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A fundamental study of physical mechanisms of wineglass-shaped fusion zone profile in laser melting
(2024)
The fusion zone geometry in laser melting processes e.g., laser welding and laser-based additive manufacturing, of metallic materials has commonly a wineglass-shaped profile which is critical to the grain orientation and stress distribution. Hereby, we adopt for the first time a decoupling work through a combination of multi-physics modelling and experiments to reveal the fundamental mechanisms of this special morphology. Two physicsbased easy-to-use metal vapour models are proposed to consider the vapour’s momentum and thermal effects separately. It is found that the direct laser energy absorption and Marangoni shear stress which are widely hypothesised to dominate the wineglass-shape formation show only a minor influence. The additional heating from the metallic vapour plume rather than its momentum impact contributes predominantly to the enlarging of the molten pool top region, resulting directly in the formation of the wineglass-shaped fusion zone. The generality of the plume heating effect is also validated in two types of materials (steel and Al) in a wide range of parameters.
Despite the advances in hardware and software techniques, standard numerical methods fail in providing real-time simulations, especially for complex processes such as additive manufacturing applications. A real-time simulation enables process control through the combination of process monitoring and automated feedback, which increases the flexibility and quality of a process. Typically, before producing a whole additive manufacturing structure, a simplified experiment in the form of a beadon-plate experiment is performed to get a first insight into the process and to set parameters suitably. In this work, a reduced order model for the transient thermal problem of the bead-on-plate weld simulation is developed, allowing an efficient model calibration and control of the process. The proposed approach applies the proper generalized decomposition (PGD) method, a popular model order reduction technique, to decrease the computational effort of each model evaluation required multiple times in parameter estimation, control, and optimization. The welding torch is modeled by a moving heat source, which leads to difficulties separating space and time, a key ingredient in PGD simulations. A novel approach for separating space and time is applied and extended to 3D problems allowing the derivation of an efficient separated representation of the temperature.
The results are verified against a standard finite element model showing excellent agreement. The reduced order model is also leveraged in a Bayesian model parameter estimation setup, speeding up calibrations and ultimately leading to an optimized real-time simulation approach for welding experiment using synthetic as well as real measurement data.
Numerical and experimental assessment of liquid metal embrittlement in externally loaded spot welds
(2024)
Zinc-based surface coatings are widely applied with high-strength steels in automotive industry. Some of these base materials show an increased brittle cracking risk during loading. It is necessary to examine electrogalvanized and uncoated samples of a high strength steel susceptible to liquid metal embrittlement during spot welding with applied external load. Therefore, a newly developed tensile test method with a simultaneously applied spot weld is conducted. A fully coupled 3D electrical, thermal, metallurgical and mechanical finite element model depicting the resistant spot welding process combined with the tensile test conducted is mandatory to correct geometric influences of the sample geometry and provides insights into the sample’s time dependent local loading. With increasing external loads, the morphology of the brittle cracks formed is affected more than the crack depth. The validated finite element model applies newly developed damage indicators to predict and explain the liquid metal embrittlement cracking onset and development as well as even ductile failure.
The effect of the oscillating metal vapor plume on the keyhole and molten pool behavior during the laser beam welding of AlMg3 aluminum alloys is investigated by experimental and numerical methods. The real-time height of the metal vapor plume is measured by high-speed camera observation. The obtained experimental results are used to evaluate the additional heating source and laser beam attenuation caused by the scattering and absorption based on the Beer–Lambert theory. Furthermore, the dynamic behavior of the metal vapor plume is incorporated into a 3D transient heat transfer and fluid flow model, coupled with the ray tracing method, for the laser beam welding of the AlMg3 alloy. It is found that additional heating resulting from the scattered and absorbed laser beam energy by the metal vapor plume significantly expands the shape of the molten pool on the top region. Moreover, the oscillating metal vapor plume caused the fluctuation of the high-temperature region in the molten pool. The probability of keyhole collapse at the bottom increases 17% due to the oscillating laser power induced by the laser beam attenuation. The internal interplay between the metal vapor plume, molten pool shape, and keyhole collapse is obtained. The developed model has been validated by experiments, which shows a good agreement.
Liquid metal embrittlement (LME) cracking is a phenomenon observed during resistance spot welding (RSW) of zinccoated advanced highstrength steels (AHSS) in automotive manufacturing. In this study, severe cracks are observed at the edge of the sheet under reduced flange widths. These cracks, traversing the AHSS sheet, culminate at the edge with a width of approximately 1.2 mm.
Through combined numerical and experimental investigations, and material testing, these cracks are identified and validated as a new type of LME crack. The mechanism behind this crack formation is attributed to unique geometric conditions that, when compared to center welding, amplify radial material flow by ninefold to 0.87 mm. The resultant tangential tensile stresses approximate 760 MPa, which exceed the yield strength of the examined advanced highstrength steel (AHSS) under heightened temperature conditions, and when combined with liquid zinc, promote the formation of this new type of LME crack.
AbstractLaser beam welding has become widely applied in many industrial fields in recent years. Solidification cracks remain one of the most common welding faults that can prevent a safe welded joint. In civil engineering, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been successfully used to detect cracks in roads and buildings by analysing images of the constructed objects. These cracks are found in static objects, whereas the generation of a welding crack is a dynamic process. Detecting the formation of cracks as early as possible is greatly important to ensure high welding quality. In this study, two end-to-end models based on long short-term memory and three-dimensional convolutional networks (3D-CNN) are proposed for automatic crack formation detection. To achieve maximum accuracy with minimal computational complexity, we progressively modify the model to find the optimal structure. The controlled tensile weldability test is conducted to generate long videos used for training and testing. The performance of the proposed models is compared with the classical neural network ResNet-18, which has been proven to be a good transfer learning model for crack detection. The results show that our models can detect the start time of crack formation earlier, while ResNet-18 only detects cracks during the propagation stage.
Through experimental observation and auxiliary numerical simulation, this investigation studies the different types of grain refinement of 5754 aluminum alloy laser beam welding by applying a transverse oscillating magnetic field. Scanning electron microscope results have proved that the application of a magnetic field can reduce the average crystal branch width and increase its number. The interaction between the induced eddy current generated by the Seebeck effect and the applied external magnetic field produces a Lorentz force, which is important for the increase in the number of crystal branches. Based on the theory of dendrite fragmentation and the magnetic field-induced branches increment, the grain size reduction caused by the magnetic field is studied. Furthermore, the effects of the magnetic field are analyzed by combining a phase field method model and simulations of nucleation and grain growth. The grain distribution and average grain
size after welding verify the reliability of the model. In addition, the introduction of a magnetic field can increase the number of periodic three-dimensional solidification patterns. In the intersection of two periods of solidification patterns, the metal can be re-melted and then re-solidified, which prevents the grains, that have been solidified and formed previously, from further growth and generates some small cellular grains in the new fusion line. The magnetic field increases the building frequency of these solidification structures and thus promotes this kind of grain refinement.
Electromagnetic stirring is known to promote material flow, reduce porosity, uniform elements distribution, and refine grain in laser beam welding (LBW), which enhances the applicability of LBW in various industries. In this study, a phase-field model of dendrite growth in AA5754 Al alloy electromagnetic stirring laser beam welding was established. The model considered the thermal electromagnetic Lorentz force resulting from the interaction between the electric field generated by the Seebeck effect and the magnetic field, as well as the temperature gradient and solidification rate of the solidification interface obtained from the computational fluid dynamics electromagnetic stirring LBW model. The variation rules of dendrite growth with different magnetic parameters and effects are analyzed. Comprehensively, the magnetic field promotes the solidification rate, thus promoting interfacial instability and a large magnetic flux density leads to a faster interface instability. The solidification rate as well as the temperature gradient affect the growth rate, and the accelerated growth caused by the so lidification rate with a high frequency and a large magnetic flux density effectively inhibits the slow growth caused by the temperature gradient. The thermal electromagnetic Lorentz force is the main factor for the branch increment at low frequencies, while both thermal electromagnetic Lorentz force and temperature gradient in crease the number of branches at high frequencies. The calculated average branch numbers considering various factors in the stable stage under different magnetic parameters were consistent with the results of the scanning electron microscope tests.
The amount of absorbed energy in the keyhole as well as its spatial and temporal distribution is essential to model the laser beam welding process. The recoil pressure, which develops because of the evaporation process induced by the absorbed laser energy at the keyhole wall, is a key determining factor for the macroscopic flow of the molten metal in the weld pool during high-power laser beam welding. Consequently, a realistic implementation of the effect of laser radiation on the weld metal is crucial to obtain reliable and accurate simulation results. In this paper, we discuss manyfold different improvements on the laser-material interaction, namely, the ray tracing method, in the numerical simulation of the laser beam welding process. The first improvement relates to locating the exact reflection points in the ray tracing method using a so-called cosine condition in the determination algorithm for the intersection of reflected rays and the keyhole surface. A second correction refers to the numerical treatment of the Gaussian distribution of the laser beam, whose beam width is defined by a decay of the laser intensity by a factor of 1/e2, thus ignoring around 14% of the total laser beam energy. In the third step, the changes in the laser radiation distribution in the vertical direction were adapted by using different approximations for the converging and the diverging regions of the laser beam, thus mimicking the beam caustic. Finally, a virtual mesh refinement was adopted in the ray tracing routine. The obtained numerical results were validated with experimental measurements.
AISI 2205 duplex stainless steel is used in a variety of industries, including the chemical and petrochemical industries. This is due to its high tensile strength combined with good ductility and corrosion resistance. However, in laser beam welding, these properties are negatively afected by the high cooling rates typical of the welding process. The resulting higher ferrrite content in the weld metal than in the base material leads to a reduction in the ductility and corrosion resistance of the welded joint. To overcome this problem, in this study, thick plates were coated by direct energy deposition (DED) prior to laser beam welding, whereas a duplex powder mixture containing a higher nickel concentration was used as a coating material. To improve the weld quality for the proposed two-step process, a method of additional material deposition instead of conventional tack weld was investigated. The resulting welded joints showed a well-balanced austenite to ferrite ratio and their properties and microstructure were verifed by metallographic analysis, electron backscatter difraction and Charpy impact testing. Using the standard ASTM G48 test method, it was found that the corrosion resistance of the welds was improved by a factor of four in average compared to the conventionally welded joints. The resulting properties, such as good ductility and corrosion resistance, of the welds with pre-coated edges showed good agreement with those of the base metal and confrmed the proposed two-step process as a promising alternative to the conventional approaches for welding thick duplex stainless steel plates.
