Residual stress and softening in welded high-strength low-alloy steel with a buffering layer

Welding residual stresses, Vickers hardness and microstructure of welded high-strength low-allow steel, known for high strength and low carbon content, were studied under the following conditions: as-received high-strength low-alloy steel, welded high-strength low-alloy steel without a buffering layer, and welded high-strength low-allow steel with various thickness buffering layer. A soft buffering layer with a modest thickness between the parent metal and the weld metal could be incorporated to welded high-strength low-alloy steel to effectively reduce the widths of tensile residual stress zone and welding softening zone, to change the residual stress (in y-direction) nature at the weld root from tensile to compressive, and to refine the grains of the welded high-strength low-alloy steel. The width of the tensile residual stress (in x-direction) zone was approximately equivalently to that of the welding softening zone for those welded high-strength low-alloy steel with and without buffering layers.