Comparative study of SAW and ASAW process on ASTM A709 Grade 36 steel welds

Welding is a versatile fabrication process used in manufacturing industries for joining structural components. The welded structure's capacity to carrying loads is affected by bead characteristics and process parameters. In this research work, the influnce of the Submerged Arc Welding and Advanced Submerged Arc Welding process on heat input, area of penetration, reinforcement, and heat affected zone, electrode melting rate, electrode and plate melting efficiencies, flux consumption, metal deposition rate, the microhardness of weld metal and HAZ, the microstructure of weld metal zone and power consumption have been studied. The experiments were carried out with the bead on plate (BOP) technique in ASTM A709 Grade 36 steel. The Advanced Submerged Arc Welding process reduces the heat input and area of heat affected zone. At the same time, it increases the area of reinforcement height, electrode melting rate, electrode melting efficiency, metal deposition rate and flux consumption. The microhardness of both zones of the Advanced Submerged Arc Welding process is higher than the Submerged Arc Welding process. Moreover, the microhardness of the heat affected zone is higher than the weld metal zone. The microstructures show the ferritic structure with columnar grains, whereas the column size reduces in the Advanced Submerged Arc Welding process. The Advanced Submerged Arc Welding process reduces the power consumption by 20.59% compared to the Submerged Arc Welding process.