In recent years, in addition to the commonly known wire-based processes of Directed Energy Deposition using lasers, a process variant using the electron beam has also developed to industrial market maturity. The process variant offers particular potential for processing highly conductive, reflective or oxidation-prone materials. However, for industrial usage, there is a lack of comprehensive data on performance, limitations and possible applications. The present study bridges the gap using the example of the high-strength aluminum bronze CuAl8Ni6. Multi-stage test welds are used to determine the limitations of the process and to draw conclusions about the suitability of the parameters for additive manufacturing. For this purpose, optimal ranges for energy input, possible welding speeds and the scalability of the process were investigated. Finally, additive test specimens in the form of cylinders and walls are produced, and the hardness profile, microstructure and mechanical properties are investigated. It is found that the material CuAl8Ni6 can be well processed using wire electron beam additive manufacturing. The microstructure is similar to a cast structure, the hardness profile over the height of the specimens is constant, and the tensile strength
and elongation at fracture values achieved the specification of the raw material.
The application of anti-corrosion coated, high-strength steels in the automotive industry has increased in recent years. In combination with various zinc-based surface coatings, liquid metal embrittlement cracking can be observed in some of these materials. A high-quality, crack-free spot-welded joint is essential to realize the lightweight potential of the materials. In this work, the LME susceptibility of different coatings, which will be determined by the crack length and the occurrence rate, will be investigated using a welding under external load setup. The uncoated specimens did not show any LME. EG, GI and GA showed significantly less LME than ZM coatings. The latter coatings showed much larger crack lengths than the EG, GI and GA coatings. Furthermore, two mechanisms regarding the LME occurrence rate were observed: the occurrence of LME in zinc–magnesium coatings was theorized to be driven by the material properties of the coatings, whereas the occurrence of LME at EG, GI and GA samples was forced mainly by the application of the external tensile load.
In the experimental setup of this work, the materials were exposed to unusually high mechanical loads (up to 80% of their yield strength) to evoke LME cracks.
A technique for calculating the main solidification parameters for a two-dimensional columnar crystal growth during complete penetration laser beam welding of thin steel sheets was developed. Given that the weld pool interface is described by Lamé curves (superellipses) within the horizontal plane of growth, general analytical solutions were derived for the geometry of the crystal axis and the corresponding growth rate and cross-sectional area of the crystal. A dimensionless analysis was performed to provide insights on the dependence of the solidification parameters on the shape and dimensions of the rear part of the weld pool boundary. The derived solutions were applied for the case of complete penetration laser beam keyhole welding of 2 mm thick 316L austenitic chromium-nickel steel sheets. It was shown that the reconstruction of the weld pool boundary with Lamé curves provides higher accuracy and flexibility compared to results obtained with elliptical functions. The validity of the proposed technique and the derived analytical solutions was backed up by a comparison of the obtained solutions to known analytical solutions and experimentally determined shapes and sizes of the crystals on the top surface of the sheet. The dimensions of the calculated crystal axis correlated well with the experimentally obtained results.
The strain field can reflect the initiation time of solidification cracks during the welding process. The traditional strain measurement is to first obtain the displacement field through digital image correlation (DIC) or optical flow and then calculate the strain field. The main disadvantage is that the calculation takes a long time, limiting its suitability to real-time applications. Recently, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have made impressive achievements in computer vision.
To build a good prediction model, the network structure and dataset are two key factors. In this paper, we first create the training and test sets containing welding cracks using the controlled tensile weldability (CTW) test and obtain the real strain fields through the Lucas–Kanade algorithm. Then, two new networks using ResNet and DenseNet as encoders are developed for strain prediction, called StrainNetR and StrainNetD. The results show that the average endpoint error (AEE) of the two networks on our test set is about 0.04, close to the real strain value. The computation time could be reduced to the millisecond level, which would greatly improve efficiency.
The high amount of resource consumption of fusion welding processes offers the potential to reduce their environmental impact. While the driving forces are known froma qualitative perspective, the quantitative assessment of the crucial parameters is not a trivial task. Therefore, herein, a welding-specific methodology to utilize life cycle assessment as a tool for evaluating the environmental impact of fusion welding processes is presented. In this context, two welding processes, resistance spot welding and laser beam welding, are analyzed for two different use cases.
These comprise the welding of shear test specimens and a cap profile made of electrogalvanized sheets of DC 05þ ZE (1.0312) as representative of an automotive application. For both welding processes, the main influences on the resulting environmental impact categories are evaluated and compared. The requirements for ecological efficient welding processes are discussed and implemented.
Motivated by the loss of tensile strength in 9%Ni steel arc-welded joints performed using commercially available Ni-based austenitic filler metals, the viability of retaining tensile strength using an experimentally produced matching ferritic filler metal was confirmed. Compared to the austenitic Ni-based filler metal (685 MPa), higher tensile strength in gas metal arc (GMA) welded joints was achieved using a ferritic filler metal (749 MPa) due to its microstructure being similar to the base metal (645 MPa). The microstructure of hard martensite resulted in an impact energy of 71 J (-196 °C), which was two times higher than the specified minimum value of _>34 J. The
tensile and impact strength of the welded joint is affected not only by its microstructure, but also by the degree of its mechanical mismatch depending on the type of filler metal. Welds with a harder microstructure and less mechanical mismatch are important for achieving an adequate combination of tensile strength and notched impact strength. This is achievable with the cost-effective ferritic filler metal. A more desirable combination of mechanical properties is guaranteed by applying low preheating temperature (200 °C), which is a more practicable and economical solution compared to the high post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) temperature (580 °C) suggested by other research.
Directed energy deposition (DED) has been in industrial use as a coating process for many years. Modern applications include the repair of existing components and additive manufacturing. The main advantages of DED are high deposition rates and low energy input. However, the process is influenced by a variety of parameters affecting the component quality. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) offer the possibility of mapping complex processes such as DED. They can serve as a tool for predicting optimal process parameters and quality characteristics. Previous research only refers to weld beads: a transferability to additively manufactured three-dimensional components has not been investigated. In the context of this work, an ANN is generated based on 86 weld beads. Quality categories (poor, medium, and good) are chosen as target variables to combine several quality features. The applicability of this categorization compared to conventional characteristics is discussed in detail. The ANN predicts the quality category of weld beads with an average accuracy of 81.5%. Two randomly generated parameter sets predicted as “good” by the network are then used to build tracks, coatings,walls, and cubes. It is shown that ANN trained with weld beads are suitable for complex parameter predictions in a limited way.
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 raytracing 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 noncontinuous 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 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. First, 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. Second, 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 that were supported by selected experimental validation results.
This article presents a cost-effective and reliable method for welding 30 mm thick sheets of shipbuilding steel EH36. The method proposes to perform butt welding in a two-run technique using hybrid laser arc welding (HLAW) and submerged arc welding (SAW). The HLAW is performed as a partial penetration weld with a penetration depth of approximately 25 mm. The SAWis carried out as a second run on the opposite side. With a SAWpenetration depth of 8 mm, the weld cross-section is closed with the reliable intersection of both passes. The advantages of the proposed welding method are: no need for forming of the HLAW root; the SAW pass can effectively eliminate pores in the HLAWroot; the high stability of the welding process regarding the preparation quality of the weld edges. Plasma cut edges can be welded without lack of fusion defects. The weld quality achieved is confirmed by destructive tests.
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.
It is already known that the laser beam welding (LBW) or hybrid laser-arc welding (HLAW) processes are sensitive to manufacturing tolerances such as gaps and misalignment of the edges, especially at welding of thick-walled steels due to its narrow beam diameter. Therefore, the joining parts preferably have to be milled. The study deals with the influence of the edge quality, the gap and the misalignment of edges on the weld seam quality of hybrid laser-arc welded 20-mm-thick structural steel plates which were prepared by laser and plasma cutting. Single-pass welds were conducted in butt joint configuration. An AC magnet was used as a contactless backing. It was positioned under the workpiece during the welding process to prevent sagging. The profile of the edges and the gap between the workpieces were measured before welding by a profile scanner or a digital camera, respectively. With a laser beam power of just 13.7 kW, the single-pass welds could
be performed. A gap bridgeability up to 1 mm at laser-cut and 2 mm at plasma-cut samples could be reached respectively.
Furthermore, a misalignment of the edges up to 2 mm could be welded in a single pass. The new findings may eliminate the need for cost and time-consuming preparation of the edges.
size limitations and high production costs of L-PBF make it competitive for smaller, highly complex components, while the less complex elements of an assembly are manufactured conventionally. This leads to scenarios that use L-PBF only where it’s beneficial, and it require an integration and joining to form the final product. For example, L-PBF combustion swirlers are welded onto cast parts to produce combustion systems for stationary gas turbines. Today, the welding process requires complex welding fixtures and tack welds to ensure the correct alignment and positioning of the parts for repeatable weld results. In this paper, L-PBF and milled weld preparations are presented as a way to simplify the Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding of rotationally symmetrical geometries using integrated features for alignment and fixation. Pipe specimens with the proposed designs are manufactured in Inconel 625 using L-PBF and milling. The pipe assembly is tested and TIG welding is performed for validation. 3D scans of the pipes before and after welding are evaluated, and the weld quality is examined via metallography and computed tomography (CT) scans. All welds produced in this study passed the highest evaluation group B according to DIN 5817. Thanks to good component alignment, safe handling, and a stable welding process, the developed designs eliminate the need for part-specific fixtures, simplify the process chain, and increase the process reliability. The results are applicable to a wide range of components with similar requirements.
The Directed Energy Deposition process is used in a wide range of applications including the repair, coating or modification of existing structures and the additive manufacturing of individual parts. As the process is frequently applied in the aerospace industry, the requirements for quality assurance are extremely high. Therefore, more and more sensor systems are being implemented for process monitoring. To evaluate the generated data, suitable methods must be developed. A solution, in this context, was the application of artificial neural networks (ANNs). This article demonstrates how measurement data can be used as input data for ANNs. The measurement data were generated using a pyrometer, an emission spectrometer, a camera (Charge-Coupled Device) and a laser scanner. First, a concept for the extraction of relevant features from dynamic measurement data series was presented. The developed method was then applied to generate a data set for the
quality prediction of various geometries, including weld beads, coatings and cubes. The results were compared to ANNs trained with process parameters such as laser power, scan speed and powder mass flow. It was shown that the use of measurement data provides additional value. Neural networks trained with measurement data achieve significantly higher prediction accuracy, especially for more complex geometries.
Duplex stainless steels combine the positive properties of its two phases, austenite and ferrite. Due to its good corrosion resistance, high tensile strength, and good ductility, it has multiple applications. But laser beam welding of duplex steels changes the balanced phase distribution in favor of ferrite. This results in a higher vulnerability to corrosion and a lower ductility. Herein, different powder combinations consisting of duplex and nickel for coating layers by laser metal deposition (LMD) are investigated. Afterward, laser tracks are welded, and the temperature cycles are measured. The ferrite content of the tracks is analyzed by feritscope, metallographic analysis, and electron backscatter diffraction. The goal is the development of a powder mixture allowing for a duplex microstructure in a two-step process, where first the edges of the weld partners are coated with the powder mixture by LMD and second those edges are laser beam welded. The powder mixture identified by the pretests is tested in the two-step process and analyzed by metallographic analysis, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and
Vickers hardness tests. The resulting weld seams show a balanced duplex microstructure with a homogenous nickel distribution and a hardness of the weld seam similar to the base material.
