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This study presents mechanisms of the evolution of a narrowed region in the weld pool center during deep penetration laser beam welding. In numerous numerical studies presented in this study, it was also found that the local reduction of the weld pool size can cause detrimental effects on the melt flow behavior and the resulting properties of the welds. A particularly large influence of this effect was identified in three aspects. Firstly, the local variation of the solidification sequence of the weld pool causes an increase in the hot-cracking susceptibility due to a locally delayed solidification. Secondly, it was proven that a change in the local length and width of the weld pool is associated with an adverse impact on the potential flow routes of the molten material that induces stronger local variations of its solidification. Thus, the element mixing, e.g. during the welding with filler materials, is blocked. This leads to a non-homogeneous chemical composition of the final weld and can cause undesired effects on the final material properties. Finally, another observed effect is related to the reduced ability of process pores to reach the top surface. As this type of porosity is usually produced around the keyhole tip, the change of the fluid flow regime above this area plays a significant role in determining the final path of the pores until the premature solidification in the middle of the weld pool captures them. This study summarizes mainly numerical results which were supported by selected experimental validation results.
An accurate and efficient description of the spatial distribution of laser energy is a crucial factor for the modeling of laser material processing, e.g., laser welding, laser cutting, or laser-based additive manufacturing. In this study, a 3D heat transfer and fluid flow model coupled with the volume-of-fluid algorithm for free surface tracking is developed for the simulation of molten pool dynamics in high-power laser beam welding. The underlying laser-material interactions, i.e., the multiple reflections and Fresnel absorption, are considered by a ray-tracing method. Two strategies of free surface reconstruction used in the ray-tracing method are investigated: a typical piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC)-based method and a novel localized Level-Set method. The PLIC-based method is discrete, resulting in non-continuous free surface reconstruction. In the localized Level-Set method, a continuous free surface is reconstructed, and thus the exact reflection points can be determined. The calculated spatial laser energy distribution and the corresponding molten pool dynamics from the two methods are analyzed and compared. The obtained numerical results are evaluated with experimental measurements to assure the validity of the proposed model. It is found that distinct patterns of the beam multiple reflections are obtained with the different free surface reconstructions, which shows significant influence not only on the molten pool behaviors but also on the localized keyhole dynamics.
This article is devoted to the study of the bulging effect in deep penetration laser beam welding. The numerical results of the investigations are based upon experimental results from previous studies to reveal the relationship between the bulging effect and the hot cracking formation, as well as the mixing of alloying elements in the weld pool. The widening of the molten pool in its center area can be observed in full penetration as well as in partial penetration welds on 8 mm and 12 mm thick structural steel plates, respectively. The weld pool shape is extracted from the simulations to evaluate the extent of the necking of the solidification line as well as the bulging phenomena and its influence on the hot cracking phenomena. Relying on an earlier numerical study utilizing a fixed keyhole, simulation models considering a dynamic keyhole are developed thereto. Additionally, the mixing behavior of alloying elements during partial penetration is investigated. The link between the bulge and the studied phenomena is found to be significant.
The geometrical characteristics of the weld end crater are commonly used for the validation of numerical results in welding simulation. A semi-analytical model calculating the cooling stage of the welding process after the moving energy source is turned off has been developed. A solution for various combinations of heat sources and workpieces has been found. The theoretical limits for the heat transfer of the absorbed energy during cooling in a thin plate and a semi-infinite body were studied. It is shown that after turning off the energy source, an additional melting of the base material in longitudinal direction may occur. The developed technique is applied to complete-penetration keyhole laser beam welding of a 2 mm thick austenitic chromium-nickel 316L steel plate at a welding speed of 20 mm/s and a laser power of 2.3 kW. The results show a theoretical increase of the weld end crater length in comparison to the length of the steady-state weld pool of up to 19 %. A shift of the centre of the end crater, in which the solidification of the liquid metal ends, towards the tail of the end crater relative to the axis of the heat source at the time of its termination, was computed. The speed and the direction of crystallization of the molten material in the weld pool and the end crater were found to be different. A good agreement between the computational results and the welding experiments was achieved.
A novel approach for the reconstruction of an equivalent volumetric heat source from a known weld pool shape is proposed. It is based on previously obtained weld pool geometries from a steady-state thermo-fluid dynamics simulation. Hereby the weld pool dimensions are obtained under consideration of the most crucial physical phenomena, such as phase transformations, thermo-capillary convection, natural convection and temperature-dependent material properties. The algorithm provides a time and calibration efficient way for the reproduction of the weld pool shape by local Lamé curves. By adjusting their parameters, the identification of the finite elements located within the weld pool is enabled. The heat input due to the equivalent heat source is assured by replacing the detected nodes’ temperature by the melting temperature.
The model offers variable parameters making it flexible and adaptable for a wide range of workpiece thicknesses and materials and allows for the investigation of transient thermal effects, e.g. the cooling stage of the workpiece. The calculation times remain acceptably short especially when compared to a fully coupled process simulation. The computational results are in good agreement with performed complete-penetration laser beam welding experiments.
This work aims to find the thermal cycles during and after fusion welding through simulation by first calculating the resulting local temperature field in the quasi-stationary part of the process. Here complete-penetration keyhole laser beam welding with a laser power of 18 kW on a 15 mm thick slab of a low-alloyed steel at a welding speed of 2 m/min is considered. In order to physically depict the laser material interaction a multi-physics numerical model including the effects of phase transformation, thermo-capillary convection, natural convection and temperature-dependent material properties up to evaporation temperature is developed. It uses a fixed keyhole geometry with a right truncated circular cone shape to introduce the laser beam energy to the workpiece. In a subsequent study, the resulting local temperature field is then used as an equivalent heat source in order to predict the unsteady thermal cycle during and after fusion welding. The translational movement of the laser beam through the workpiece is represented by a moving mesh approach. For the simulation, stationary heat transfer and fluid dynamics are described by a system of strongly coupled partial differential equations. These are solved with the commercial finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0. The results of the numerical simulation are validated by experiments, where the weld bead shapes and the thermal cycles show good correlation.
The additional element from the filler wire in the laser beam welding is usually distributed inhomogeneously in the final weld due to the high solidification rate of weld pool. It has been found that the electromagnetic stirring produced by an external oscillating magnetic field can enhance the material mixing in the weld pool to achieve a more uniform element distribution. However, the magnetic field has a highly non-linear and multi-coupled interaction with the weld pool behavior, which makes the quantitative explanation of the physical mechanism difficult. In this study, the effect of electromagnetic stirring on the transport phenomena in the wire feed laser beam welding is investigated by a numerical modelling. A 3D transient multi-physical model considering the magnetohydrodynamics, heat transfer, fluid flow, keyhole dynamics and element transport is developed. The multiple reflections and the Fresnel absorption of the laser on the keyhole wall are calculated using the ray tracing method. The numerical results show that a Lorentz force produced by the oscillating magnetic field and its induced eddy current gives significant influence on the transport phenomena in the molten pool. The forward and downward flow is enhanced by the electromagnetic stirring, which homogenizes the distribution of the additional elements from a nickel-based filler wire in a steel weld pool. The numerical results show a good agreement with the high-speed images of the molten pool, the fusion line from the optical micrograph and the element distribution from the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. This work provides a physical base for the electromagnetic-controlled laser beam welding and some guidance for the selection of electromagnetic parameters.
The shape of the weld pool in laser beam welding plays a major role to understand the dynamics of the melt and its solidification behavior. The aim of the present work was its experimental and numerical investigation. To visualize the geometry of the melt pool in the longitudinal section a butt joint configuration of 15 mm thick structural steel and transparent quartz glass was used. The weld pool shape was recorded by means of a high-speed video camera and two thermal imaging MWIR and VIS cameras. The observations show that the dimensions of the weld pool vary depending on the depth. The regions close to the surface form a teardrop shaped weld pool. A bulge-region and its temporal evolution were observed approximately in the middle of the depth of the weld pool. Additionally, a transient numerical simulation was performed until reaching a steady state to obtain the weld pool shape and to understand the formation mechanism of the observed bulging phenomena. A fixed keyhole with an experimentally obtained shape was used to represent the full-penetration laser beam welding process. The model considers the local temperature field, the effects of phase transition, thermo-capillary convection, natural convection and temperature-dependent material properties up to evaporation temperature. It was found that the Marangoni convection and the movement of the laser heat source are the dominant factors for the formation of the bulging-region. Good correlation between the numerically calculated and the experimentally observed weld bead shapes and the time-temperature curves on the upper and bottom surface were found.
Transient Process Simulation of Heat Transfer in Laser Beam Welding with an Equivalent Heat Source
(2017)
This paper presents a multiphysics modelling framework developed for the prediction of the three-dimensional transient temperature field of the laser welding process. The numerical model consists of two studies. In the first study, a steady-state CFD process simulation of full-penetration keyhole laser beam welding was performed. Considering the effects of, thermo-capillary and natural convection, latent heat of fusion and temperature-dependent material properties up to evaporation temperature the local weld pool geometry and temperature field were obtained. These results were used in the second subsequent study as an equivalent volumetric heat source by the prediction of the transient thermal cycle during and after fusion welding. Here the energy input and the movement of the heat source were realized by a novel technique, making use of pointwise constraints and a moving mesh provided with helper lines and additional remeshing condition. The numerically calculated results were compared to experimentally observed weld pool shapes and time-temperature curves showing a very good agreement.
In this study, a three-dimensional CFD-simulation model was developed to simulate the fluid flow in the weld pool. The CFD-model showed a bulging region in the middle of the depth, which is separated from the top surface and bottom surface by two narrowing regions. It can be concluded that the interaction of the movement of the laser source with the Marangoni vortex leads to a teardrop shape at the upper and bottom surface of the workpiece. Additionally, it shows that the bulging in the weld is a result of the backflows on the upper and lower sides due to the thermo-capillary-driven flows. The weld pool shape was used as a heat source in a two-dimensional thermomechanical model, which allows a highly accurate transformation of the weld pool dimensions obtained from the CFD model. This developed technique allows the consideration of physical aspects, which cannot be considered when using traditional heat sources. The mechanical model has shown that the chronological order of the solidification of the weld has a significant influence on the nature and distribution of the stresses in the weld. High tensile stress has been observed in the bulging region, i.e. in the susceptible region for solidification cracking, when compared to the other narrowing regions, which show compressive stress.