Experimental assessment of microstructure and mechanical properties of electron beam welded S960M high strength structural steel

In this letter, the experiments were carried out by electron beam welding (EBW) process in high vacuum (2 × 10-4 mbar) for S960M high strength steel (HSS) butt welded joint of plate thickness 15 mm. Slight hardening was observed in heat affected zone (HAZ) and fusion zone (FZ) as compared to base material (BM). The tensile strength of the joint (997 MPa) is observed slightly lower than that of BM (Rm = 1058 MPa). The impact energy for BM, HAZ and FZ at −40 °C was 142 J, 125 J & 78 J, respectively. Charpy fracture of BM exhibits ductile failure while HAZ and FZ shown brittle-ductile characteristics.