Correlation between material properties and free vibration characteristics of TIG and laser welded stainless steel 304 reinforced with Al2O3 microparticles

Abstract

This paper investigates the material properties and free vibration characteristics of Stainless Steel (SS) 304 joints reinforced with Al2O3 microparticles fabricated by tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding and laser welding (LW) processes. The influence of Al2O3 microparticle addition on the metallurgical behavior, mechanical properties, and free vibrational characteristics were studied and discussed. Furthermore, in this work a novel attempt has been made to compare the material properties and free vibration characteristics of the joints. Microscopic analysis was conducted to understand the grain structure variations in different zones of a weldment. Finally, tensile and microhardness tests were performed to understand the mechanical properties. To study the natural frequency and damping factors in the joints, the samples were tested using the accelerometer, data acquisition card, and DEWE software. The experimental results revealed that the joints fabricated by the laser welding process proved a significant improvement in material properties and vibrational behavior, due to the homogenous distribution of microparticles across the fusion zone (FZ) and refined grain structures in (FZ) compared to that of joints made by tungsten inert gas welding. However, from the achieved results both material property and vibration analysis showed a good agreement.

Keywords

• Tungsten Inert Gas Welding (TIG)
• Laser Welding (LW)
• Nd: YAG
• Free vibration
• Reinforcement of microparticles
• Heat Affected Zone (HAZ)