Submerged arc welding is widely used for manufacturing of pipelines. In the present study physicochemical and thermophysical properties of TiO2-SiO2-MgO and SiO2-MgO-Al2O3 based rutile acidic SAW fluxes were studied. Twenty one flux formulations were designed based on the extreme vertices design methodology. Fluxes were analyzed using x-ray fluorescence (XRF), TGA, DSC, Hot-disc and XRD techniques. Bond length behavior of different fluxes were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. For finding the thermal stability and enthalpy change of fluxes TGA and DSC was performed in the range 25–900 °C. Hot disc technique was used to estimate the thermophysical behavior such as specific heat, thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of each flux. Density and grain fineness number of flux was investigated at room temperature. Multi response optimization was carried out to derive the optimized flux combinations. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.