Study on the transition behavior of the bulging effect during deep penetration laser beam welding
(2022)
The present work is devoted to the study of the transition behavior of the recently confirmed widening of the weld pool, known as the bulging effect, during high-power deep penetration laser beam welding of thick unalloyed steel sheets. A three-dimensional transient multi-physics numerical model is developed, allowing for the prediction of the bulge formation and the study of its temporal behavior. The model is generalized to account automatically for the transition from partial to complete penetration. Several experimental measurements and observations, such as drilling period, weld pool length, temperature, efficiency, and metallographic cross-sections are used to verify the model and assure the plausibility of the numerical results. The analysis of the calculated temperature and velocity distributions, as well as the evolution of the keyhole geometry, shows that the formation of a bulging region strongly depends on the penetration depth of the weld. Based on the numerical results, the bulge is found to occur transiently, having its transition from a slight bulge to a fully developed bulging between penetration depths of 6 mm and 9 mm, respectively.
Herein, an improved ray-tracing routine using a virtual mesh refinement approach is adopted in a 3D transientmultiphysics computational fluid Dynamics model for deep penetration wire feed laser beam welding. In a previous study, it was shown that the improved localization of the reflection points of the subrays within the keyhole leads to a more realistic development of the keyhole Depth being validated with experimental results. Another effect investigated in Detail herein is a drastic change in the flow behavior in the weld pool, which promotes the occurrence of a necking area in the solidification line and subsequent bulging under specific circumstances. This has a detrimental effect on the filler material element transport in the weld pool, leading to an inhomogeneous dilution of the added material. The numerical observations are backed up by experimentally obtained data, allowing to provide a clear physics-based explanation of the reduced mixing behavior of the filler wire in the melt pool.
Characterization of Ti-6Al-4V fabricated by multilayer laser powder-based directed energy deposition
(2022)
Laser powder-based directed energy deposition (DED-L) is increasingly being used in additive manufacturing (AM). As AM technology, DED-L must consider specific challenges. It must achieve uniform volume growth over hundreds of layers and avoid heat buildup of the deposited material. Herein, Ti–6Al–4V is fabricated using an approach that addresses these challenges and is relevant in terms of transferability to DED–L applications in AM. The assessment of the obtained properties and the discussion of their relationship to the process conditions and resulting microstructure are presented. The quality of the manufacturing process is proven in terms of the reproducibility of properties between individual blanks and with respect to the building height. The characterization demonstrates that excellent mechanical properties are achieved at room temperature and at 400 °C.
In recent years, it was shown that the introduction of additional oscillating and permanent magnetic fields to laser beam and laser-arc hybrid welding can bring several beneficial effects.
Examples are a contactless weld pool support for metals of high thickness suffering from severe drop-out when being welded conventionally or an enhanced stirring to improve the mixing of added filler material in the depth of the weld pool to guarantee homogeneous resulting mechanical properties of the weld. The latest research results show the applicability to various metal types over a wide range of thicknesses and welding conditions. The observations made were demonstrated in numerous experimental studies and a deep understanding of the interaction of the underlying physical mechanisms was extracted from numerical calculations.
The study deals with the determination of the influence of an externally applied oscillating magnetic field on the melt pool dynamics in high power laser beam and hybrid laser arc welding processes. An AC magnet was positioned under the workpiece which is generating an upward directed electromagnetic force to counteract the formation of the droplets. To visualise the melt flow characteristics, several experiments were carried out using a special technique with mild steel from S355J2 with a plate thickness of up to 20 mm and a quartz glass in butt configuration. The profile of the keyhole and the melt flow were recorded with a highspeed camera from the glass side. Additionally, the influence of the magnetic field orientation to the welding direction on the filler material dilution on laser hybrid welding was studied with variating oscillation frequency. The element distribution over the whole seam thickness was measured with X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The oscillation frequency demonstrated a great influence on the melt pool dynamics and the mixing of the elements of the filler wire. The highspeed recordings showed, under the influence of the magnetic field, that the melt is affected under strong vortex at the weld root, which also avoids the formation of droplets.
The present work deals with the recently confirmed widening of the weld pool interface, known as a bulging effect, and its relevance in high power laser beam welding. A combined experimental and numerical approach is utilized to study the influence of the bulge on the hot cracking formation and the transport of alloying elements in the molten pool. A technique using a quartz glass, a direct-diode laser illumination, a high-speed camera, and an infrared camera is applied to visualize the weld pool geometry in the longitudinal section. The study examines the relevance of the bulging effect on both, partial and complete penetration, as well as for different sheet thicknesses ranging from 8 mm to 25 mm. The numerical analysis shows that the formation of a bulge region is highly dependent on the penetration depth and occurs more frequently during partial penetration above 6 mm and complete penetration above 8 mm penetration depth, respectively. The location of the bulge correlates strongly with the cracking location. The obtained experimental and numerical results reveal that the bulging effect increases the hot cracking susceptibility and limits the transfer of alloying elements from the top of the weld pool to the weld root.
Wire arc additive manufacturing enables the production of near-net shape large-volume metallic components leveraging an established industrial base of welding and cladding technology and adapting it for layer-wise material deposition. However, the complex relationship between the process parameters and resulting mechanical properties of the components still remains challenging. In case of high-strength Al-Mg-Si aluminum alloys, no commercial filler wires are yet available due the high susceptibility of solidification cracking as well as the necessary efforts to obtain acceptable mechanical properties. To address this need, we evaluated a novel filler wire based on AlMg0.7Si doped with a Ti5B1 master alloy to foster fine equiaxed grains within the deposited metal. The correlation between the process parameters and component quality was examined by analyzing the size and distribution of pores as well as the grain morphology. Furthermore, we evaluated the influence of different post-weld heat treatment strategies to achieve mechanical properties corresponding to the reference wrought material. We demonstrated that fine equiaxed grains in the weld metal reduced the susceptibility of solidification cracking significantly. The novel AlMg0.7Si-TiB (S Al 6063-TiB) filler wire facilitated wire arc additive manufacturing of high-strength aluminum components with mechanical properties that were almost as superior as the corresponding wrought base material.
Effects on crack formation of additive manufactured Inconel 939 sheets during electron beam welding
(2021)
The potential of additive manufacturing for processing precipitation hardened nickel-base superalloys, such as Inconel 939 is considerable, but in order to fully exploit this potential, fusion welding capabilities for additive parts need to be explored. Currently, it is uncertain how the different properties from the additive manufacturing process will affect the weldability of materials susceptible to hot cracking. Therefore, this work investigates the possibility of joining additively manufactured nickel-based superalloys using electron beam welding. In particular,
the influence of process parameters on crack formation is investigated. In addition, hardness measurements are performed on cross-sections of the welds. It is shown that cracks at the seam head are enhanced by Welding speed and energy per unit length and correlate with the hardness of the weld metal. Cracking parallel to the weld area shows no clear dependence on the process variables that have been investigated, but is related to the hardness of the heat-affected zone.
Cast magnesium alloys welds produced by refill friction stir spot welding (refill FSSW) show low lap shear strength (LSS) and constantly fail in stirred zone (SZ) shear mode. The cause is most probably related to the heavily textured microstructure. Here, to re-engineer the resulting microstructure, we pro- pose a novel process variant, the differential rotation refill FSSW (DR-refill FSSW). DR-refill FSSW stim- ulates discontinuous dynamic recrystallization and produces a bimodal microstructure with weakened texture. Therefore, the deformation incompatibility between SZ and thermal-mechanically affected zone is avoided. The welds have 50% higher LSS than that of standard refill FSSW welds, and fail in a different failure mode, i.e., SZ pull-out mode. DR-refill FSSW provides a new and effective strategy for improving the performance of spot welds based on microstructural engineering.
The application of magnesium (Mg) inevitably involves dissimilar welding with steel. A novel solid state spot welding method, refill friction stir spot welding (refill FSSW), was utilized to weld AZ31 Mg alloy to galvanized DP600 steel. Although Mg/Fe is an immiscible alloy system, defect-free welds with high strength were successfully obtained in a wide parameter window. The results of microstructure, interfacial reactions, and mechanical properties are reported to reveal the underlying joining mechanism. Due to the melting of Zn coating and subsequent Mg-Zn reactions, Mg-Zn eutectic and intermetallic compounds were detected within welds. Heterogeneous interfacial reactions occur along Mg/steel interface, and the relationship between interfacial structure and fracture behavior was investigated. The joining mechanism is associated with Zn coating and Fe-Al layer: 1) the presence of Zn coating is beneficial for achieving high-quality welding between Mg and steel, it protects the interface from oxidation and contributes to brazing of the weld; 2) the Al present in Mg alloy reacts with Fe, resulting in the growth of Fe-Al layer, which contributes to the diffusion bonding in the interface. The overall results clearly show that Refill FSSW is a competitive welding method for joining Mg and galvanized steel.
The present work is devoted to the numerical analysis of the high-power laser beam welding of thick sheets at different welding speeds. A three-dimensional transient multi-physics numerical model is developed, allowing for the prediction of the keyhole geometry and the final penetration depth. Two ray tracing algorithms are implemented and compared, namely a standard ray tracing approach and an approach using a virtual mesh refinement for a more accurate calculation of the reflection points. Both algorithms are found to provide sufficient accuracy for the prediction of the keyhole depth during laser beam welding with process speeds of up to 1.5 m/min. However, with the standard algorithm, the penetration depth is underestimated by the model for a process speed of 2.5 m/min due to a trapping effect of the laser energy in the top region. In contrast, the virtually refined ray tracing approach results in high accuracy results for process speeds of both 1.5 m/min and 2.5 m/min. A detailed study on the trapping effect is provided, accompanied by a benchmark including a predefined keyhole geometry with typical characteristics for the high-power laser beam welding of thick plates at high process speed, such as deep keyhole, inclined front keyhole wall, and a hump.
The increasing adoption of Open Science principles has been a prevalent topic in the welding science community over the last years. Providing access to welding knowledge in the form of complex and complete datasets in addition to peer-reviewed publications can be identified as an important step to promote knowledge exchange and cooperation. There exist previous efforts on building data models specifically for fusion welding applications; however, a common agreed upon implementation that is used by the community is still lacking. One proven approach in other domains has been the use of an openly accessible and agreed upon file and data format used for archiving and sharing domain knowledge in the form of experimental data. Going into a similar direction, the welding community faces particular practical, technical, and also ideological challenges that are discussed in this paper. Collaboratively building upon previous work with modern tools and platforms, the authors motivate, propose, and outline the use of a common file format specifically tailored to the needs of the welding research community as a complement to other already established Open Science practices. Successfully establishing a culture of openly accessible research data has the potential to significantly stimulate progress in welding research.
the joints throughout the structure. The flat units are constituted by butt welded flat plates, on which longitudinal T-welded reinforcements are placed to rigidize the structure. Among the different welding technologies, Hybrid Laser Arc Welding (HLAW) is becoming a mature process, profitable and highly productive. In addition, more innovative welding equipment are being developed nowadays, offering greater work flexibility, and raising expectations of achieving better quality, and economic viability. Another key point of HLAW to keep in mind is that structural distortions are reduced, resulting in decreasing the cost and time of straightening work.
In the present contribution, the influence of HLAW parameters on the quality of fillet joints of naval steel has been analysed. Experimental HLAW tests were performed with a high power disk laser to join EH36 naval steel plates, with a T configuration. The influence of different processing parameters has been analysed, as the laser power, welding speed, wire feed rate and the configuration of the HLAW processes (including head angle and laser/arc leading process). In addition, FEM simulations were carried out in order to estimate residual stresses and distortion of welded part. The distortion values provided by FEM presented excellent agreement with the measured experimental results. To evaluate the welds, non destructive tests including X-ray tests, metallographic analysis of cross sections, and microhardness mapping tests were performed.
Full penetration 8 mm T welds were obtained for the first time at an industrially applicable 2F position with a reasonable HLAW head angle, in one single step without sealing root, and using zero gap square groove Edge preparation. The present contribution presents welding rates up to 2.2 m/min for 2F T-joints of this steel thickness, a much higher processing velocity than previously reported for industrial applications.
Additive manufacturing, and therefore directed energy deposition, is
gaining more and more interest from industrial users. However, quality assurance for the components produced is still a challenge. Machine learning, especially using artificial neuronal networks, is a potential method for ensuring a high-quality standard. Based on process Parameters and monitoring data, part quality can be predicted. A further advantage is the ability to constantly learn and adopt to slight process changes.
First tests using artificial neural networks focus on the prediction of track geometry. The results show that even a small data set is enough to provide high accuracy in the predictions. In this work, an artificial neural network for the predictive analysis of relative density in laser powder cladding has been developed. A central composite experimental design is used to generate 19 data sets. Input variables are laser power, feed rate and powder mass flow. Cubes are built up where density is considered as a target value. Several neural networks are trained and evaluated with these data sets. Different topologies and initial weights are considered. The best network reaches a confidence level of around 90 % for the prediction of relative density based on the process parameters. Finally, the optimization of the generalization performance is investigated. To this purpose, methods of variation in error limit as well as cross-validation are applied. In this way, density is predictable by an artificial neural network with an accuracy of about 95 %.
The application of the electromagnetic stirring from an oscillating magnetic field can improve the metal mixing in wire feed laser beam welding. However, the extra parameters introduced in this technique make the selection of an optimal combination of process parameters more difficult. In the current study, besides the commonly concerned magnetic flux density and frequency, the influence of the magnetic field orientation (magnetic field angle) on the transport of filler metal is studied numerically and experimentally. Ex-situ X-ray fluorescence spectrometer measurements are used to map the metal mixing in the final weld. A three-dimensional transient multi-physical model is developed to reveal the deeper physical essence, considering the coupling between heat transfer, fluid flow, keyhole dynamics, element transport and magnetohydrodynamics. The spatial distribution of the laser energy on the keyhole wall is calculated by a ray tracing algorithm. The results show that the magnetic field with smaller angle with respect to the transverse direction provides better penetration capacity, and its stirring effect can reach the lower part of the molten pool. Therefore, the smaller magnetic field angle produces better metal mixing. A constant downward flow is formed at the lower part of the molten pool when magnetic field of 10° angle is applied, which brings the filler metal to the root region. As the magnetic field angle increases to 40°, the beneficial downward flow changes into a constant upward flow, resulting in a concentration of the filler metal in the upper region. This study provides further insight of the underlying physics in the electromagnetically enhanced laser beam welding, which may guide the optimization of parameters to achieve property homogeneity or to avoid potential defects.
The present contribution is the first research reporting full penetration HLAW joints in 15 mm thick EH36 steel butt T-welds with square grooves on 2F welding position by single-sided welding. The effects of welding parameters were investigated to increase the quality of the joints.
Conditions leading to defect-free full penetration welds fulfilling naval regulations includes a laser power of 12.5 kW, a welding speed of 1.6 m/min and the vertical laser offset distance from the flange of 1 mm. Advanced characterization of selected welds included a microstructural identification by optical microscopy, SEM, and XRD, revealing the presence of acicular, polygonal and Widmanstätten ferrite, lath martensite, and some retained austenite at FZ. Hardness and microhardness mapping tests showed values of 155 HV at base metal and 200 to 380 HV at the fusion zone connecting the web to the flange.
Motivated by the tensile strength loss of 9%Ni steel arc welded joints made using Ni-based austenitic filler metals, the feasibility of maintaining the tensile strength using matching ferritic filler metal has been demonstrated. In comparison with shielded metal arc welded joint made using Ni-based austenitic electrode ENiCrMo-6, higher tensile strength comparable to that of the base metal was obtained using matching ferritic electrode. Besides, sufficient impact toughness energies with much lower mismatch were obtained for weld metal and heat-affected zone.
Welded joint with a lower mechanical mismatching is of considerable importance for achieving acceptable combination of tensile strength and impact toughness. A better combination of These mechanical properties is ensured by applying a post weld heat treatment.
Ni-based superalloys are well established in various industrial applications, because of their excellentmechanical properties and corrosion resistance at high temperatures. Despite the high development stage anda common industrial use of these alloys, hot cracking remains a major challenge limiting the weldability ofthe materials. As commonly known, the hot cracking susceptibility during welding increases with the amountof precipitation phases. Hence, a large amount of highstrength Ni-Alloys is rated as non-weldable. A newapproach based on electron beam welding at low feed rates shows great potential for reducing the hotcracking tendency of precipitation-hardened alloys. However, geometry and properties of the weld seamdiffer significantly in comparison to the common process range for practical uses. The aim of this study is toinvestigate the influence of welding parameters on the seam geometry at low feed rates between 1 mm/s and10 mm/s. For this purpose, 25 bead on plate welds on a 12 mm thick sheet made of Inconel 718 are carriedout. First, the relevant parameters are identified by performing a screening. Then the effects discovered arefurther studied by using a central composite design. The results show a significant difference between theanalyzed weld seam geometry in comparison to the well-known appearance of electron beam welded seams.
The stability of the keyhole decreases for deep penetrated high-power laser beam welding. The keyhole tends to collapse with increasing laser power and e.g. keyhole induced porosity can occur. This study deals with the observation of the keyhole during high-power laser beam welding in partial penetration mode by means of a high-speed camera. A butt configuration of 25 mm thick structural steel and transparent quartz glass was used for the experiments. An oscillating magnetic field was applied perpendicular to the welding direction on the root side of the steel plate. The keyhole was highlighted with a coaxial diode laser. It was ascertained that the stability of the keyhole and the weld penetration depth were increased by applying an oscillating magnetic field with an oscillating frequency of 1.2 kHz and a magnetic flux density of 50 mT.
Motivated by the tensile strength loss of 9%Ni steel arc welded joints made using Ni-based austenitic filler metals, the feasibility of maintaining the tensile strength using matching ferritic filler metal has been demonstrated. In comparison with shielded metal arc welded joint made using Ni-based austenitic electrode ENiCrMo-6, higher tensile strength comparable to that of the base metal was obtained using matching ferritic electrode. Besides, sufficient impact toughness energies with much lower mismatch were obtained for weld metal and heat-affected zone.
Welded joint with a lower mechanical mismatching is of considerable importance for achieving acceptable combination of tensile strength and impact toughness.Abetter combination of These mechanical properties is ensured by applying a post weld heat treatment.
Liquid metal embrittlement (LME) cracking can occur during resistance spot welding (RSW) in zinc-coated advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) for automotive production. In this study, a methodological variation of hold time is performed to investigate the process-related crack influence factors. A combination of numerical and experimental investigations confirms, that the extent of heat dissipation and re-heating of the sheet surface can be influenced and thus the degree of crack formation can be controlled in a targeted manner by the parameterisation of the hold time. The temperature and stress history of crack-free and crack-afflicted spot welds are analysed and a conclusion on the borders defining the LME active region is derived.
In additive manufacturing (AM) directed energy deposition (DED), parts are built by welding layers of powder or wire feedstock onto a substrate with applications for steel powders in the fields of forging tools, spare parts, and structural components for various industries. For large and bulky parts, the choice of toolpaths influences the build rate, the mechanical performance, and the distortions in a highly geometry-dependent manner. With weld-path lengths in the range of hundreds of meters, a reliable, automated tool-path generation is essential for the usability of DED processes. This contribution presents automated tool-path generation approaches and discusses the results for arbitrary geometries. Socalled “zig-zag” and “contour-parallel” processing strategies are investigated and the tool-paths are automatically formatted into machine-readable g-code for experimental validation to build sample geometries. The results are discussed in regard to volume-fill, microstructure, and porosity in dependence of the path planning according to photographs and metallographic cross-sections.
Components distort during directed energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing (AM) due to the repeated localised heating. Changing the geometry in such a way that distortion causes it to assume the desired shape – a technique called distortion-compensation – is a promising method to reach geometrically accurate parts. Transient numerical simulation can be used to generate the compensated geometries and severely reduce the amount of necessary experimental trials. This publication demonstrates the simulation-based generation of a distortioncompensated DED build for an industrial-scale component. A transient thermo-mechanical approach is extended for large parts and the accuracy is demonstrated against 3d-scans. The calculated distortions are inverted to derive the compensated geometry and the distortions after a single compensation iteration are reduced by over 65%.
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 nonlinear and multicoupled 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 modeling. A 3D transient multiphysical 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.
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.
The geometrical characteristics of the weld end crater are commonly used as a means of validating numerical results in welding simulations.
In this paper, an analytical model is developed for calculating the cooling stage of the welding process after the moving energy source is turned off. Solutions for various combinations of heat sources and heated bodies are found. It is shown that after turning off the Energy source, additional melting of the base material in the longitudinal direction may occur due to the overheated liquid metal. The developed technique is applied to complete-penetration keyhole laser beam welding of 2 mm thick austenitic stainless-steel plate 316L at a Welding speed of 20 mm/s and a laser power of 2.3 kW. The results show a theoretical increase in the weld end crater length of up to 19% compared to the length of the steady-state weld pool. It is found that at the moment of switch off, the weld end crater center, where solidification of the liquid metal ends, is shifted from the heat source axis toward the weld pool tail. The solidification rate and the direction of crystallization of the molten material during the welding process and those in the weld end crater differ significantly. A good agreement between the computational results and the welding experiments is achieved.
