TY - JOUR A1 - Bachmann, Marcel A1 - Avilov, Vjaceslav A1 - Gumenyuk, Andrey A1 - Rethmeier, Michael T1 - Experimental and numerical investigation of an electromagnetic weld pool support system for high power laser beam wleidng of austenitic stainless steel JF - Journal of materials processing technology N2 - A three-dimensional turbulent steady state numerical model was used to investigate the influence of an alternating current (AC) magnetic field during high power laser beam keyhole welding of 20 mm thick stainless steel AISI 304 being modeled as an ideal non-ferromagnetic material. Three-dimensional heat transfer and fluid dynamics as well as the electromagnetic field equations were solved with the finite element package COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2 taking into account the most important physical effects of the process. Namely, the thermo-capillary (Marangoni) convection at the weld pool boundaries, natural convection due to gravity and density differences in the melt volume as well as latent heat of solid–liquid phase transitions at the phase boundaries were included in the model. It is shown that the gravity drop-out associated with the welding of thick plates due to the hydrostatic pressure can be prevented by the application of AC magnetic field between 80 mT and 135 mT for corresponding oscillation frequencies between 1 kHz and 10 kHz below the weld specimen. Experimentally, a value of the magnetic flux density of around 230 mT was found to be necessary to allow for single-pass laser beam welding without sagging or drop-out of melt for a 20 mm thick combination of austenitic stainless steel AISI 304 and ferritic construction steel S235JRC at an oscillation frequency of around 2.6 kHz. KW - Electromagnetic weld pool control KW - Laser beam welding KW - Lorentz force KW - Marangoni flow KW - Natural convection PY - 2014 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2013.11.013 SN - 0924-0136 SN - 1873-4774 VL - 214 IS - 3 SP - 578 EP - 591 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-29709 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -