TY - JOUR A1 - Üstündag, Ömer A1 - Bakir, Nasim A1 - Gook, S. A1 - Gumenyuk, Andrey A1 - Rethmeier, Michael T1 - Hybrid Laser-Arc Welding of Thick-Walled, Closed, Circumferential Pipe Welds N2 - The application of hybrid laser-arc welding (HLAW) for joining closed circumferential welds is a challenge due to the high risk of forming a defective overlap area with a shrinkage void or solidification cracks in the material thickness. A series of HLAW experiments were performed to understand the development of a faulty overlap area when closing the circumferential weld. Welding trials on flat specimens and pipe segments were supported by numerical analyses in which the thermomechanical behavior of the welds in the overlap area was investigated. Different process control strategies were tested, including variations in defocusing levels and the overlap length. The newly developed HLAW head, including laser optics with a motor-driven collimation system, made it possible to defocus the laser beam during welding without disturbing the stability of the welding process. High-level defocusing of the laser beam of more than 40 mm relative to the specimen surface with a resulting beam diameter of > 2.9 mm, and in combination with a short overlap length of 15 mm, was promising with respect to the formation of a desired cup-shaped weld profile that is resistant to solidification cracks. KW - Hybrid Laser-Arc Welding KW - Thick-Walled Steel KW - High-Power Welding KW - Crater KW - Pipe Welding PY - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.29391/2022.101.002 SN - 0043-2296 VL - 101 IS - 1 SP - 15 EP - 26 PB - American Welding Society CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-55508 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -