Effects of Friction Stir Processing on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Fusion Welded 304L Stainless Steel

Friction stir processing (FSP) has been utilized to locally process regions of arc weldments in 304L stainless steel to improve the microstructure and mechanical performance. The cast microstructure and coarse delta-ferrite has been replaced with a fine-grained wrought microstructure. Furthermore, twins were introduced throughout the friction stir processed region. Although sub-surface sigma and carbides were introduced during FSP, their presence is not expected to adversely affect the resulting mechanical or corrosion properties of friction stir processed 304L arc welds. The resulting mechanical properties of FS processed weldments were also an improvement over as-welded arc welds. FSP resulted in an increase of 6% for both yield and ultimate strength. It is expected that the improved microstructure will lead to improved stress corrosion cracking and general corrosion properties.

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Grantor dc:publisher

Brigham Young University - Provo

Author dc:creator

• Sterling, Colin J.

• friction stir welding
• friction stir processing
• austenitic stainless steel
• microstructure
• sigma
• fatigue
• corrosion
• stress corrosion cracking
• Mechanical Engineering

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/46

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-1045