Characteristics Evaluation of Weld and Deposited Metal Zones in the Case of Welded with Inconel 718 Filler Metal to Cast Steel for Piston Crown Material

Abstract

Since the oil price has been significantly jumped for recent some years, the diesel engine of the merchant ship has been mainly used the heavy oil of low quality. Thus, it has been often exposed to severely corrosive environment more and more because temperature of the exhaust gas of a combustion chamber is getting higher and higher with increasing of using the heavy oil of low quality. As a result, wear and corrosion of the enginet parts surrounded with combustion chamber is more serious compared to the other parts of the engine. Therefore, an optimum repair welding for these parts is very important to prolong their lifetime in a economical point of view. In this study, Inconel 718 filler metal were welded with GTAW method in the cast steel which would be generally used with piston crown material. In this case, the mechanical and corrosion properties between weld metal zone (WM) welded to the groove which were artificially made in the base metal and deposited metal zone (DM) only welded on the surface of the base metal by Inconel 718 filler metal were investigated using electrochemical methods, such as measurement of corrosion potential, anodic polarization curves, cyclic voltammogram and impedance etc. in 35% H2SO4 solution. The deposited metal zone exhibited a lower value of hardness compared to the weld metal zone. Moreover, the corrosion current density also indicated significantly a lower value in the deposited metal zone compared to the weld metal zone, showing a nobler corrosion potential than the weld metal zone. The corrosive products was not observed both in the weld and deposited metal zones. The microstructure of the pearlite with black color was hardly observed in the weld metal zone, while, the microstructure of ferrite with white color indicated nearly mostly in the weld metal zone. However, ferrite microstructure considerably appeared in the deposited metal zone with crystal pattern, and pearlite microstructure was more or less observed in the deposited metal zone. In particular, the polarization characteristics such as impedance, polarization curve and cyclic voltammogram associated with corrosion resistance property were well in good agreement with each other.