Monitoring of martensite formation during welding by means of acoustic emission

The martensitic transformation during gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding of steel 42CrMo4 has been studied using the acoustic emission (AE) monitoring technique. Welds were produced under static conditions (spot welding) and under stationary conditions (travelling arc welding). After spot welding, the root mean square (RMS) value of the continuous acoustic emission was measured, revealing a peak that reflects the evolution of martensite formation during cooling of the spot weld. The RMS value was also measured during travelling arc welding at different heat inputs and corrected for the noise of the welding process to obtain the RMS value due to martensite formation. After welding, optical metallography was carried out to quantify the amount of martensite formed during cooling of the weld. An analysis of the results shows that the squared RMS value is proportional to the volume rate of martensite formation during welding, which is consistent with theory and in good agreement with the results obtained in the case of spot welding. The obtained results suggest that AE can be applied as a real time monitoring technique for the detection of martensite formation during steel welding.