Global and Local Mechanical Properties of Autogenously Laser Welded Ti-6Al-4V

Ti-6Al-4V sheets, 3.2-mm in thickness, were butt welded using a continuous wave 4 kW Nd:YAG laser welding system. The effect of two main process parameters, laser power and welding speed, on the joint integrity was characterized in terms of the joint geometry, defects, microstructure, hardness, and tensile properties. In particular, a digital image correlation technique was used to determine the local tensile properties of the welds. It was determined that a wide range of heat inputs can be used to fully penetrate the Ti-6Al-4V butt joints during laser welding. At high laser power levels, however, significant defects such as underfill and porosity, can occur and cause marked degradation in the joint integrity and performance. At low welding speeds, however, significant porosity occurs due to its growth and the potential collapse of instable keyholes. Intermediate to relatively high levels of heat input allow maximization of the joint integrity and performance by limiting the underfill and porosity defects. In considering the effect of the two main defects on the joint integrity, the underfill defect was found to be more damaging to the mechanical performance of the weldment than the porosity. Specifically, it was determined that the maximum tolerable underfill depth for Ti-6Al-4V is approximately 6 pct of the workpiece thickness, which is slightly stricter than the value of 7 pct specified in AWS D17.1 for fusion welding in aerospace applications. Hence, employing optimized laser process parameters allows the underfill depth to be maintained within the tolerable limit (6 pct), which in turn prevents degradation in both the weld strength and ductility. To this end, the ability to maintain weld ductility in Ti-6Al-4V by means of applying a high energy density laser welding process presents a significant advantage over conventional arc welding for the assembly of aerospace components.     

Distortion and residual stresses in electron beam-welded hydroelectric turbine materials

Heavy-section assembly of hydroelectric turbine runner materials using single-pass, autogenous EBW was demonstrated to penetrate a 90-mm-thick butt joint. The welding-induced distortions and residual stresses were characterised to understand the impact of the materials and process conditions (e.g. preheating and/or PWHT). Using 3D optical measurements, the angular distortions of EB-welded UNS S41500 and CA6NM steels were determined to be 0.13° and 0.38°, respectively. The longitudinal residual stresses, measured through the contour method, had a M-shaped distribution throughout the thickness with minimum (～?500?MPa) compressive stresses in the FZ and maximum (～600?MPa) tensile stresses in the HAZ. After PWHT, the tensile and compressive stresses reduced to ～100?MPa.     

Effect of Postweld Heat Treatment on Microstructure, Hardness, and Tensile Properties of Laser-Welded Ti-6Al-4V

The effects of postweld heat treatment (PWHT) on 3.2-mm- and 5.1-mm-thick Ti-6Al-4V butt joints welded using a continuous wave (CW) 4-kW Nd:YAG laser welding machine were investigated in terms of microstructural transformations, welding defects, and hardness, as well as global and local tensile properties. Two postweld heat treatments, i.e., stress-relief annealing (SRA) and solution heat treatment followed by aging (STA), were performed and the weld qualities were compared with the as-welded condition. A digital image correlation technique was used to determine the global tensile behavior for the transverse welding samples. The local tensile properties including yield strength and maximum strain were determined, for the first time, for the laser-welded Ti-6Al-4V. The mechanical properties, including hardness and the global and local tensile properties, were correlated to the microstructure and defects in the as-welded, SRA, and STA conditions.     

Nonuniform Arrayed Waveguide Gratings for Flat-Top Passband Transfer Function

The passband frequency response of an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) is improved for better performance in wavelength-division multiplexing applications. Using the lengths of array arms as optimization variables, an optimization method is employed to obtain an ideal flat-top transfer function. Two different definitions of the desired transfer function to achieve the ideal flat-top response are given, and their results are compared. Rigorous mathematical derivation of the transfer function and definition of suitable objective functions generate closed-form expressions for the gradient vector of the objective function with respect to the optimization variables, thus enabling the implementation of a robust quasi-Newton optimization algorithm. This, in turn, provides accurate results and fast convergence, despite a large number of optimizing variables. It is shown that the optimized nonuniform AWG will have a flat passband with a broad bandwidth that is 2.3 times larger than that of an ordinary uniform AWG.     

桁架尺寸、几何形状和拓扑优化的力法和遗传算法

结合能量和力法进行桁架重量的最小化,为此,采用遗传算法作为优化工具。提出的主要思想是减少输入变量。在采用遗传算法进行结构优化时,力法的引入非常有意义。该方法不需要求逆矩阵,只需在遗传算法中加入有限的变量,变量的个数等于结构超静定次数。通过几种不同类型的优化案例,验证了当前方法的有效性,并对不同优化技术的结果进行了比较。