Computational Modeling of GMAW Process for Joining Dissimilar Aluminum Alloys

A three-dimensional transient model is developed to solve for heat transfer, fluid flow, and species distribution during a continuous gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process for joining dissimilar aluminum alloys. The phase-change process during melting and solidification is modeled using a fixed-grid enthalpy-porositytechnique, and Scheil's model is used to determine coupling among composition, temperature, and the liquid fraction. The effect of molten droplet addition to the weld pool is simulated using a “cavity” model, in which the droplet heat and species addition to the molten pool are considered as volumetric heat and species sources, respectively, distributed in an imaginary cylindrical cavity within the molten pool. To establish the model for joining dissimilar alloys, results for joining two pieces of a similar alloy are also presented. The dissimilar welding model is demonstrated using a case study in which a plate of wrought aluminum alloy (with approximately 0.5 wt% Si) is butt-welded to an aluminum cast alloy plate (with approximately 10 wt% Si) of equal thickness using a GMAW process. Macrosegregation, along with the associated heat transfer and fluid flow phenomena and their role in the weld pool development, are discussed. The model is able to capture some of the key features of the process, such as differential heating of the two alloys, asymmetric weld pool development, mixing of the molten alloys, and the final composition after solidification.     

Modeling of transport phenomena in hybrid laser-MIG keyhole welding

Mathematical models and associated numerical techniques have been developed to investigate the complicated transport phenomena in spot hybrid laser-MIG keyhole welding. A continuum formulation is used to handle solid phase, liquid phase, and the mushy zone during the melting and solidification processes. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed to handle free surfaces, and the enthalpy method is used for latent heat. Dynamics of weld pool fluid flow, energy transfer in keyhole plasma and weld pool, and interactions between droplets and weld pool are calculated as a function of time. The effect of droplet size on mixing and solidification is investigated. It is found that weld pool dynamics, cooling rate, and final weld bead geometry are strongly affected by the impingement process of the droplets in hybrid laser-MIG welding. Also, compositional homogeneity of the weld pool is determined by the competition between the rate of mixing and the rate of solidification.     

Predicting the influence of groove angle on heat transfer and fluid flow for new gas metal arc welding processes

This article studies the three dimensional transient weld pool dynamics and the influence of groove angle on welding of low carbon structural steel plates using the ForceArc® process. The deformation of the weld bead is also calculated with an accurate coupling of the heat transfer with fluid flow through continuity, momentum and the energy equations combined with the effect of droplet impingement, gravity, electromagnetic force, buoyancy, drag forces and surface tension force (Marangoni effect). Different angles of V groove are employed under the same welding parameters and their influence on the weld pool behavior and weld bead geometry is calculated and analyzed, which is needed for subsequent calculations of residual stress and distortion of the workpiece.Such a simulation is an effective way to study welding processes because the influence of all welding parameters can be analyzed separately with respect to heat transfer, weld pool dynamic, and microstructure of the weld. Good agreement is found between the predicted and experimentally determined weld bead cross-section and temperature cycles. It is found that the main flow pattern is more or less the same although the groove angle increases, but it will evoke larger amount of fluid to flow downward to get deeper penetration.     

Sensitivity to welding positions and parameters in GTA welding with a 3D multiphysics numerical model

A three-dimensional numerical model of Gas Tungsten Arc welding has been developed to predict weld a bead shape, fluid flow in the weld pool, as well as thermal field in the workpiece. This model accounts for coupled electromagnetism, heat transfer, and fluid flow with a moving free surface to simulate different welding positions. The solution strategy of the coupled non-linear equations that has been implemented in the Cast?M finite-element code is also discussed. The capabilities of our numerical model are first assessed by comparison to the experimental results. Then, as fluid flows in a weld pool play a prominent role in the weld quality as well as in the final shape of the weld bead seam, the effect of various welding positions on the weld pool shape has been investigated. This constitutes the main novelty of this work. The performed computations point out a strong sensitivity to gravity on the weld pool shape depending on assisting or opposing the weld direction with respect to gravity. This study contributes to assessing the model capabilities that provide a deeper physical insight into a more efficient optimization of welding processes.     

Three-dimensional modeling of arc plasma and metal transfer in gas metal arc welding

An integrated comprehensive 3D model has been developed to study the transport phenomena in gas metal arc welding (GMAW). This includes the arc plasma, droplet generation, transfer and impingement onto the weld pool, and weld pool dynamics. The continuum formulation is used for the conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy in the metal zone. The free surface is tracked using the volume-of-fluid (VOF) technique. The 3D plasma arc model is solved for the electric and magnetic fields in the entire domain. The interaction and coupling between the metal zone and the plasma zone is considered. The distributions of velocity, pressure, temperature, and free surface for the metal zone and the velocity, pressure, and temperature for the plasma zone are all calculated as a function of time. The numerical results show the time-dependant distributions of arc pressure, current density, and heat transfer at the workpiece surface are different from presumed Gaussian distributions in previous models. It is also observed that these distributions for a moving arc are non-axisymmetric and the peaks shift to the arc moving direction.     

