FCAW of creep resistant steels

GMAW of creep resistant steels

perspectives and limitations
G Posch, S Baumgartner, M Fiedler – Böhler Schweißtechnik

Flux cored Arc Welding (FCAW) is both an evolving arc welding process and an already
very well established process in the field of unalloyed and high alloyed steels – and is now
also being adapted for creep resistant steels. This paper focuses on the weldability of creep
resistant steels of type P11, P12, P22, P91 and P92 using similar flux cored wires. Using
sets of weld-metal data and discussing short-term and long-term creep design, this article
points out the advantages of the FCAW process compared to SMAW and GMAW but it
shows also the limitations of its application.

Introduction GMAW process with the beneficial effects of the Shielded

FCAW has, compared to other welding processes, some Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) process: slag metallurgy, pro-
general benefits that are very well recognised by welders, tection of the weld pool from the surroundings by the slag
such as easy handling, higher productivity and a significant covering and improved out-of position weldability.
lower risk of defects such as porosity and lack of fusion. This Additional flux cored wires can be designed with a self-
explains its increasing use in joining of un- and high-alloyed releasing slag as shown in an example in Figure 3, which re-
standard steel grades. Nevertheless there is also a strong duces the non-productive time during welding to a minimum.
market-driven force for FCAW of more sophisticated steels The special, tube-like design of flux cored wires, in combi-
such as creep resistant steels. nation with optimised metallurgy and fluxes, provide beneficial
properties like a stable arc, higher penetration, spatter-reduced
FCAW welding behaviour, wider parameter tolerances and higher
Flux cored wires are tiny tubes which are filled with various deposition rates in combination with faster travel speeds.
metallic and non-metallic powders to optimise the metallurgy
and chemistry of the weld metal and to produce fluxes which Economic aspects of FCAW
enable some special welding features. The production of flux One of the most often discussed questions in flux cored
cored wires is, compared to other electrode types, much more welding is based on economic considerations. Due to the
complicated. The most common process route is shown in
Figure 1. A metal strip is formed into a U-shape before it is
filled with specially formulated and mixed powders. After-
wards the shape is completely closed and undergoes several
drawing operations to the specified final wire diameter, which
is comparable to common solid wires.
In Figure 2 a rough comparison to stick electrode and
solid wire is shown: flux cored wires are delivered on simi-
lar baskets as solid wires for use in Gas Metal Arc Welding
(GMAW). Similar welding equipment is used to that for solid
wire GMAW and the state-of-the-art application in automatic
and robotic welding systems is possible.
Additionally, the filling of flux cored wire can provide the
Figure 2: Comparison of the cross-section of stick electrode,
solid wires and flux cored wires.

Figure 3: Self-releasing slag design of a flux cored wire – Böhler

Figure 1: Manufacturing schematic for flux cored wires. CM2 Ti-FD (E 91T1-B3M).

16 AFRICAN FUSION — NOVEMBER ‘09

 FCAW of creep resistant steels

with flux cored wires –

300
more difficult production route and the necessity of using
more expensive raw materials, the costs of cored wires are
higher compared to stick electrodes or solid wires. Economic 250
evaluation is often only based on the comparison of the pur-
chasing costs for similar amounts of different electrode types. 200

Welding Seam (min)

But flux cored wires have welding benefits that also have to
be considered, benefits that decrease the time required to 150
complete a joint because of less rework and faster achievable
welding speeds. Also the possibility of using common shield- 100
ing gases or welding machinery without sophisticated pulsed
arc technology have to be taken into account. 50
It’s not the aim of this paper to give a detailed view on
economic calculations because this depends strongly on the 0
application and available welding infrastructure, but the Covered Solid Flux
electromode wire covered
major points should be pointed out to show the remarkable wire
potential of FCAW. Figure 4: Achieved weld seam length (a=8 mm) for a welding time of 100 s,
In general, higher deposition rates and faster travel welding position PF, base metal ASTM A335 Gr. P11.
speeds can be achieved with flux cored wires. In Figure 4,
a comparison over a given welding time (100 s) between a 90
stick electrode (E8018-B2 ∅4,0 mm; 150 A), a solid wire 80
(ER80SG (∅1,0 mm; 160 A) and flux cored wire (Böhler
70
Welding time (min)

