Investigation on the microstructure and microhardness of Inconel 825 thick wall fabricated by wire arc additive manufacturing

•The CMT-MIG-based WAAM process was successfully utilized to fabricate Inconel 825 wall.•A thick wall of around 15 mm was obtained based on the trails obtained by L9 orthogonal array.•The microstructure majorly consists of γ-phase Ni-Cr matrix with columnar dendrites with varying grain sizes.•Varying size of dendrites due to heat transfer modes resulted in varying microhardness along the build direction.