“…The most likely explanation for the variation of texture between the surface and the depth of the fusion zone is that the differences of the thermophysical and thermomechanical properties of the investigated location affect the process of solidification and plastic deformation, leading to different final out-comes. In our study, the nature of this texture has been explained by the thermodynamic conditions of minimisation of surface energies a) On the surface b) to 50 μm c) to 150 μm d) to 200 μm (Kalinyuk et al, 2003;Matysina, 1999) which results in the presence of columnar grain growth at the surface of the welded zone (Kurtz et al, 2001). Between the surface and the 200 µm depth (Figure 7b, 7c, 7d) the texture decreases to disappear completely from 200 µm.…”