DCMS Ti-FD (E81T1-B2M) ∅1,2 mm; 245 A) for out-of

position welding (position PF) is shown. 60
More impressive is the comparison of the welding time 50
required for real joints as shown for welds of length one
40
metre in Figure 5. The welding position in this case was
also PF, the thickness of the sheet (ASTM A335 Gr.1) was 30
20 mm, the bevel preparation was 60°C and the root pass
20
was already welded with flux cored wire (Böhler DMO Ti-FD
(E81T1-A1M)) on ceramic backing. 10
The parameter settings were according to common weld- 0
ing procedure for stick electrodes (E7018-A1, ∅3,2 mm; Covered solid Flux
electromode wire covered
100 A, ∅4,0 mm; 150 A), solid wire (ER70S-A1 ∅1,0 wire
mm; 125-150 A) and flux cored wire (Böhler DMO Ti-620 Figure 5: Welding time for a one metre joint, base metal, ASTM A335 Gr.1;
FD (E81T1-A1M), ∅1,2 mm; 190-230 A). welding position: PF.
These two comparisons give some idea of the savings in
welding time that can achieved when optimised parameters have to be evaluated with regard to their influence on the
are applied. It is open for the interested reader to offset the long-term high temperature behaviour of the weld.
savings in reduced welding time against the higher purchasing Low alloyed Chromium-Molybdenum steels with bainitic
costs of the flux cored electrodes. microstructures like P11 or P22 were the first to be able to
cope with steam temperatures above 500°C. Their creep
Creep resistant steels rupture strength is mainly based on the formation of stable
Creep resistant steels are designed to operate at elevated chromium carbides. In the design of rutile flux cored wires for
temperatures for very long times. Therefore steel microstruc- these Cr-Mo alloys, the influence of a post weld heat treatment
tures with high amounts of stable precipitates – carbides (PWHT) on the mechanical short-term properties is one of
and nitrides embedded in a strong bainitic or martensitic the most dominant features – especially the toughness, but
matrix – are required. Such microstructures can be achieved also the tensile and yield strengths of the weld are strongly
with a very well balanced chemistry of carbon, chromium, influenced by the annealing temperature and holding time.
molybdenum and some special elements like vanadium, For a general description of the influence of a PWHT, the
aluminium, columbium and/or boron, as shown in Table 1 Larson-Miller parameter (LM-parameter) can be used. In this
for the common grades of creep resistant steels. equation, T represents the annealing temperature in Kelvin
But these complex creep resistant microstructures are and t, the holding time in hours.
very sensitive to any kind of heat treatment, which also has
to be considered in the design for filler materials and in the LM= Tx(20+logt)/103 (1)
selection for a necessary post weld heat treatment required
to improve the mechanical properties of the weld or for stress This parameter appears useful for describing the influence of
relieving reasons. All changes in the microstructure, however, a PWHT on the mechanical short term properties of a weld

AFRICAN FUSION — NOVEMBER ‘09 17

 FCAW of creep resistant steels
ASTM C Si Mn Cr Ni Mo V W Nb Other
Grade
T/P1 0,12-0,20 < 0,35 0,40-0,90 < 0,30 < 0,30 0,25-0,35 - - - -

T/P12 0,08-0,18 < 0,35 0,40-1,0 0,7-1,15 – 0,40-0,60 – – – –

T/P22 0,08-0,14 < 0,50 0,40-0,80 2,0-2,5 – 0,90-1,10 – – – –

T/P91 0,08-0,12 0,20-0,50 0,30-0,60 8,0-9,5 < 0,40 0,85-1,05 0,18-0,25 – 0,06-0,10 N 0,030-0,070

T/P92 0,07-0,13 < 0,5 0,30-0,60 8,5-9,5 < 0,40 0,30-0,60 0,15-0,25 1,5-2,0 0,04-0,09 N 0,03-0,07 B 0,001-0,006

Table 1: Main alloying elements in standard creep resistant steel types [1].