Determination of equilibrium wire-feed-speeds for stable gas metal arc welding

In gas metal arc welding (GMAW), a consumable electrode wire is fed normally at a pre-determined constant speed in order to achieve a stable welding process for given welding conditions. In this article, a comprehensive mathematical model for GMAW was employed to study the interplay among electrode melting; the formation, detachment, and transfer of droplets; and the plasma arc under various welding conditions. It is found that a stable GMAW process can be obtained through a balance between the wire-feed-speed (WFS) and the dynamic electrode melting rate due to the transient behavior of plasma arc. Otherwise, an unstable welding process including electrode burned-back or stick-onto the weld pool could occur. The model-predicted equilibrium WFS varying with welding current and feeding-wire diameter is in good agreement with the published empirical results obtained through a trial-and-error procedure.     

Optimal parameters for pulsed gas tungsten arc welding in partially and fully penetrated weld pools

In the present paper, a numerical model of spot pulsed current GTA welding for partially and fully penetrated weld pools is presented. Heat transfer and fluid flow in the weld pool driven by the combination of electromagnetic force, buoyancy force, surface tension gradient and latent heat are included in our model. A new formulation of the electromagnetic problem is introduced to take into account eddy current in the weld pool. The shape of the free deformable surface under the action of pulsed arc force is also handled after the magneto-hydrodynamic calculation.The numerical model was applied to 304 stainless steel welding. We compare the influence of various pulsed welding parameters such as pulse frequency and current ratio on the weld quality. Experimental study is conducted to compare our numerical prediction with welding macrographies. It shows a good agreement of the model.     

Heat and mass transfer in gas metal arc welding. Part I: The arc

A unified comprehensive model was developed to simulate the transport phenomena occurring during the gas metal arc welding process. An interactive coupling between arc plasma; melting of the electrode; droplet formation, detachment, transfer, and impingement onto the workpiece; and weld pool dynamics all were considered. Based on the unified model, a thorough investigation of the plasma arc characteristics during the gas metal arc welding process was conducted. It was found that the droplet transfer and the deformed weld pool surface have significant effects on the transient distributions of current density, arc temperature and arc pressure, which were normally assumed to be constant Gaussian profiles.     

Weld pool dynamics and the formation of ripples in 3D gas metal arc welding

This article studies the transient weld pool dynamics under the periodical impingement of filler droplets that carry mass, momentum, thermal energy, and species in a moving 3D gas metal arc welding. The complicated transport phenomena in the weld pool are caused by the combined effect of droplet impingement, gravity, electromagnetic force, plasma arc force, and surface tension force (Marangoni effect). The weld pool shape and the distributions of temperature, velocity, and species in the weld pool are calculated as a function of time. The phenomena of “open and close-up” for a crater in the weld pool and the corresponding weld pool dynamics are analyzed. The commonly observed ripples at the surface of a solidified weld bead are, for the first time, predicted by the present model. Detailed mechanisms leading to the formation of ripples are discussed.     

3D heat transfer model of hybrid laser Nd:Yag-MAG welding of S355 steel and experimental validation

A three-dimensional heat transfer model was developed to predict the temperature fields, the weld geometry and the shape of the solidified weld reinforcement surface during hybrid laser-MAG arc welding of fillet joints. Melt pool deformation due to arc pressure was calculated by minimizing the total surface energy. A series of hybrid welding experiments was conducted on S355 steel for different welding speeds and wire feeding rates. A high speed video camera was used to measure weld pool depression and surface weld pool geometry. Visualization of the weld pool during welding has also allowed for a better understanding of the interaction between the keyhole and droplets. The various weld bead shapes were explained through these observations. The arc pressure, the surface energy distribution, and arc efficiency were evaluated by comparing experimental data and numerical results for a wide range of welding operating parameters. Good correlation was found between the calculated and experimental weld bead shapes obtained for the hybrid laser-MAG arc welding process as well as for laser or MAG alone.     

