LAUSR

The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behaviour of AISI 304 pipe girth welds which were welded by a single-pass laser beam welding (LBW) and a multi-pass tungsten inert gas welding (TIG), respectively, was studied by the slow strain rate tests combined with the electrochemical corrosion tests. The results show that fracture of both the TIG joint and LBW joint occurs in the heat-affected zone (HAZ). According to the electron-backscattered diffraction observation of the microstructures, comparison of potentiodynamic polarization curves and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of corrosion products on HAZs of the two joints after the electrochemical tests, the LBW joint exhibits better SCC resistance than the TIG joint in corrosion environments, due to the synthetic effect of more Cr 2 O 3 in corrosion products, finer grains, lower residual strain and higher δ -ferrite content in its HAZ. Although the TIG joint has better mechanical property, considering lower SCC susceptibility and higher production efficiency of the LBW joint, the LBW promisingly replaces the TIG for welding of AISI 304 pipes in the nuclear power industry.