Thermal efficiency in welding of AA6061-T6 alloy by modified indirect electric arc and digitalization of current signals

The results of thermal efficiency on welding using the modified indirect electric arc technique [Ambriz RR, Barrera G, García R. S&I. 2006;11:10–17] of the 6061-T6 aluminium alloy are presented. These values are in the range of 90–94%, depending on the preheat temperature and were obtained by means of a heat balance that considers the heat input, the amount of molten mass of the welding profiles, and welding parameters during the joining, giving particular emphasis to the data collected during the digitalization of the arc current. Also, some dimensionless parameters were employed in order to determine the approximation grade of the molten pool, the heat-affected zone, and their corresponding approximations to the experimental results.