Avaliação de tenacidade à fratura de juntas soldadas do aço API 5L X80 utilizando processos manual e robotizado.

Abstract

The present study investigated the correlation between the fracture toughness values, obtained by CTOD test, with the microstructure of the coarse grains regions of the heat affected zone (HAZ) of API 5L X80 steel welded joints obtained by manual Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) and by automated Gas Metal Arc Welding Process (GMAW). In the robotized welding, the root passes were made with GMAW process and with ER120S-G wire, the others, composite fill and finishing passages made with AWS E101T-1 type flux-color tubular wire with clay protection Ar + 25% CO² (FCAW-G) or AWS E91T8-G with self-protected wire (FCAW-S). SE(B test specimens standardized according to ASTM E1820 with notch positioned in the most critical regions of the HAZ according to the metallographic and microhardness evaluations in order to evidence the deleterious effect of the fragile zone were done .It was possible to observe that there was a considerable reduction of CTOD value in region with the presence of Austenite and Martensite island nominated AM constituent due to formation of microcracks and microstructural heterogeneity mainly in the manual process. The results also showed that HAZ obtained using the automated GMAW process presented better repeatability, microstructural distribution and CTOD values.