Laser beam welding of aluminum die casting is challenging. A large quantity of gases (in particular, hydrogen) is absorbed by aluminum during the die-cast manufacturing process and is contained in the base material in solved or bound form. After remelting by the laser, the gases are released and are present in the melt as pores. Many of these metallurgic pores remain in the weld seam as a result of the high solidification velocities. The natural (Archimedean) buoyancy is not sufficient to remove the pores from the weld pool, leading to process instabilities
and poor mechanical properties of the weld. Therefore, an electromagnetic (EM) system is used to apply an additional buoyancy
component to the pores. The physical mechanism is based on the generation of Lorentz forces, whereby an electromagnetic pressure is introduced into the weld pool. The EM system exploits the difference in electrical conductivity between poorly conducting pores (inclusions) and the comparatively better conducting aluminum melt to increase the resulting buoyancy velocity of the pores. Within the present study, the electromagnetic supported degassing is investigated in dependence on the laser beam power, welding velocity, and electromagnetic flux density. By means of a design of experiments, a systematic variation of these parameters is carried out for partial penetration laser beam welding of 6mm thick sheets of wrought aluminum alloy AlMg3 and die-cast aluminum alloy AlSi12(Fe), where the wrought alloy serves as a reference. The proportion of pores in the weld seams is determined using x-ray images, computed tomography images, and cross-sectional images. The results prove a significant reduction of the porosity up to 70% for both materials as a function of the magnetic flux density.
In this study, the influence of the welding speed, the arc power, and the laser focal position on the solidification crack formation for partial penetration laser hybrid–welded thick-walled plates was investigated.
The solidification cracking in the weld root is a result of interaction between metallurgical and geometrical and thermomechanical factors.
Experimentally, a direct correlation between the welding speed and the crack number was observed. That is by reducing the welding velocity, the crack number was decreased. The focal position shows also a significant influence on the crack number. By focusing the laser on the specimen surface, the crack number has been significantly diminished.
The wire feed speed showed a very slight influence on the crack formation. That is due to the large distance between the critical region for cracking and the arc region.
The numerical model shows a high stress concentration in the weld root for both components (vertical and transversal).
Numerically, the reduced welding speed showed a strong impact on stress, as the model demonstrated a lower stress amount by decreasing the welding speed.
The metallurgical factors, such as the assumed accumulation of the low-melting eutectics in the weld root, should be a contribution for solidification cracking, where the tensile stress is acting.
This paper demonstrates that the instrumented indentation test (IIT), together with a trained artificial neural network (ANN), has the capability to characterize the mechanical properties of the local parts of a welded steel structure such as a weld nugget or heat affected zone.
Aside from force-indentation depth curves generated from the IIT, the profile of the indented surface deformed after the indentation test also has a strong correlation with the materials’ plastic behavior. The profile of the indented surface was used as the training dataset to design an ANN to determine the material parameters of the welded zones. The deformation of the indented surface in three dimensions shown in images were analyzed with the computer vision algorithms and the obtained data were employed to train the ANN for the characterization of the mechanical properties. Moreover, this method was applied to the images taken with a simple light microscope from the surface of a specimen. Therefore, it is possible to quantify the mechanical properties of the automotive steels with the four independent methods: (1) force-indentation depth curve; (2) profile of the indented surface; (3) analyzing of the 3D-measurement image; and (4) evaluation of the images taken by a simple light microscope. The results show that there is a very good Agreement between the material parameters obtained from the trained ANN and the experimental uniaxial tensile test. The results present that the mechanical properties of an unknown steel can be determined by only analyzing the images taken from its surface after pushing a simple indenter into its surface.
The present work deals with the development of a strategy for the prevention of end crater defects in high-power laser welding of thick-walled circumferential welds. A series of experiments were performed to understand the influence of the welding Parameters on the formation of end crater defects such as pores, cracks, root excess weld metal and shrinkage cavities in the overlap area. An abrupt switch-off of the laser power while closing the circumferential weld leads to a formation of a hole which passes through the whole welded material thickness. A laser power ramp-down causes solidification cracks which are initiated on the transition from full-penetration mode to partial penetration. Defocusing the laser beam led to promising results in terms of avoiding end crater defects. Cracks and pores in the overlap area could be effectively avoided by using defocusing techniques.
A strategy for avoiding of end crater imperfections was tested on flat specimens of steel grade S355J2 with a wall thickness of between 8 mm and 10 mm and then transferred on the 10 mm thick pipe sections made of high-strength pipeline steel API5L-X100Q.
Among the various welding technologies, resistance spot welding (RSW) and laser beam welding (LBW) play a significant role as joining methods for the automobile industry. The application of RSW and LBW for the automotive body alters the microstructure in the welded areas. It is necessary to identify the mechanical properties of the welded material to be able to make a reliable statement about the material behavior and the strength of welded components. This study develops a method by which to determine the mechanical properties for the weldment of RSW and LBW for two dual phase (DP) steels, DP600 and DP1000, which are commonly used for the automotive bodies. The mechanical properties of the resistance spot weldment were obtained by performing tensile tests on the notched tensile specimen to cause an elongation of the notched and welded area in order to investigate its properties. In order to determine the mechanical properties of the laser beam weldment, indentation tests were performed on the welded material to calculate its force-penetration depth-curve. Inverse numerical simulation was used to simulate the indentation tests to determine and verify the parameters of a nonlinear isotropic material model for the weldment of LBW. Furthermore, using this method, the parameters for the material model of RSW were verified. The material parameters and microstructure of the weldment of RSW and LBW are compared and discussed. The results show that the novel method introduced in this work is a valid approach to determine the mechanical properties of welded high-strength steel structures. In addition, it can be seen that LBW and RSW lead to a reduction in ductility and an increase in the amount of yield and tensile strength of both DP600 and DP1000.
The influence of heat input and welding speed on the microstructure and mechanical properties of single-pass hybrid laser arc welded 20mm thick plates of high-strength pipeline steel X120 were presented. The heat Input was varied in the range of 1.4 kJ mm−1 to 2.9 kJ mm−1, while the welding speed was changed between 0.5m min−1 and 1.5m min−1. A novel technique of bath support based on external oscillating electromagnetic field was used to compensate the hydrostatic pressure at low welding velocities. A major advantage of this technology is, that the welding speed and thus the cooling time t8/5 can be variated in a wide parameter window without issues regarding the weld root quality. The recommended welding thermal cycles for the pipeline steel X120 can be met by that way. All tested Charpy-V specimens meet the requirements of API 5 L regarding the impact energy. For higher heat inputs the average impact energy was 144 ± 37 J at a testing temperature of −40 °C. High heat Input above 1.6 kJ mm−1 leads to softening in the weld metal and heat-affected-zone resulting in loss of strength. The minimum tensile strength of 915 MPa could be achieved at heat inputs between 1.4 kJ mm−1 and 1.6 kJ mm−1.
Advanced high strength steels are usually coated by a zinc layer for an increased resistance against corrosion. During the resistance spot welding of zinc coated steel grades, liquid metal embrittlement (LME)mayoccur. As a result, cracking inside and around the spot weld indentation is observable. The extent of LME cracks is influenced by a variety of different factors. In this study, the impact of the used electrode geometry is investigated over a stepwise varied weld time.
A spot welding finite element simulation is used to analyse and explain the observed effects. Results show significant differences especially for highly increased weld times. Based on identical overall dimensions, electrode geometries with a larger working plane allow for longer weld times, while still preventing LME within the investigated material and maintaining accessibility.
The introduction of electromagnetic stirring to laser beam welding can bring several beneficial effects e.g. element homogenization and grain refinement. However, the underlying physics has not been fully explored due to the absence of quantitative data of heat and mass transfer in the molten pool. In this paper, the influence of electromagnetic stirring on the thermo-fluid flow and element transport in the wire feed laser beam welding is studied numerically and experimentally. A three-dimensional transient heat transfer and fluid flow model coupled with dynamic keyhole, magnetic induction and element Transport is developed for the first time. The results suggest that the Lorentz force produced by an oscillating magnetic field and its induced eddy current shows an important influence on the thermo-fluid flow and the keyhole stability. The melt flow velocity is increased by the electromagnetic stirring at the rear and lower regions of molten pool. The keyhole collapses more frequently at the upper part. The additional Elements from the filler wire are significantly homogenized because of the enhanced forward and downward flow. The model is well verified by fusion line shape, high-speed images of molten pool and measured element distribution. This work provides a deeper understanding of the transport phenomena in the laser beam welding with magnetic field.
The advantage of selective laser melting (SLM) is its high accuracy and geometrical flexibility.
Because the maximum size of the components is limited by the process chamber, possibilities must be found to combine several parts manufactured by SLM. An application where this is necessary, is, for example, the components of gas turbines, such as burners or oil return pipes, and inserts, which can be joined by circumferential welds. However, only a few investigations to date have been carried out for the welding of components produced by SLM. The object of this paper is, therefore, to investigate the feasibility of laser beam welding for joining SLM tube connections made of nickel-based alloys.
For this purpose, SLM-manufactured Inconel 625 and Inconel 718 tubes were welded with a Yb:YAG disk laser and subsequently examined for residual stresses and defects. The results showed that the welds had no significant influence on the residual stresses. A good weld quality could be achieved in the seam circumference. However, pores and pore nests were found in the final overlap area, which meant that no continuous good welding quality could be accomplished. Pore formation was presumably caused by capillary instabilities when the laser power was ramped out.
Hybrid laser-arc welding offers many advantages, such as deep penetration, good gap bridge-ability, and low distortion due to reduced heat input. The filler wire which is supplied to the process is used to influence the microstructure and mechanical properties of the weld seam.
A typical problem in deep penetration high-power laser beam welding with filler wire and hybrid laser-arc welding is an insufficient mixing of filler material in the weld pool, leading to a non-uniform element distribution in the seam. In this study, oscillating magnetic fields were used to form a non-conservative component of the Lorentz force in the weld pool to improve the element Distribution over the entire thickness of the material. Full penetration hybrid laser-arc welds were performed on 20-mm-thick S355J2 steel plates with a nickel-based wire for different arrangements of the oscillating magnetic field. The Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) data for the distribution of two tracing elements (Ni and Cr) were used to analyze the homogeneity of dilution of the filler wire.
With a 30° turn of the magnetic field to the welding direction, a radical improvement in the filler material distribution was demonstrated. This would lead to an improvement of the mechanical properties with the use of a suitable filler wire.
A numerical framework for simulation of the steady-state thermal behaviour in keyhole mode welding has been developed. It is based on the equivalent heat source concept and consists of two parts: computational thermo-fluid dynamics and heat conduction. The solution of the thermo-fluid dynamics problem by the finite element method for a bounded domain results in a weld pool interface geometry being the input data for a subsequent heat conduction problem solved for a workpiece by a proposed boundary element method. The main physical phenomena, such as keyhole shape, thermo-capillary and natural convection and temperature-dependent material properties are taken into consideration. The developed technique is applied to complete-penetration keyhole laser beam welding of a 15 mm thick low-alloyed steel plate at a welding speed of 33 mm/s and a laser power of 18 kW. The fluid flow of the molten metal has a strong influence on the weld pool geometry. The thermo-capillary convection is responsible for an increase of the weld pool size near the plate surfaces and a bulge formation near the plate middle plane. The numerical and experimental molten pools, cross-sectional weld dimensions and thermal cycles of the heat affected zone are in close agreement.