Numerical modeling of non-Fourier heat transfer and fluid flow during plasma arc welding of AISI 304 stainless steel

ABSTRACT

This paper is an attempt to study the evolution of temperature profiles and weld pool geometry during plasma arc welding (PAW) by solving the transient Navier–Stokes and Energy equations. The analysis for an AISI 304 stainless steel rectangular plate was carried out using a flexible written program in Fortran. Due to the low accuracy of the Fourier heat transfer equation for short times and large dimensions, a non-Fourier form of heat transfer equation was used. Gaussian heat source is considered as the heat source model. The fluid flow in the molten pool is of interest because it can change the temperature distribution in and around the molten zone. The governing equations for fluid flow were solved by the finite-volume method in which the SIMPLE method was utilized for pressure–velocity coupling. The effects of heat conduction, fluid flow, and force actions at the weld pool were considered. Thermo-physical properties such as thermal conductivity, specific heat, and dynamic viscosity vary as a function of temperature. There are two mechanisms involved which actively cause heat transfer to the surroundings: radiation and convection heat transfer. The numerical results are compared to the experimental data. The results corroborate that the weld pool thickness in the cross section of PAW and the time taken by molten metal to reach the end of thick metal are in good agreement with the experimental measurements. Finally, the results obtained from the assumed Fourier heat transfer are compared for the same study.     

Development of a finite element based heat transfer model for conduction mode laser spot welding process using an adaptive volumetric heat source

Numerically computed results of weld pool dimensions in conduction mode laser welding are sensitive to the estimated value of the actual beam energy absorbed by the substrate. In a conduction based heat transfer analysis, the incorporation of the laser beam induced energy as a surface only heat flux fails to realize enhanced heat transfer in weld pool as molten material attains higher temperature and convective transport of heat becomes predominant. An alternate is to include fluid flow analysis considering phenomenological laws of conservation of mass and momentum that greatly increases the complexity in modeling. Uncertainty of material properties such as effective thermal conductivity and viscosity in the weld pool also impedes such extensive fluid flow analysis. A simpler and tractable approach can be to consider a volumetric heat source within weld pool in a conduction based heat transfer analysis. Earlier efforts to accommodate volumetric heat source such as double-ellipsoidal form remained unpopular since the size of the final weld pool shapes is required to be known to begin with the calculation. The present work describes an improved approach where a volumetric heat source is defined adaptively as the size of the weld pool grows in size within the framework of a conduction based heat transfer analysis. The numerically computed results of weld pool dimensions following this approach have shown fair agreement with the corresponding measured values for laser spot weld samples.     

Numerical and experimental study of arc and weld pool behaviour for pulsed current GTA welding

A finite element model is introduced in this paper to describe the coupling between the welding arc and the weld pool dynamic in pulsed gas tungsten arc welding. The cathode, arc-plasma and melting anode regions are taken into account. The unified time-dependent model describes the heat transfer, fluid flow and electromagnetic fields in the three regions. The originality of the numerical model is its ability to treat the arc and weld pool time evolution under pulsed current welding in a unified formalism, taking into account eddy current in the weld pool. The case of thin plates with fully penetrated weld pools is also handled.To validate the predictions of the model, an Infra-Red camera is used to film the dynamic of the weld pool surface. Then an image processing algorithm permits to get the time evolution of the weld pool width directly from the film. The numerical model is applied to the 304 stainless steel welding, and the computed results show that the predictions are in fair agreement with the experimental results.     

Heat and mass transfer in gas metal arc welding. Part II: The metal

In this Part II, a thorough investigation of the melting of the electrode; the droplet formation, detachment, transfer and impingement onto the workpiece, and the weld-pool formation and dynamics was conducted. The transient melt-flow velocity and temperature distributions in the droplet and in the weld pool were calculated. The resulting crater in the weld pool and the weld-pool oscillation due to periodical droplet impingement were predicted. The solidification process in the electrode and in the weld pool after the current was turned off was also simulated. The predicted droplet flight trajectory is in good agreement with published data.     

An investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow on laser micro-welding upon the thin stainless steel sheet (SUS304) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

A transient three-dimensional model is numerically developed using the method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to characterize some thermal phenomena and characterization of heat transfer and fluid flow in laser micro-welding by considering the heat source and the material interaction leads to rapid heating, melting and thermal cycles in the heating zone. The application of developed thermal models has demonstrated that the laser parameters, such as laser power, scanning velocity and spot diameter, have considerable effects on the peak temperature and resulted weld pool. The heat source model is consisted of surface heat source and adaptive volumetric heat source that could be well represented the real laser welding as the heat penetrates into the material. In the computation of melt dynamics, mass conservation, momentum and energy equations have been considered to compute the effects of melt flow and the thermo-fluid energy heat transfer. The simulation results have been compared with two sets of experimental research to predict the weld bead geometry and solidification pattern, which laser welds are made on thin stainless steel sheet (SUS304). The shape comparison describes those parameters relevant to any changes in the temperatures and melt dynamics are of great importance on the heat distribution and formation of weld pool during laser micro-welding process. The fair agreement between simulated and experimental results, demonstrates the reliability of the computed model.     

