Determination of residual stresses in fiber laser welded stainless steel joints by neutron diffraction method

This study presents an experimental results of residual stress states in stainless steel plate samples with size 100 x 50 x 10 mm welded using a high-power fiber laser. The technological parameters of the welding process were: laser power Q = 15 kW; laser spot size = 0.65 mm; welding speed V = 3 m/min; 4 m/min; 5 m/min, using 30 L/min of protective Ar gas. The neutron diffraction method was used to determine the residual stresses in the bulk of the material. The neutron experiments were performed on the FSD diffractometer at the IBR-2 pulsed reactor in the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research - Dubna, Russian Federation. The measured residual stress distributions exhibit maxima at weld seam centers. As expected, for all specimens the residual stress is falling down in regions distant from the weld zone. Maximal residual stress value of 492 MPa was observed for sample welded with speed of V = 5 m/min.