Experimental Study of the Temperature Distribution in Welded Thin Plates of Duplex Stainless Steel for Automotive Exhaust Systems

This paper reports the experimental efforts in recording the 2-dimensional temperature distribution on autogenous thin plates of UNS S32304 steel during welding. The butt-welded autogenous joints were experimentally performed by the GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding) process with either argon or argon-2%nitrogen atmospheres. The temperatures cycles were recorded by means of thermocouples embedded by spot welding on the plate's surfaces and connected to a multi-channel data acquisition system. The laser flash method (LFM) was also used for the determination thermal diffusivity of the material in the thickness direction. The temperature curves suggest a relationship between the microstructures in the solidified and the heat affected zone with the diffusivity variation. This is a region where there had been a major incidence of heat. The obtained results validate the reliability of the experimental used apparatus.