain heat-affected zone, CGHAZ coarse
grain heat-affected zone, FZ fusion zone

et al. [12]. With increasing the welding heat input, the

cooling time Dt8/5 became longer, and the amount of martensite in HAZ decreased accompanied by an opposite
change of bainite. When the welding heat input was
0.67 kJ/mm, the microstructure in HAZ was mainly fine
lower bainite with some acicular ferrite, as shown in
Fig. 5(b, c). In lower bainite, the carbides existed within
and between the ferrites. While Thewlis [21] demonstrated
that in upper bainite, the carbides could only be observed
between the ferrites. In Fig. 5(c), the carbides were refined
further, and the distribution of carbides was more homogeneous. Moreover, Lan et al. [14] revealed that the moderate cooling rate was beneficial for the phase
transformation of acicular ferrite. When the welding heat
input was 0.67 kJ/mm, Dt8/5 was about 2.35 s, which promoted the formation of acicular ferrite and lower bainite.
The microstructure in CGHAZ under the welding heat
input of 0.77 kJ/mm consisted of lower bainite, small
amount of upper bainite, and coarsened acicular ferrites.
Especially, the grain size in CGHAZ became very large
when the welding heat input was 0.77 kJ/mm, and even
some extraordinary large grains about 250 lm in length
could be observed in CGHAZ, as shown in Fig. 6. The
formation of extraordinary large grain could be attributed
to the carbides or other inclusions dissolved under the high
welding heat input, and also the weakened block effect of
second phase particles or inclusions on the grain growth.
The columnar crystal formed in the fusion zone (FZ),
and the microstructure consisted of various ferrites with
carbides. The increase of welding heat input changed the
morphology of ferrite in FZ. In Fig. 4(d), the microstructure was acicular ferrite (AF) and primary ferrite (PF).
Increasing the welding heat input to 0.67 kJ/mm, primary
ferrite (PF) appeared at the grain boundary. The acicular
ferrite in FZ was coarsened and then ferrite side plate (FS)
formed, as shown in Fig. 5(d).
Furthermore, higher welding heat input also enlarged
the grain size of CGHAZ. It can be seen that the grain size
of CGHAZ under the welding heat input of 0.67 kJ/mm
was larger than that under 0.25 kJ/mm, because higher
welding heat input produced a higher peak temperature in
the welding thermal cycle and promoted the grain growth
in CGHAZ.
The chemical composition and welding thermal cycle
are the most important factors that affect the phase

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Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

b Fig. 5 Microstructure in HSLA steel joint with welding heat input of

0.67 kJ/mm (a) cross section, (b) FGHAZ, (c) CGHAZ, and (d) FZ.
LB lower bainite, FS ferrite side plate, AF acicular ferrite, FS ferrite
side plate, BM base metal, FGHAZ fine grain heat-affected zone,
CGHAZ coarse grain heat-affected zone, FZ fusion zone

Fig. 6 The extraordinary large grain in CGHAZ under welding heat

input of 0.77 kJ/mm. BM base metal, FGHAZ fine grain heat-affected
zone, CGHAZ coarse grain heat-affected zone, FZ fusion zone

transformation in HAZ. Based on the formula for calculating the carbon equivalent recommended by the International Institute of Welding [22]: Ceq = C ? Mn/
6 ? (Cu ? Ni)/15 ? (Cr ? Mo ? V)/5,
the
carbon
equivalent of HSLA steel was about 0.831.05%. Such a
high carbon equivalent could lead to severe harden
quenching tendency and cause the formation of brittle
phases, such as lath martensite. Besides, the heat input
plays a critical role in controlling the microstructure.
Summarizing the above-mentioned description, it reveals
that the welding heat input influenced the microstructure
in HAZ through two aspects. First, the increase of
welding heat input caused the growth of prior austenite
grains and then enlarged the grain size of CGHAZ. Second, the welding heat input affected the cooling rate and
then controlled the phase transformation in HAZ. When
the temperature fell into the range of 800500 C after
welding, the austenite decomposed to different phases.
Babu [13] reported that allotriomorphic ferrite formed
initially at the austenite grain boundary in the high temperature range. With further cooling, acicular ferrite
would nucleate around the inclusions in austenite. While
cooled to lower temperature, the remaining austenite
would transform to bainite and martensite partially or
completely. The cooling rate was very fast when the
welding heat input was lower, and it caused the