Advantages such as element homogenization and grain refinement can be realized by introducing electromagnetic stirring into laser beam welding. However, the involved weld pool behavior and its direct role on determining the final microstructure have not been revealed quantitatively. In this paper, a 3D transient heat transfer and fluid flow model coupled with element transport and magnetic induction is developed for wire feed laser beam welding with electromagnetic stirring. The magnetohydrodynamics, temperature profile, velocity field, keyhole evolution and element distribution are calculated and analyzed. The model is well tested against the experimental results. It is suggested that a significant electromagnetic stirring can be produced in the weld pool by the induced Lorentz force under suitable electromagnetic parameters, and it shows important influences on the thermal fluid flow and the solidification parameter. The forward and downward flow along the longitudinal plane of the weld pool is enhanced, which can bring the additional filler wire material to the root of the weld pool. The integrated thermal and mechanical impacts of electromagnetic stirring on grain refinement which is confirmed experimentally by electron backscatter diffraction analysis are decoupled using the calculated solidification parameters and a criterion of dendrite fragmentation.
Resistance spot welding (RSW) is widely used in the automotive industry
as the main joining method. Generally, an automotive body contains
around 2000 to 5000 spot welds. Therefore, it is of decisive importance to characterize the mechanical properties of these areas for the further optimization and improvement of an automotive body structure. The present paper aims to introduce a novel method to investigate the mechanical properties and microstructure of the resistance spot weldment of DP1000 sheet steel. In this method, the microstructure of RSW of two sheets was reproduced on one sheet and on a bigger area by changing of the welding parameters, e. g. welding current, welding time, electrode force and type. Then, tensile tests in combination with digital Image correlation (DIC) measurement were performed on the notched tensile specimens to determine the mechanical properties of the weld metal.
The notch must be made on the welded tensile specimen to force the fracture and elongation on the weld metal, enabling the characterization of its properties. Additionally, the parameters of a nonlinear isotropic material model can be obtained and verified by the simulation of the tensile specimens. The parameters obtained show that the strength of DP1000 steel and the velocity of dislocations for reaching the Maximum value of strain hardening, are significantly increased after RSW. The effect of sample geometry and microstructural inhomogeneity of the welded joint on the constitutive property of the weld metal are presented and discussed.
Plasma-Transferred-Arc (PTA) welding is a process that enables high deposition rates, but also causes increased thermal load on the component. Laser metal deposition (LMD) welding, on the other hand, reaches a high level of precision and thus achieves comparatively low deposition rates, which can lead to high processing costs. Combining laser and arc energy aims to exploit the respective advantages of both technologies. In this study, a novel approach of this process combination is presented using a PTA system and a 2 kW disk laser. The energy sources are combined in a common process zone as a high-speed plasma laser cladding technology (HPLC), which achieves process speeds of 10 m/min at deposition rates of 6.6 kg/h and an energy per unit length of 39 J/mm.
Dissimilar metal weld overlays of nickel-base alloys on low-alloy steel components are commonly used in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and power generation industries to provide corrosion and oxidation resistance in a wide range of service Environments and temperatures. Traditionally, dissimilar weld overlays are produced using cold or hot wire gas tungsten arc welding.
This study aims to identify and evaluate potential advantages of low heat input gas metal arc welding processes over the conventional gas tungsten arc welding in the production of such overlays. Parts I and II of this publication series described characteristics of the heat-affected zone and the transition zone region of alloy 625 on grade 22 steel overlays. These results indicate a good resistance against hydrogen-assisted cracking, which is being verified within this third part of the publication series. To determine the hydrogen-assisted cracking susceptibility, welded samples are tested using the delayed hydrogen-assisted cracking test. Fractography is performed using scanning electron microscopy along with energy dispersive spectroscopy. The results confirm the suitability and efficiency of low heat input gas metal arc welding for dissimilar weld overlays. Variation of the postweld heat treatment procedure bears potential for improvement in this respect.
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.
Using a novel optical measurement technique together with the optical flow algorithm, a two-dimensional deformation analysis during welding was conducted. The presented technique is the first to provide a measurement of the full strain field locally in the immediate vicinity of the solidification front.
Additionally, the described procedure of the optical measurement allows the real material-dependent values of critical strain and strain rate characterizing the transition to hot cracking during laser welding processes to be determined. Furthermore, the above-mentioned technique is independet on the welding process, which means, it can be also used for arc welding processes. Dependency between the external strain rate and the critical local strain and strain rate has been observed. That is to say, the critical local strain and strain rate is increased with an increase of the strain rate.Moreover, this technique allows automatic identification of the cases that can be critical for the solidification crack formation by monitoring the state of strain on the crack-sensitive region within the mushy zone.
A 3D electro-thermomechanical model is established in order to investigate liquid metal embrittlement.
After calibration to a dual phase steel of the 1000 MPa tensile strength class, it is used to analyse the thermo-mechanical system of an experimental procedure to enforce liquid metal embrittlement during resistance spot welding. In this procedure, a tensile stress level is applied to zinc coated advanced high strength steel samples during welding. Thereby, liquid metal embrittlement formation is enforced, depending on the applied stress level and the selected material.
The model is suitable to determine and visualise the corresponding underlying stresses and strains responsible for the occurrence of liquid metal embrittlement. Simulated local stresses and strains show good conformity with experimentally observed surface crack locations.
Pores in additive manufactured metal parts occur due to different reasons and affect the part Quality negatively. Few investigations on the origins of porosity are available, especially for Ni-based super alloys. This paper presents a new study to examine the influence of common processing Parameters on the Formation of pores in parts built by laser metal Deposition using Inconel 718 powder. Further, a comparison between the computed tomography (CT) and the Archimedes method was made. The Investigation Shows that CT is able to identify different kinds of pores and to give further Information about their distribution. The identification of some pores as well as their shape can be dependent on the Parameter Setting of the Analysis tool. Due to limited measurement Resolution, CT is not able to identify correctly pores with Diameters smaller than 0.1 mm, which leads to a false decrease on Overall porosity. The applied Archimedes method is unable to differentiate between gas porosity and other Kinds of holes like internal cracks or lack of Fusion, but it delivered a proper value for Overall porosity. The method was able to provide suitable data for the statistical Evaluation with design of Experiments, which revealed significant Parameters ont he Formation of pores in LMD.
Hybrid laser-arc welding of thick-walled ferromagnetic steels with electromagnetic weld pool support
(2018)
The hybrid laser-arc welding (HLAW) process provides many advantages over laser welding and arc welding alone, such as high welding speed, gap bridgeability, and deep penetration. The developments in hybrid laser-arc welding technology using modern high-power lasers allow single-pass welding of thick materials. This technology can be used for the heavy metal industries such as shipbuilding, power plant fabrication, and line-pipe manufacturing. The obvious problem for single-pass welding is the growth of the hydrostatic pressure with increasing thickness of materials leading to drop-out of molten metal. This phenomenon is aggravated at slow welding velocities because of increasing weld seam width followed by a decrease of Laplace pressure compensating the hydrostatic pressure. Therefore, weld pool support is necessary by welding of thick materials with slow welding velocities. The innovative electromagnetic weld pool support system is contactless and has been used successfully for laser beam welding of aluminum alloys and austenitic and ferromagnetic steels. The support system is based on generating Lorentz forces within the weld pool. These are produced by an oscillating magnetic field orientated perpendicular to the welding direction. The electromagnetic weld pool support facilitates a decrease in the welding speed without a sagging and drop-out of the melt thus eliminating the limitations of weldable material thickness.
The development within the offshore wind energy sector towards more powerful turbines combined with increasing water depth for new wind parks is challenging both, the designer as well as the manufacturer of support structures. Besides XL-monopiles the jacket support structure is a reasonable alternative due to the high rigidity combined with low material consumption. However, the effort for manufacturing of the hollow section joints reduces the economic potential of jacket structures significantly. Therefore, a changeover from an individual towards a serial production based on automated manufactured tubular joints combined with standardized pipes must be achieved. Hence, this paper addresses the welding process chain of automated manufactured tubular joints including digitization of the relevant manufacturing parameters such as laser scanning of the weld seam geometry. Additionally, a methodology for the computation of the notch radius as well as the weld seam angle is presented based on the scanned profiles of three analysis points of an automated manufactured tubular X-joint. Subsequently, these parameters are considered within the notch stress approach based fatigue design and their impact is quantified by a comparison with the structural stress approach using equivalent stress concentration factors.
The sound numerical prediction of welding-induced thermal stresses, residual stresses, and distortions strongly depends on the accurate description of a welded material’s thermomechanical deformation behaviour. In this work, we provide experimental data on the viscoplastic deformation behaviour of a grade-s960ql steel up to a temperature of 1000 ◦C. In addition, a multi-phase viscoplastic material model is proposed, which accounts for the experimentally observed isothermal deformation behaviour of grade-s960ql steel base and austenitised material, as well as for athermal contributions that originate from solid-state phase transformations. The multi-phase viscoplastic and a classic rateindependent isotropic hardening material model were applied in the numerical simulations of both-ends-fixed bar Satoh tests and a single-pass gas metal arc weld. The influence of material modelling choices on the agreement between numerical simulation and experimental results is discussed, and recommendations for further work are given.
In order to generate a material data base for computational welding mechanics, temperature and strain-rate dependent stress-strain experiments were performed by using a Gleeble®3500 testing system. The object of the investigation was HSLA transformable steel S960QL and related solid phases as bainite, martensite and austenite. For the production of these solid phases, the base material was heat treated according to an average weld temperature cycle which was extracted within the heat affected zone of a thermal numerical weld simulation of a GMA weld. The hot tensile tests were carried out via cost-saving flat specimen geometries. Two experimental series with different strain-rates were conducted, where the longitudinal strain-rate was controlled by specification of the transversal strain-rate applying Poisson’s-ratio. Subsequently, the resulting stress-strain curves were approximated in accordance with the Ramberg-Osgood-materials law. Consequently, it is shown that the temperature and strain-rate dependent stress-strain behavior of metals can be successfully characterized by means of a Gleeble®-system.
However, this requires a control of the longitudinal strain-rate by specification of the transversal strain-rate. The related experimental procedure and the method of evaluation are explained in detail. With regard to all tested solid phases, a significant strain-rate dependency can only be observed upwards from temperatures of 400 °C. Based on experimental results, Ramberg-Osgood-parameters will be presented to describe the stress-strain behavior of steel S960QL and related solid phases for temperatures between 25 °C and 1200 °C. Furthermore, the use of costsaving flat specimen-geometry appears reasonable.
Comparison between GTA and laser beam welding of 9%Ni steel for critical cryogenic applications
(2018)
IncomparisonwithGTAweldedjoints,highertensilestrengthcomparabletothatofthebasemetalwasobtained for laser beam welded joints due to fine martensitic microstructure. Impact fracture toughness values with much lower mismatching were obtained for laser beam welded joints due to similarity in the microstructures of its weld metal and HAZ. In this case, the lower impact fracture toughness obtained (1.37J/mm2) was much higher than that of the GTA welded joints (0.78J/mm2), which was very close to the specified minimum value (≥0.75J/mm2). In contrast to other research works, the overall tensile and impact properties are influenced not only by the fusion zone microstructure but also by the size of its hardened area as well as the degree of its mechanical mismatching, as a function of the welding process. A better combination of tensile strength and impact toughness of the concerned steel welded joints is assured by autogenous laser beam welding process.
