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Losses of life and property due to catastrophic failure of structures are often traced to defective welds. However, major advances have taken place in welding science and technology in the last few decades. With the development of new methodologies at the crossroad of basic and applied sciences, the promise of science-based tailoring of composition, structure, and properties of the weldments may be fulfilled. This will require resolution of several contemporary issues and problems concerning the structure and properties of the weldments as well as intelligent control and automation of the welding processes.

Microstructure evolutions and degradations of aluminum-metal-matrix composites during fusion welding were studied and compared with thermodynamic calculations. In fusion welds of Al 2 O 3 -reinforced composites, the decomposition of Al 2 O 3 was observed. In fusion welds of SiC whisker-reinforced composites, the decomposition of SiC to Al 4 C 3 ϩ Si by reaction with molten aluminum occurred. These phenomena led to unacceptable fusion welds in aluminum metal-matrix composites. Successful welds were produced in the same composites by friction stir welding (FSW). Significant reorientation of SiC whiskers close to the boundary of the dynamically recrystallized and thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ) was observed. The small hardening in the dynamically recrystallized region was attributed to the presence of dislocation tangles in between SiC whiskers.

An investigation was carried out to determine the effect of rapid solidification on the weld metal microstructure of austenitic stainless steels and its implication on the ferrite constitution diagram. A wide variety of stainless steels were laser welded at different welding speeds and laser power levels. The results indicate that both weld pool cooling rate and the postsolidification solid state cooling rates have a profound effect on the microstructures. For the steels investigated, the microstructures ranged from duplex austenite (7") + ferrite (6) to fully austenitic or fully ferritic. These microstructures were found to be sensitive to both cooling rates and composition. The observed results are rationalized based on rapid solidification theory. Observations of this investigation indicate that solidification rates and postsolidification cooling rates have a profound effect on the observed microstructures, thus making it impossible to predict the microstructures of rapidly cooled weld metal from the conventional constitution diagrams. The influence of the observations made in this investigation on the Schaeffler diagram is demonstrated and possible corrections to the constitution diagram incorporating the cooling rate effects are proposed.

The isothermal transformation of high-carbon austenite-to-bainitic ferrite has been investigated with the in-situ technique of time-resolved X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation. The measurements indicate that prior to transformation, the austenite divided into regions with significantly different lattice parameters. It is possible that this is due to the development of carbon-rich and carbon-poor regions in the austenite, as a precursor to transformations including the bainite reaction. The lattice parameter became uniform as transformation progressed and the fraction of carbon-poor austenite decreased. The ferrite itself exhibited a large range of lattice parameters during the early stages of transformation, due to the trapping of carbon.

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