123

Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

143

Fig. 7 The distribution of hardness in different zones with welding heat input of (a) 0.25 kJ/mm, (b) 0.40 kJ/mm, (c) 0.46 kJ/mm, (d) 0.57 kJ/
mm, (e) 0.67 kJ/mm, and (f) 0.77 kJ/mm. BM base metal, FZ fusion zone, CG coarse grain HAZ, FG fine grain HAZ

martensitic phase transformation. This could be proved by

the microstructure in HAZ with welding heat input of
0.25 kJ/mm as shown in Fig. 4. On the contrary,
increasing the welding heat input to 0.57 or 0.67 kJ/mm,

the corresponded low cooling rate was beneficial for the

formation of bainite. When the welding heat input was
further increased to 0.77 kJ/mm, the ferrite was coarsened
and some upper bainite formed in CGHAZ.

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Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

Microhardness
The Vickers hardness curves versus different welding heat
inputs are illustrated in Fig. 7, and the average microhardness value in each zone is shown on the top of the figure
for different welding heat inputs. The microhardness in
HAZ and FZ were higher than that in base metal (about
370HV) for all welding heat inputs, but the average hardness changed with the variation of welding heat inputs. The
average hardness of HAZ and FZ with the low heat input
(0.25 kJ/mm) was about 458 and 474 HV, respectively.
However, the average hardness of HAZ with larger heat
inputs (0.570.77 kJ/mm) was relatively lower as around
425 HV.
The microhardness in the HAZ and weld greatly
depended on the microstructure. From the discussion in
Microstructure section, it suggested that the high hardness of the HAZ and weld was attributed to the formation
of lath martensite and bainite, and the decrease of microhardness was caused by the transformation of microstructure. High cooling rate corresponded to the low
welding heat input resulted in the formation of martensite
and increased the microhardness of the HAZ and weld. As
the welding heat input increased, the cooling rate became
slower and martensite disappeared gradually with the formation of bainite. So the average hardness of HAZ was
decreased with increasing the welding heat input due to the
microstructure transformation from martensite to bainite.
In addition, the volume fraction of ferrite enlarged with the
increase of the welding heat input. Arivazhagan et al. [23]
reported that more ferrite would reduce the microhardness.
Moreover, Gharibshahiyan et al. [24] found that the microhardness also decreased due to the coarsening of grains.
However, Mohandas et al. [25] found a softening zone in
CGHAZ which was opposite to the common observation
and the extent of softening varied with welding methods as
well as the welding heat input.
It was also found that when using lower welding heat
input (0.25 kJ/mm), the average hardness of FGHAZ was
lower than that of CGHAZ, but it was a little higher than that
when higher welding heat inputs (0.67 and 0.77 kJ/mm)
were applied. It revealed that different strengthening
mechanisms affected the microhardness when welded with
different heat inputs. Generally, the microhardness of
FGHAZ was higher than that of CGHAZ due to the fine
grain strengthening. However, the formation of martensite in
CGHAZ under low welding heat input resulted in the higher
hardness than that of FGHAZ in HSLA steel joints.
Impact Toughness
Figure 8 shows the comprehensive variation of the impact
toughness and microhardness in HAZ versus welding heat