Steel Flux cored wire ther improvement of creep

ASTM strength has been achieved
Brand (Bohler) Brand-T-PUT AWS A5.29 EN ISO 17634-A EN ISO 17634-B
Grade by alloying with vanadium
P1 DMO Ti-FD UNION TG MO R E81T1-A1M T Mol P M 1 - and niobium in P91 based
P11 DCMS Ti-FD UNION TG CrMO R E81T1-B2M T CrMo1 P M 1 on the precipitation of finely
P12 DCMS Ti-FD UNION TG CrMO R E81T1-B2M T CrMo1 P M 1 dispersed Nb/V-carbonitrides
P22 CM2 Ti-FD UNION TG CrMO 910 R E91T1-B3M T ZCrMo2 P M 1 of type MX. P91, introduced
P91 C9MV Ti-FD Thermanit MTS 3 PW E91T1-B9M T CrMo9VNb P M 1 T 69 T1-1M-9C1MV about 30 years ago in the
P92 P92 Ti-FD Thermanit MTS 615 PW E91T1-GM T CrMo9VNb P M 1 T 69 T1-1M-9C1MV USA, is a well known steel
and is applied in power plants
Table 2: Flux cored wires for creep resistant Bainitic/Martensitic steels.
all over the world that operate
metal but it does not suit all creep resistant weld metals – a at pressures of up to 300 bar and temperatures of 600°C.
scientific discussion that is beyond the scope of this article. P92 was originally developed in Japan as NF616. It
Higher creep rupture strength could be realized by in- contains about 2% tungsten and is additionally alloyed with
creasing the chromium content above 7% which leads to a boron. To avoid the formation of -ferrite, the molybdenum
steel group with a martensitic microstructure characterised content has been reduced to about 0,5%. It was first believed
by a high dislocation density and a fine martensite lathe that tungsten acts mainly as a solution hardener but it has
structure, which is stabilised by M23C6 precipitates. Fur- since been discovered that most of the tungsten precipitates
as Lave’s phases during service operation. The benefit of
boron is believed to decrease the coarsening rate of carbides.
These steels are standardised in ASTM and their chemical
composition is listed in Table 1. As the bainitic/martensitic
CrMo-steels tend to temper and are susceptible to creep
embrittlement, a loss of toughness over time under service
conditions is experienced. The metallurgical reason for this
embrittlement is the diffusion of certain elements to the
grain boundaries. Many solutions were attempted to keep
this detrimental phenomenon under control. The most well
established is the J-factor according to Watanabe.

J = (Mn+Si) × (P+Sn) × 104 (2)

Figure 6: The cross section of a P1 joint welded with Böhler DMO The J-factor was originally developed for the base material
Ti-FD (E81T1-A1M) flux cored wire and the Ar 18% as Mn and Si tend to co-segregate with P and Sn, which was
CO2 shielding gas mixture. blamed for the loss in toughness. To prevent this a maximum
allowable J-factor was defined.
As Mn and Si are needed in weld metal metallurgy to
160 +20oC 0oC -20oC
achieve acceptable mechanical properties and weldability
140 and because of the different solidification of weld metal,
120 the transfer of knowledge gathered from base material in-
vestigations regarding the J-factor to the weld metal has to
CVM [J]

100
be handled carefully [2]. Nevertheless some specifications
80 require a J-factor <150 or even <120 derived from the base
60 metal specifications.More significant for the description of the
40 chemistry of weld metal is the X-factor according to Bruscato
[3]. Elements used in this formulation are expressed in ppm.
20
0 X = (10P+5Sb+4Sn+As) ×10-2 (3)
h

5h

5h
ed

/2h

/2h

/2h
/15

/1

/1
ld

0 oC

0 oC

0 oC
we

0 oC

0 oC

0 oC

A further popular characteristic for evaluation of temper

58

62

66
58

62

66
as

embrittlement susceptibility is the so-called 54J transition

Figure 7: Influence of various PWHTs on the toughness of flux cored all weld temperature concept at -20°C or even -40°C after a step cool-
metal produced using Böhler DMO Ti-FD (E81T1-A1M) wire. ing process – also called step age heat treatment. The test

18 AFRICAN FUSION — NOVEMBER ‘09

 FCAW of creep resistant steels

specimen has to undergo a specially defined PWHT which the classification show that the very high all weld metal
should simulate embrittlement during long term service. The toughness, specified by the classification after a very short
toughness at the mentioned low temperatures is then mea- annealing time, cannot be completely achieved.
sured and compared to the toughness after a standard PWHT. The ‘Z’-classification in EN ISO 17634-A should point
out that these wire-types are, as yet, not included in this
Flux cored wires for creep resistant steels standard.
As earlier discussed, FCAW is similar to GMAW with the solid
wire electrode being replaced by a flux cored wire. As known Properties of creep resistant FCAW weld metal
from GMAW, various shielding gases can be used. Due to the 0,5% Mo
presence of a slag the influence of the shielding gas on the As already mentioned, PWHT has an important influence
mechanical properties, penetration and the wetting behaviour on the mechanical properties, especially on the toughness.
of the weld metal is not that strong when compared to solid As can be seen in Figure 7 this influence is clearly visible
wire welding, but some effects are evident. at lower temperatures. It can be traced back to the rutile
Hence, in contrast to solid wire welding, FCAW relies system and is also well known from stick electrode welding.
mainly on two shielding gas compositions: Ar/CO2 mixtures This issue could be overcome by using basic flux cored
with 15-25% CO2 and pure CO2. wires, but this, on the other hand, reduces some of the big
In the case of creep resistant flux cored wires, the mixed advantages of FCAW, like out of position weldability, easy
gases provide significantly better mechanical weld metal slag removal, economic benefits, spatter-free welding and
properties and should always be selected for such applica- easy handling.
tions. As can be seen in Figure 6, the mixed gas provides
very good penetration and very smooth wetting without any 1% Cr 0,5% Mo
tendency to lack of fusion. In Figure 8 and Figure 9, the influence of a PWHT on the
To achieve the general benefits of FCAW as described ear- mechanical properties of the flux cored weld metal of Böhler
lier, the creep resistant flux cored wires are designed primarily DCMS Ti-FD (E81T1-B2M) for joining of 1% Cr0,5% Mo
as rutile wires, but to achieve the mechanical properties, the steels is shown.
amount of basic components is increased. It can be seen that a very good correlation in case of the
For the standard creep resistant bainitic/martensitic tensile strengths exists but the toughness could not be readily
steels, a set of flux cored wires are available. Brackets around described. The significant influence of a PWHT, however, can
TS; YS [MPa]

CVN @ +20oC [J]

Larson-Miller Parameter
Larson-Miller Parameter
Figure 8: Relationship between the LM-parameter and the yield and tensile
strength depending on PWHT-conditions for the rutile flux cored all Figure 9: Relationship between the LM-parameter and toughness at room
weld metal from Böhler DCMS Ti-FD (E81T1-B2M) wire. temperature depending on PWHT for the rutile flux cored all weld
metal from Böhler DCMS Ti-FD (E81T1-B2M) wire.
CVN @ +20oC [J]
TS; YS [MPa]

Larson-Miller Parameter Larson-Miller Parameter

Figure 10: Relation between LM and yield and tensile strength depending on Figure 11: Relation between LM and toughness at room temperature depending
PWHT-conditions for the rutile flux cored all weld metal from Böhler on PWHT for the rutile flux cored all weld metal from Böhler CM 2
CM 2 Ti-FD (E 91T1-B3M) wire. Ti-FD (E 91T1-B3M) wire.

AFRICAN FUSION — NOVEMBER ‘09 19

 FCAW of creep resistant steels

be seen in this graph. The higher the annealing time and the of FCAW for the welding of creep resistant steels is a huge
longer the holding time, the higher the toughness and the metallurgical challenge but it can be shown that flux cored
lower the strength of the weld metal. wires meet the technical requirements. The rutile flux cored
The J-factor of Böhler DCMS Ti-FD (E 81T1-B2M) weld concept has limits only in the case of toughness require-
metal is usually in the range of 120-160, while the X-factor ments at below room temperature. Furthermore, rutile flux
is about 15 ± 2. The 54J transition temperature concept cored weld metals have to cope with slightly higher levels of
can not be applied due to the rutile slag. impurity as compared to solid wire and basic stick electrode
welds, but in the acceptable range.
2,25% Cr 1% Mo These investigations have shown that most of the com-
A similar interpretation can also be drawn for the 2,25% Cr mon specifications can be met with flux cored wires and the
1% Mo types. In Figure 8 the relation between Larson-Miller benefits of flux cored arc welding can be transferred to most
parameter and tensile and yield strength depending on the of the creep resistant welding tasks.
PWHT and in Figure 9 the relation between Larson-Miller
parameter and toughness depending on the PWHT of the
all weld metal of a rutile flux cored wire Böhler CM 2 Ti-FD
[E 91T1-B3M / T ZCrMo2 P M 1] are shown.
The J-factor and the X-factor of Böhler CM 2 Ti-FD (E
YS, TS [Mpa]
91T1-B3M) weld metal are in the same range as that men-
tioned with the previous types.

9% Cr 1% Mo 0,2% V 0,08% Nb
The investigation of the corresponding P91-flux cored weld
metal pointed out a similar behaviour as already mentioned
with the previous types (Figure 12, 13).
Beside these short term properties, the long term be-
Larson-Miller Parameter
haviour of the weld metal is of great interest. Therefore a
long-term creep testing programme with all weld metal was Figure 12: Relationship between the LM-parameter and yield and tensile
strength depending on PWHT-conditions for the rutile flux cored all
initiated, based on the results of an ongoing creep rupture
weld metal Böhler C9MV Ti-FD (E 91T1-B9M) wire.
pre-study at 600°C, in which the specimens were running for
about 22 000 hours. All specimens tested in this pre-study
are considerably above the lower scatter band of the base
metal and slightly above the values for SMAW weld metal [4].

9% Cr 1,8% W 0,5% Mo 0,2% V 0,08% Nb

CVN @ +20oC [J]

Böhler P92 Ti-FD is the latest development of creep resistant

flux cored wires. As shown in Figure 14, one of the main
criteria, toughness, is also on a very high level for this type
of steel, while tensile strengths also remain within the limits.
This flux cored weld metal is also incorporated in the
long term creep testing programme.

Conclusions
Rutile flux cored wires have benefits which make them very Larson-Miller Parameter
attractive for welders and welding engineers. The application Figure 13: Relationship between the LM-parameter and toughness at room
temperature depending on PWHT for the rutile flux cored all weld
metal Böhler C9MV Ti-FD (E 91T1-B9M) wire.

References
[1] Specification for seamless ferritic alloy-steel pipe
for high temperature service SA-335/SA-335M:
2007 Section II, Part A, P. 561-574.
CVN @ +20oC [J]

[2] R Fuchs: Chrome-Moly and the Embrittlement

Factors; Internal Report 1995.
[3] R Bruscato: Temper Embrittlement and Creep
Embrittlement of 2¼ Cr-1Mo Shielded Metal Arc
Weld deposits; Welding Research Supplement;
April 1970.
[4] H Heuser, R Fuchs and B Hahn: Properties of
matching filler metals for T91/P9; In Conference
Proceedings; EPRI-RRAC Fifth International Larson-Miller Parameter
Conference on Welding and Repair Technology Figure 14: Relationship between the LM-parameter and toughness at room
for Power Plants; 2002; 4-1. temperature depending on PWHT-conditions for the rutile flux cored
all weld metal Böhler P92 Ti-FD (E 91T1-GM) wire.

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