Ta. Palmer et T. Debroy, ENHANCED DISSOLUTION OF NITROGEN DURING GAS TUNGSTEN ARC-WELDING OF STEELS, Science and technology of welding and joining, 3(4), 1998, pp. 190-203
Although nitrogen concentrations at levels much higher than Sieverts'
Law predictions during the arc welding of iron and steel are well esta
blished, there is currently no commonly accepted methodology to determ
ine this concentration quantitatively. The nature and concentrations o
f various species in the plasma phase above the weld pool surface are
therefore investigated in the present work using both theoretical and
experimental techniques. A comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of the
nitrogen containing plasma phase of a gas tungsten welding arc shows
that ionised species dominate close to the electrode, whereas neutral
monatomic and diatomic nitrogen are the primary species near the metal
surface at plasma temperatures as low as 5000 K. When oxygen is added
to a nitrogen containing plasma, the resulting nitrogen concentration
in the weld metal is further enhanced. Definitive proof is provided f
or a mechanism in which nitrogen and oxygen species interact in the pl
asma phase at temperatures below 6000 K, resulting in a significant in
crease in the concentration of monatomic nitrogen. Furthermore, at pla
sma temperatures as low as 5000 K, the equilibrium monatomic nitrogen
partial pressure is sufficiently high to cause nitrogen saturation in
the weld metal. Emission spectroscopy of glow discharge plasmas valida
tes both the species density calculations and the presence of NO in th
e nitrogen and oxygen containing plasmas.