123

Fig. 8 Vickers hardness and impact toughness versus welding heat

input

inputs. It was found that the impact toughness of HAZ was

higher than that of HSLA steel base metal (107.5 J/cm2),
and it was improved by the increase of welding heat input
accompanied with the decrease of microhardness. The
impact toughness was 182.5 J/cm2 when welded under the
welding heat input of 0.67 kJ/mm and then slightly
declined to 177.5 J/cm2 when the welding heat input was
0.77 kJ/mm. Figure 9 displays the SEM images taken from
the fractured surface. The percentage of shear fracture in
the base metal reached 14%, but that in the rest samples
was around 10%. In Fig. 9(a), river-like patterns could be
seen in the fractured surface on base metal, showing the
feature of quasi-cleavage fracture which was in agreement
with the relatively lower impact toughness of base metal.
However, many dimples could also be found in the fractured surface in Fig. 9(bf), which indicated that the
toughness of HAZ was better than that of base metal. This
phenomenon suggests that within a certain range, the
welding heat input might produce a beneficial effect on the
impact toughness of HAZ in HSLA steel joints.
The effect of welding heat input on the impact toughness
lies in the influence of heat input on the microstructure in
HAZ. When the welding heat input was low, low carbon lath
martensite formed in HAZ, leading to the high microhardness
and low toughness. It is easy for the propagation of microcracks along the parallel martensite lath. With the increase of
welding heat input, martensite transformed to lower bainite
gradually. The carbides distributing within and/or between
ferrites and the interface between martensite and bainite
impeded the propagation of microcracks in lower bainite,
exhibiting better toughness. However, when the heat input
was 0.57 kJ/mm, the toughness of HAZ dropped a little, as
shown in Fig. 8. It could be seen that the size of dimple in

Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

145

Fig. 9 SEM images of the impact fractures in base metal (a) and in HAZ under different welding heat inputs of (b) 0.25 kJ/mm, (c) 0.46 kJ/mm,
(d) 0.57 kJ/mm, (e) 0.67 kJ/mm, and (f) 0.77 kJ/mm

Fig. 9(d) was very uneven. It was well known that the dimple
was usually formed where there were inclusions or second
phase particles. Therefore, the drop of impact toughness under
the welding heat input of 0.57 kJ/mm could be attributed to
the dissolution and segregation of inclusions or second phase
particles. The increase of the distance between adjacent
inclusions or particles could reduce the resistance to the
propagation of microcracks, and then decrease the impact
toughness. When the distribution of inclusions was homogeneous again, the impact toughness improved, as indicated in
Fig. 8. The microstructure of HAZ with the welding heat
input of 0.67 kJ/mm was fine lower bainite with some acicular
ferrite, which is more difficult for the propagation of microcracks and results in higher impact toughness. However, when
the welding heat input was further increased to 0.77 kJ/mm,
the large grain size of HAZ led to the reduction of total grain
boundary area, and then decreased the impact toughness.
Viano et al. [2] also indicated that high welding heat input
adversely affected the impact toughness of HSLA-80 steel
joint. Besides, the impact toughness was deteriorated due to
the appearance of upper bainite in HAZ, which was in
agreement with the opinion obtained by Abbaszadeh et al.
[26], who reported that the toughness of lower bainite was
much better than that of upper bainite.
As indicated in Fig. 8, the optimum comprehensive
mechanical properties of HAZ in HSLA steel joints were

achieved at a medium welding heat input, 0.67 kJ/mm. The

HAZ welded with the welding heat input of 0.67 kJ/mm
exhibited higher impact toughness (182.5 J/cm2) and lower
microhardness (425 HV). Too low or too high welding heat
input is adverse for the mechanical properties of HAZ.

Conclusions
The effects of welding heat input on the microstructure and
mechanical properties of HAZ in HSLA steel joints were
investigated. Increasing the welding heat input restrained the
formation of martensite and promoted the transformation of
martensite to bainite. When the welding heat input was
0.67 kJ/mm, the microstructure in HAZ was fine lower bainite
with some acicular ferrite. Upper bainite was produced in
HAZ when the welding heat input was 0.77 kJ/mm. The
Vickers hardness of HAZ and FZ of HSLA steel joints was
much higher than that of base metal. The average hardness of
HAZ decreased with increasing the welding heat input. The
hardness of CGHAZ was higher than that of FGHAZ when
using a lower welding heat input. The impact toughness of
HAZ was not monotonously improved with the increase of
welding heat input. The optimum comprehensive properties
of HAZ were obtained when the welding heat input was
0.67 kJ/mm.

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Acknowledgments This work was financially supported by the
National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China
(Grant No. 2011CB013402), the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Grant No. 51374048), and the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (Grant No. DUT13ZD209).

Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. (2014) 3:138146

13.

14.

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