Influence of Water Steam on Manual Metal Arc (MMA) Welding Failure Mechanisms of Galvanized Carbon Steel Using Microstructural, Chemical, Mechanical, and Vibration Property Analysis

The primary goal of this research is to use experimental and numerical methods to investigate the effects of water steam on the welded galvanized carbon steel mechanical properties, microstructures, and failure modes. Visual inspection, microstructural analysis, tensile test, free vibration analysis, and chemical composition analysis approaches have been used to investigate the effects of steam water treatment on the welding properties of butt arc-welded joints. From visual observation, the steam heating has significant effects in varying the microstructural arrangements of the welding. Furthermore, the elemental analysis indicates the variations of constituent elements due to the variations of steam treatment days, which affect the mechanical and microstructural properties of the material. The steam heating of the weld to a certain limit indicates the enhancement of elongation up to 20% and the amplitude during the free vibration tests. When the mechanical properties are assessed using a tensile test, the results showed that the welded specimens had up to 425 MPa ultimate tensile strength and the unwelded specimens showed up to 369 MPa ultimate tensile strength. Generally, the steam heating treatment and treatment time have significant effects on the properties of galvanized carbon steel welds. If additional treatment and controlling mechanisms can be implemented, the steam treatment will have a positive impact on the enhancement of the mechanical, corrosion, and other properties of the materials for different engineering applications. The finding of the study is that steam treatment enhanced weld ductility and tensile properties, indicating potential for augmenting weld performance in thermal cycling conditions.