Modern advanced high-strength steel sheets for automotive applications are mostly zinc coated for corrosion resistance. However, the presence of zinc can—besides its positive effects—increase the material’s susceptibility to liquid metal embrittlement (LME) during resistance spot welding (RSW). Zinc and its eutectics are, due to their low melting point, present in liquid state during the welding process. This fact can, in combination with other factors like tensile strains or stresses, lead to the formation of brittle, intergranular cracks in the weld, and heat-affected zone. This phenomenon is commonly called liquid metal embrittlement. In order to understand the process from a practical perspective, one must learn what factors facilitate it. In this study, industry-relevant parameters are investigated regarding their influence on the occurrence of LME, embodied by the formation of surface cracks. It was found that electrode wear has less of an influence on the cracking susceptibility than welding current or tensile stresses. Finite element analysis is believed to provide a powerful tool in order to gain insights on the formation process. Modeling of the process shows promising initial results, revealing the underlying local stress and strain fields, unmeasurable with common techniques.
Laser beam oscillation, applied one- or two-dimensional to the actual welding process, influences the welding process in terms of compensation of tolerances and reduction of process emissions like spatter and melt ejections that occur in industrial applications, such as in body-in-white manufacturing. If the welding process could be adapted to these tolerances by the momentarily demanded melt pool width to generate sufficient melt volume or to influence melt pool dynamics, e.g. for a better degassing, laser welding would become more robust. However, beam oscillation results are highly dependent on the natural frequency of the melt pool, the used spot diameter and the oscillation speed of the laser beam. The conducted investigations with an oscillated 300 μm laser spot show that oscillation strategies which are adjusted to the joining situation can bridge gaps to approximately 0.6 mm at metal sheet thickness of 0.8 mm. However, the complex behaviour of the melt pool has to be considered to generate proper welding results. This work puts emphasis on showing aspects of beam oscillation in fillet welding in lap joints.
Build-up strategies for temperature control using laser metal deposition for additive manufacturing
(2018)
The track geometry created with laser metal deposition (LMD) is influenced by various parameters. In this case, the laser power has an influence on the width of the track because of an increasing energy input. A larger melt pool is caused by a rising temperature. In the case of a longer welding process, there is also a rise in temperature, resulting in a change of the track geometry. This paper deals with the temperature profiles of different zigzag strategies and spiral strategies for additive manufacturing. A two-color pyrometer is used for temperature measurement on the component surface near the melt pool. Thermocouples measure the temperatures in deeper regions of a component. The welds are located in the center and in the edge area on a test part to investigate the temperature evolution under different boundary conditions. The experiments are carried out on substrates made from mild steel 1.0038 and with the filler material 316L. The investigations show an influence on the temperature evolution by the travel path strategy as well as the position on the part. This shows the necessity for the development and selection of build-up strategies for different part geometries in additive manufacturing by LMD.
An approach to develop an arc sensor for gap width estimation during automated NG-GMAW with a weaving electrode motion is introduced by combining arc sensor readings with optical measurements of the groove shape to allow precise analyses of the process. The two test specimen welded for this study were designed to feature a variable groove geometry in order to maximize efficiency of the conducted experimental efforts, resulting in 1696 individual weaving cycle records with associated arc sensor measurements, process parameters and groove shape information. Gap width was varied from 18 mm to 25 mm and wire feed rates in the range of 9 m/min to 13 m/min were used in the course of this study. Artificial neural networks were applied as a modelling tool to derive an arc sensor for estimation of gap width suitable for online process control that can adapt to changes in process parameters as well as changes in the weaving motion of the electrode. Wire feed rate, weaving current, sidewall dwell currents and angles were defined as inputs to calculate the gap width. The evaluation of the proposed arc sensor model shows very good estimation capabilities for parameters sufficiently covered during the experiments.
One of the main factors affecting the use of lasers in the industry for welding thick structures is the process accompanying solidification cracks. These cracks mostly occurring along the welding direction in the welding center, and strongly affect the safety of the welded components. In the present study, to obtain a better understanding of the relation between the weld pool geometry, the stress distribution and the solidification cracking, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model was combined with a thermo-mechanical model. The CFD model was employed to analyze the flow of the molten metal in the weld pool during the laser beam welding process. The weld pool geometry estimated from the CFD model was used as a heat source in the thermal model to calculate the temperature field and the stress development and distributions. The CFD results showed a bulging region in the middle depth of the weld and two narrowing areas separating the bulging region from the top and bottom surface. The thermo-mechanical simulations showed a concentration of tension stresses, transversally and vertically, directly after the solidification during cooling in the region of the solidification cracking.
Laser metal deposition (LMD) is an established technology for two-dimensional surface coatings. It offers high deposition rates, high material flexibility, and the possibility to deposit material on existing components. Due to these features, LMD has been increasingly applied for additive manufacturing of 3D structures in recent years. Compared to previous coating applications, additive manufacturing of 3D structures leads to new challenges regarding LMD process knowledge. In this paper, the process steps for LMD as additive manufacturing technology are described. The experiments are conducted using titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4Vand Inconel 718. Only the LMD nozzle is used to create a shielding gas atmosphere. This ensures the high geometric flexibility needed for additive manufacturing, although issues with the restricted size and quality of the shielding gas atmosphere arise. In the first step, the influence of process parameters on the geometric dimensions of single weld beads is analyzed based on design of experiments. In the second step, a 3D build-up strategy for cylindrical specimen with high dimensional accuracy is described. Process parameters, travel paths, and cooling periods between layers are adjusted. Tensile tests show that mechanical properties in the as-deposited condition are close to wrought material. As practical example, the fir-tree root profile of a turbine blade is manufactured. The feasibility of LMD as additive technology is evaluated based on this component.
Low heat input gas metal arc welding for dissimilar metal weld overlays part II: the transition zone
(2018)
Dissimilar metal weld overlays (DMWOL) of nickel base alloys on low alloy steel components are commonly used in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and power generation industries to provide corrosion and oxidation resistance in a wide range of service environments and temperatures. Traditionally, dissimilar weld overlays are produced using cold or hot wire gas tungsten arc welding. This study aims to identify and evaluate potential advantages of low heat input gas metal arc welding processes over the conventional gas tungsten arc welding in the production of dissimilar weld overlays. In order to evaluate the quality of these overlays regarding resistance against hydrogen-assisted cracking, their transition zone region is investigated in this part of the publication series. Metallurgical characterization, including energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, is performed on Alloy 625/grade 22 steel overlays. The transition zone is characterized by a narrow planar growth zone and steep compositional gradients from the fusion boundary towards the weld metal. Evidence of low carbon contents in the planar growth zone, as well as for carbide precipitation in the cellular growth zone was found. The microstructure in the transition zone region of the fusion zone shows characteristics known to be suitable for good resistance against hydrogen embrittlement.
Laser metal deposition (LMD) has been applied as a coating technology for many years. Today, the technologies capacity to produce 3D depositions leads to a new field of application as additive manufacturing method. In this paper, 3D laser metal deposition of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is studied with special regard to the demands of additive manufacturing. Therefore, only the coaxial LMD powder nozzle is used to create the shielding gas atmosphere, which ensures high geometric flexibility. Furthermore, specimen with high aspect ratio and hundreds of layers are manufactured, which represent typical features in additive manufacturing. The presented study contains the following steps: First, cylindrical specimens are manufactured with a standard shell-core build-up strategy and mechanical properties as well as fracture mechanisms are determined. Based on the results, experiments are conducted to improve the build-up strategy and new tensile test specimens are built with the improved strategy. The improved strategy incorporates variable track overlap ratios to achieve a constant growth in the shell and core area. As blanks, lean cylinders comprising more than 240 layers and a height of more than 120mm are manufactured. The specimens are analyzed by X-ray inspection for material defects. Fractured surfaces are observed via scanning electron microscopy and the composition of the surfaces is determined using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The tensile test results prove mechanical properties close to ASTM F1108 specification for wrought material.
Partial penetration welding with fiber laser on 20mm thick plates was carried out in horizontal position to study the role of secondary heating in modeling of high power fiber laser welding. Experiments were carried out using 18.8kW laser with 1.5 m/min welding speed at Ar assist gas flow rates of 0, 17, 29, and 40 l/min, all four cases show similar bead shape with bright emission of vapor plume. Numerical simulations were performed using volume of fluid method by considering three different models as models A–C. Model A considers only Fresnel reflection inside the keyhole using real time tracking of free surface. Model B considers vapor recondensation flux inside keyhole along with model A. Finally, model C is used, which considers vapor plume heating at 4100K temperature along with models A B. Secondary heating by recondensation and vapor plume is vital in modeling of high power fiber laser welding; especially, the upper part of the bead is more influenced due to secondary heating. Tungsten particles are also used to visualize the flow pattern of melt pool.
A three-dimensional multi-physics numerical model was developed for the calculation of an appropriate equivalent volumetric heat source and the prediction of the transient thermal cycle during and after fusion welding. Thus the modelling process was separated into two studies. First, the stationary process simulation of full-penetration keyhole laser beam welding of a 15 mm low-alloyed steel thick plate in flat position at a welding speed of 2 m/min and a laser power of 18 kW was performed. A fixed keyhole with a right circular cone shape was used to consider the energy absorbed by the workpiece and to calibrate the model. In the calculation of the weld pool geometry and the local temperature field, the effects of phase transition, thermo-capillary convection, natural convection and temperature-dependent material properties up to evaporation temperature were taken into account. The obtained local temperature field was then used in a subsequent study as an equivalent heat source for the computation of the transient thermal field during the laser welding process and the cooling stage of the part. The system of partial differential equations, describing the stationary heat transfer and the fluid dynamics, were strongly coupled and solved with the commercial finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0. The energy input in the transient heat transfer simulation was realised by prescription of the nodes temperature. The prescribed nodes reproduced the calculated local temperature field defining the equivalent volumetric heat source. Their translational motion through the part was modelled by a moving mesh approach. An additional remeshing condition and helper lines were used to avoid highly distorted elements. The positions of the elements of the polygonal mesh were calculated with the Laplace’s smoothing approach. Good correlation between the numerically calculated and the experimentally observed weld bead shapes and transient temperature distributions was found.
In recent years, laser beam welding has found wide applications in many industrial fields. Solidification cracks are one of the most frequently encountered welding defects that hinder obtaining a safe weld joint. Decades of research have shown that one of the main causes of such cracks are the strain and the strain rate. Obtaining meaningful measurements of these strains has always been a major challenge for scientists, because of the specific environment of the measurement range and the many obstacles, as well as the high temperature and the plasma plume. In this study, a special experimental setup with a high-speed camera was employed to measure the strain during the welding process. The hot cracking susceptibility was investigated for 1.4301 stainless steel, and the critical strain required for solidification crack formation was locally and globally determined.
