Measurement of Ferrite Content in Cr-Ni Austenitic Stainless Steel Weld Metals

The methods of quantitative metallography, WRC-1992 diagram and XRD quantitative analysis were adopted to determine the ferrite content in austenitic Cr-Ni stainless steel weld metals. By the quantitative metallography method, the uniformity of ferrite distribution was discussed. By the XRD quantitative method, the preferred orientation in the samples and the dispersivity of results were both analyzed. Finally, the difference of ferrite content obtained by three methods was compared. The results showed that under certain conditions, a method similar to XRD measurement for retained austenite content, could be carried out to determine the ferrite content to obtain results basically consistent with metallography method and WRC-1992 diagram method.