Steel is basically used in construction, automobile, buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, appliances, machines and weapons due to its good mechanical as well as metallurgical properties. Heat treatment of steels significantly enhance its mechanical and metallurgical properties due to the formation of various phases depending upon the type of steel used for specific application. In present study, blank of EN353 grade steel having different sizes were used to investigate the effect of heat treatment and microstructural changes. JMat-Pro software was used to predict the continuous cooling transformation behaviour of EN353 steel. Different phases such as bainite, perlite and other carbide inclusion can be observed in the microstructural examination. Pearlitic microstructure developed for the specimen of size 40×40×40 mm heated at 870°C for 2 hrs and then isothermal heating was performed for same specimen at 600°C for 73 min followed by air cooling.
Relevance Statement: Steel is an important material which is frequently used in almost all areas such as structure building, pressure vessels, transportation and many more other applications. Addition of alloying elements in parent steel significantly improve the metallurgical as well as mechanical properties. Steel properties like tensile strength, toughness, ductility, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, hardness, hot hardness, weldability, fatigue etc. significantly improved with the addition of alloying and heat treatment. Heat treatment processes can be used to improve the properties of steel which are frequently used in many manufacturing industries. Different grades of steels which are heat treated under a set of sequence of heating and cooling to change their physical and mechanical properties so that it can fulfil its function under loading condition. With the help of heat treatment process desired microstructure has been achieved which exhibit good mechanical properties of steels.

Pipeline welding is an integral part of oil and gas exploration industries. Often the welded joint failures were due to lack of weld quality, improper heat treatment and even poor workmanship. Further, the use of new material in pipeline industry puts focus on a better understanding of qualifying requirements of welding for reducing the failures in future. This necessitates the need for development and design of suitable welding fluxes for joining these materials. In this paper an attempt is made to study the effects of submerged arc welding fluxes on weldability as well as structural integrity issues in pipeline steels. Physicochemical and thermophysical properties of submerged arc fluxes widely affects the mechanical behaviour of pipeline steels. This paper presents an overview of the role of welding parameters, flux composition, cooling rate, slag behaviour and physicochemical properties of slag on final welded joint properties such as tensile strength, impact toughness etc. during submerged arc welding.