Distortions in Additive Manufacturing (AM) Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) occur in the newly-built component due to rapid heating and solidification and can lead to shape deviations and cracking. This paper presents a novel approach to quantify the distortions experimentally and to use the results in numerical simulation validation. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is applied together with optical filters to measure in-situ distortions directly on a wall geometry produced with LMD. The wall shows cyclic Expansion and shrinking with the edges bending inward and the top of the sample exhibiting a slight u-shape as residual distortions. Subsequently, a structural Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the experiment is established, calibrated against experimental temperature profiles and used to predict the in-situ distortions of the sample. A comparison of the experimental and numerical results reveals a good agreement in length direction of the sample and quantitative deviations in height direction, which are attributed to the material model used. The suitability of the novel experimental approach for measurements on an AM sample is shown and the potential for the validated numerical model as a predictive tool to reduce trial-and-error and improve part quality is evaluated.
The paper describes an experimental investigation of the electromagnetic porosity reduction in partial penetration laser beam welding of 6 mm thick aluminum die casting AlSi9MnMg. The Investigation reveals that the usage of an electromagnetic field leads to a significant reduction of the porosity as well as to a surface smoothing of aluminum die casting. Based on the reference case without an electromagnetic influence, the porosity area was reduced gradually up to 76%.
Metallurgical pores as well as process pores were removed from the weld pool. Also the weld reinforcement was improved up to 78%. Best results were reached with a frequency of 4325 Hz and a magnetic flux density of 348 mT. Although a complete prevention of porosity was not achieved, the best weld seam reached a high quality and can be ranked in valuation group B of DIN EN ISO 13919-2:2001–12.
Evaluating innovative process technologies has become highly important within the last decades. As standard tools different Life Cycle Assessment methods have been established, which are continuously improved. While those are designed for evaluating single processes they run into difficulties when it comes to assessing environmental impacts of process innovations at macroeconomic level. In this paper we develop a multi-step evaluation framework building on multi regional inputeoutput data that allows estimating macroeconomic impacts of new process technologies, considering the network characteristics of the global economy.
Our procedure is as follows: i) we measure differences in material usage of process alternatives, ii) we identify where the standard processes are located within economic networks and virtually replace those by innovative process technologies, iii) we account for changes within economic systems and evaluate impacts on emissions.
Within this paper we exemplarily apply the methodology to two recently developed innovative technologies: longitudinal large diameter steel pipe welding and turning of high-temperature resistant materials. While we find the macroeconomic impacts of very specific process innovations to be small, its conclusions can significantly differ from traditional process based approaches. Furthermore, information gained from the methodology provides relevant additional insights for decision makers extending the picture gained from traditional process life cycle assessment.
The paper deals with a numerical finite element simulation of the residual stress evolution in friction stir welding of 6 mm thick aluminum alloy AA2024-T3. The transient thermal field during the welding process was calculated with the commercial code COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0. Therefore, a thermal-pseudo-mechanical (TPM) heat source was implemented. A subsequent mechanical simulation was performed with varying hardening models for different welding speeds of 60 and 300 mm/min. The influence of softening of the material, which was due to hardening precipitation dissolution associated to the heating, was also investigated. Experiments in terms of thermocouple measurements as well as Vickers hardness and X-ray measurements of the residual stresses were conducted and compared to numerically obtained results. A qualitatively as well as quantitatively good agreement was found for different applied welding speeds.
This paper investigates gas metal arc welding (GMAW) with respect to energy consumption and its associated environmental impacts. Different material transfer modes and power levels for single wire GMAW (SGMAW) and tandem GMAW (TGMAW) are evaluated by means of the indicator electrical deposition efficiency. Furthermore, the wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is measured in order to describe the total energy consumption from the electricity grid. The results show that the energy efficiency is highly affected by the respective process and can be significantly enhanced by a TGMAW process. The wall-plug efficiency of the equipment shows no significant dependency on the power range or the material transfer mode. Moreover, the method of life cycle assessment (LCA) is adopted in order to investigate the influences of energy efficient welding on the environmental impacts. In the comparative LCA study, the demand of electrical energy is reduced up to 24%. In consequence, the indicator values for global warming potential (100), acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential are reduced up to 11%.
Single-wire gas metal arc welding (SGMAW) and high power tandem GMAW (TGMAW) are evaluated with respect to energy efficiency. The key performance indicator electrical deposition efficiency is applied to reflect the energy efficiency of GMAW in different material transfer modes. Additionally, the wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is determined in order to identify the overall energy consumption. The results show that energy efficiency can be increased by 24% and welding time is reduced over 50% by application of the tandem processes. A comparative life cycle assessment of a 30-mm-thick weld is conducted to investigate the influences of the energy efficiency on the environmental impacts. The environmental impacts on the categories global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential can be reduced up to 11% using an energy-efficient TGMAW process.
The paper describes an experimental investigation of high power laser beam welding with an electromagnetic weld pool support for up to 20 mm thick plates made of duplex steel (AISI 2205) and mild steel (S235JR). The results of the welding tests show a successful application of this technology at ferromagnetic metals. Irregular sagging was suppressed successfully. An ac-power of less than 2 kW at oscillation frequencies between 800 Hz and 1.7 kHz is necessary for a full compasation of the hydrostatic pressure. Thus, it was demonstrated that the electromagnetic weld pool support is not only limited to non-ferromagnetic metals like austenitic steels. For future studies with duplex steel, the use of filler material has to take into account with regard to the balance of the mixed austenitic and ferritic phases.
High-power laser beam welding became new stimuli within the last 10 years due to the availability of a new generation of high brightness multi kilowatt solid state lasers. In the welding research new approaches have been developed to establish reliable and praxis oriented welding processes meeting the demands of modern industrial applications during this time. The paper focuses on some of the current scientific and technological aspects in this research field like hybrid laser arc welding, simulation techniques, utilization of electromagnetic fields or reduced pressure environment for laser beam welding processes, which contributed to the further development of this technology or will play a crucial role in its further industrial implementation.
Maintenance, repair and overhaul of components are of increasing interest for parts of high complexity and expensive manufacturing costs. In this paper a production process for laser metal deposition is presented, and used to repair a gas turbine burner of Inconel 718. Different parameters for defined track geometries were determined to attain a near net shape deposition with consistent build-up rate for changing wall thicknesses over the manufacturing process. Spot diameter, powder feed rate, welding velocity and laser power were changed as main parameters for a different track size. An optimal overlap rate for a constant layer height was used to calculate the best track size for a fitting layer width similar to the part dimension. Deviations in width and height over the whole build-up process were detected and customized build-up strategies for the 3D sequences were designed. The results show the possibility of a near net shape repair by using different track geometries with laser metal deposition.
Solidification cracking phenomena taking place under controlled tensile weldability (CTW) test conditions have already been investigated both experimentally and numerically via FEA in order to get a better understanding of the mechanisms of hot crack formation during laser beam welding of austenitic steel grades. This paper develops a threedimensional finite element model employing the contact element technique to simulate the formation and propagation of solidification cracks during laser full penetration welding of fully austenitic stainless steel 1.4376. During the experimental procedure, the resulting strain and displacement directed to the laser beam in the close vicinity of the weld pool was measured at the surface of the workpiece using a digital image correlation (DIC) technique with an external diode laser as an illuminating source. Local strain fields, global loads and crack lengths predicted by the model are in good agreement with those observed in experiments.
A combined experimental and numerical approach is applied for a numerical analysis of the non-uniform martensitic transformation kinetic on welding residual stresses and distortion of a single pass weld. The (γ → α)-transformation kinetic within the weld pool region is governed by a non-uniform distribution of the elements chromium and nickel. The single-pass weld was performed by use of the low-alloyed high-strength steel S960QL with the high-alloyed high-strength filler wire CN 13/4-IG®. A thermo-mechanical FE model of the welding process was experimentally validated against temperature field, solid phase distribution, transformation behaviour, X-Ray stress measurements and transient optical distortion measurements.
The experimentally determined and calculated weld residual stresses and transient distortion are in good agreement. It can be shown that the change on the (γ → α)-transformation kinetic driven by the inhomogeneous distribution of the chemical contents causes a strong influence on the weld residual stresses within the volume of the weld pool, which could promote crack propagation within the solidified weld pool by use of high-alloyed filler materials. Furthermore, a significant influence on the development of the transient welding distortion is visible. This influence should be respected during numerically calculation of welding distortion in case of multi-pass welding using interpass temperatures and high-alloyed filler materials.
A combined experimental numerical approach is applied to determine the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP)-parameter K for different strength low-alloy steels of grade S355J2+N and S960QL as well as the super martensitic filler CN13-4-IG containing 13 wt% chromium and 4 wt% nickel. The thermo-physical analyses were conducted using a Gleeble® 3500 facility. The thermal histories of the specimens to be tested were extracted from corresponding simulations of a real gas metal arc weldment. In contrast to common TRIP-experiments which are based on complex specimens a simple flat specimen was utilized together with an engineering evaluation method. The evaluation method was validated with literature values for the TRIP-parameter. It could be shown that the proposed approach enables a correct description of the TRIP behavior.
Dissimilar metal weld overlays of nickel base alloys on low alloy steel components are commonly used in the oil and gas, petro-chemical, and power generation industries to provide corrosion and oxidation resistance in a wide range of service environments and temperatures. Traditionally, weld overlays are produced using cold or hot wire gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). Potential advantages of cold metal Transfer (CMT) welding, a low heat input gas metal arc welding process, over the conventional GTAW in production of weld overlays were evaluated. Metallurgical characterization was performed on CMT overlays of Alloy 625 filler metal on Grade 11 and Grade 22 steels. Significant grain refinement was found in the high temperature HAZ compared to the traditional coarse-grained HAZ in arc welding. Evidences of incomplete carbide dissolution, limited carbon diffusion, and incomplete transformation to austenite were also found. These phenomena were related to high heating and cooling rates and short dwell times of the high-temperature HAZ in austenitic state. Tempering effects in the steel HAZ were identified, showing a potential for development of CMT temperbead procedures. Based on the results of this study, the steel HAZ regions in CMT overlays were classified as high-temperature HAZ and intercritical HAZ.
Numerical sensitivity analysis of TRIP-parameter K on weld residual stresses for steel S355J2+ N
(2016)
A combined experimental numerical approach is applied for sensitivity analysis of the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP)-parameter K on weld residual stresses for welding of structural steel of grade S355J2+N. K was determined experimentally using the Gleeble 3500 facility. A thermomechanical FE model of the real welding process was experimentally validated against temperature field and X-ray stress measurements. Within sensitivity analyses K was varied by several orders of magnitude and the influence on the calculated residual stresses is evaluated by performing corresponding FEA. The correct order of magnitude is sufficient to reproduce the residual stresses qualitatively and quantitatively.