APPLICATION POSSIBILITIES OF THE S960 STEEL IN UNDERWATER WELDED STRUCTURES

In this paper, the application possibilities of the ultra-high strength (UHSS) Domex 960 steel in the underwater welded structures are analyzed. In the research, the investigated material has been tested in bead-on-plate wet welding conditions with the usage of different heat input values, namely 0.63 kJ/mm, 0.72 kJ/mm and 0.93 kJ/mm. Specimens were performed by the manual metal arc (MMA) welding method with the usage of rutile covered electrodes. Firstly, the nondestructive visual testing (VT) was carried out. In the next step, the metallographic macro- and microscopic tests were performed. Finally, the hardness of the weld metal and heat-affected zone (HAZ) was measured by the Vickers HV10 method. The performed experiments allow the statement that the Domex 960 steel could be welded in a water environment. It also showed that increasing heat input leads to decreasing the hardness in HAZ by 30 HV10. It may result in decreasing the susceptibility to cold cracking during butt- and filet welding in the water environment.