Stress corrosion cracking for dissimilar capacitive discharge welding joint with varied surface preparation and inputted energy

Abstract

In this article is presented dissimilar welding joint that joins steel and brass bars. Due to its varied melting point the welding process of dissimilar metal has a higher degree of difficulties. Naturally, welding process embeds residual stress and provides voids at least in micro scale. The voids then act as a trigger to develop initial cracks which will grow under external load. Once, the welding joint is exposed to corrosive environment, it will be susceptible to Stress-Corrosion-Cracking (SCC) failure. The quality of the welded joints is considered based on SCC resilience. Two parameters of the Capacitive Discharge Welding Joint which have prominent effects were evaluated: surface preparation and inputted energy. With a proper surface preparation it is hoped optimum welded joints can be obtained. The experiment results show that the oc1 surface preparation, i.e. the sharpened steel interface while the brass is kept on perpendicular edge, provides better performance under SCC load. Highest inputted energy (120J) always provides the longest duration for joint exposed to SCC load before the failure. The high inputted energy gives high heat to melt the interface which in turn produces compact joint at the interface.