Characterization of the heat transfer accompanying electrowetting or gravity-induced droplet motion

Electrowetting (EW) involves the actuation of liquid droplets using electric fields and has been demonstrated as a powerful tool for initiating and controlling droplet-based microfluidic operations such as droplet transport, generation, splitting, merging and mixing. The heat transfer resulting from EW-induced droplet actuation has, however, remained largely unexplored owing to several challenges underlying even simple thermal analyses and experiments. In the present work, the heat dissipation capacity of actuated droplets is quantified through detailed modeling and experimental efforts. The modeling involves three-dimensional transient numerical simulations of a droplet moving under the action of gravity or EW on a single heated plate and between two parallel plates. Temperature profiles and heat transfer coefficients associated with the droplet motion are determined. The influence of droplet velocity and geometry on the heat transfer coefficients is parametrically analyzed. Convection patterns in the fluid are found to strongly influence thermal transport and the heat dissipation capacity of droplet-based systems. The numerical model is validated against experimental measurements of the heat dissipation capacity of a droplet sliding on an inclined hot surface. Infrared thermography is employed to measure the transient temperature distribution on the surface during droplet motion. The results provide the first in-depth analysis of the heat dissipation capacity of electrowetting-based cooling systems and form the basis for the design of novel microelectronics cooling and other heat transfer applications.     

EFFECT OF VARIOUS DRIVING FORCES ON HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER IN ARC WELDING

Abstract

In this study the heat transfer and fluid flow of the molten pool in stationary gas tungsten arc welding using argon shielding gas were investigated. Transporting phenomena from the welding arc to the base material surface, such as current density, heat flux, arc pressure, and shear stress acting on the weld pool surface, were taken from the simulation results of the corresponding welding arc. Various driving forces for the weld pool convection were considered: self-induced electromagnetic, surface tension, buoyancy, and impinging plasma arc forces. Furthermore, the effect of surface depression due to the arc pressure acting on the molten pool surface was considered. Because the fusion boundary has a curved and unknown shape during welding, a boundary-fitted coordinate system was adopted to precisely describe the boundary for the momentum equation. The numerical model was applied to AISI304 stainless steel and compared with the experimental results.     

Numerical Modeling of Cold Weld Formation and Improvement in Gmaw of Aluminum Alloys

Both mathematical modeling and experiments have been conducted on the formation of cold weld in gas metal arc welding (GMAW) of aluminum alloy 6005-T4. Transient weld pool shape and the distributions of temperature and velocity were calculated by a three-dimensional numerical model. The final weld bead shape and dimensions and peak temperature in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) were obtained. Three techniques were proposed to input more energy at the initial state of welding to improve weld bead penetration. Both the simulation and the experimental results show significantly improved weld bead penetration at the start of welding.     

Guaranteed fillet weld geometry from heat transfer model and multivariable optimization

Numerical heat transfer models of gas metal arc (GMA) fillet welding do not always predict correct temperature fields and fusion zone geometry. The inaccuracy results, to a large extent, due to the difficulty in correctly specifying several input parameters such as arc efficiency from scientific principles. In order to address this problem, a heat transfer model is combined with an optimization algorithm to determine several uncertain welding parameters from a limited volume of experimental data. The resulting smart model guarantees optimized prediction of weld pool penetration, throat and leg-length within the framework of phenomenological laws. A boundary fitted coordinate system was used to account for the complex fusion zone shape. The weld pool surface profile was calculated by minimizing the total surface energy. Apart from the direct transport of heat from the welding arc, heat transfer from the metal droplets was modeled considering a volumetric heat source. The Levenberg–Marquardt and two versions of conjugate gradient method were used to calculate the optimized values of unknown parameters. An appropriate objective function that represented the difference between the calculated and experimental values of the penetration, throat and leg-length was minimized. The calculated shape and size of the fusion zone, finger penetration characteristic of the GMA welds and the solidified free surface profile were in fair agreement with the experimental results for various welding conditions.     

Hybrid 2D–3D modelling of GTA welding with filler wire addition

A hybrid 2D–3D model for the numerical simulation of Gas Tungsten Arc welding is proposed in this paper. It offers the possibility to predict the temperature field as well as the shape of the solidified weld joint for different operating parameters, with relatively good accuracy and reasonable computational cost. Also, an original approach to simulate the effect of immersing a cold filler wire in the weld pool is presented. The simulation results reveal two important observations. First, the weld pool depth is locally decreased in the presence of filler metal, which is due to the energy absorption by the cold feeding wire from the hot molten pool. In addition, the weld shape, maximum temperature and thermal cycles in the workpiece are relatively well predicted even when a 2D model for the arc plasma region is used.