Correlation spectroscopy as a tool for detecting losses of ligand elements in laser welding of aluminium alloys

The plasma plume induced during laser welding of metals is a mixture of metal vapour, coming from the vaporised weld pool surface and shielding gas. The influence of the shielding gas on the welded joints quality is not yet well understood and very few investigations, to the best of our knowledge, were addressed to study its role in case of welding of aluminium–magnesium alloys. In this paper we present a study of the dynamics of plasma plume produced in laser welding of 5xxx aluminium alloys by means of correlation spectroscopy. By our results we can correlate the influence of the welding speed, in case of ineffective gas shielding, to the loss of alloying elements. Finally, the results obtained are consistent with the EDX analysis performed in post-processing on the welded joints.     

考虑金属蒸汽的钨极惰性气体保护焊电弧与熔池交互作用三维数值分析

基于局域热平衡状态假设并考虑金属蒸汽的作用, 建立了钨极惰性气体保护焊电弧与熔池交互作用的三维数学模型. 电弧等离子体的热力学参数和输运系数由温度和金属蒸汽浓度共同决定, 并使用第二黏度近似简化处理金属蒸汽在氩等离子中的输运过程. 在考虑熔池流动时, 主要考虑了浮力、电磁力、表面张力和等离子流拉力的作用. 通过对麦克斯韦方程组、连续性方程、动量守恒方程、能量守恒方程和组分输运方程的耦合求解, 得到了金属蒸汽在电弧中的空间分布、电弧和熔池的温度场、速度场和电流密度分布等重要结果. 通过与未考虑金属蒸汽的结果对比, 研究了熔池上表面产生的金属蒸汽对电弧等离子体行为的影响, 以及电弧等离子对熔池行为的影响. 结果表明, 金属蒸汽主要富集在熔池上表面附近; 金属蒸汽对电弧等离子体有明显的收缩作用, 而对等离子速度和电势影响较小; 金属蒸汽的出现对熔池上表面速度分布和剪切力分布以及熔池形貌并无明显影响. 求解结果与已有的实验结果和计算结果符合良好.     

电弧特性及其对熔池形貌影响的数值模拟

通过电弧模型与熔池模型耦合数值模拟,研究了氩弧和氦弧特性及其对SUS304不锈钢钨极惰性气体保护（TIG）焊熔池形貌的影响.通过比较氩弧和氦弧的温度轮廓线以及阳极表面电流密度和热流密度分布发现,氦弧的径向距离比氩弧收缩明显,导致更多热量传递给阳极.模拟了氩弧和氦弧下浮力、电磁力、表面张力和气体剪切力分别对熔池形貌的影响.结果表明：不论是在氩弧还是在氦弧下熔池中表面张力是影响熔池形貌的最主要驱动力.在氩弧下,影响熔池形貌的另一个重要的驱动力是气体剪切力,而氦弧下则是电磁力.由于电磁力引起的内对流运动增加了熔深,从而导致相同氧含量时氦弧下的熔深和焊缝深宽比要高于氩弧下的熔深和焊缝深宽比.随着氧含量的增加,氩弧和氦弧下的焊缝深宽比均先增加而后保持不变.焊缝深宽比的模拟结果与实验结果符合较好. 关键词： 氩弧 氦弧 电弧特性 熔池形貌     

A study on shielding gas contamination in laser welding of non-ferrous alloys

Laser welding of non-ferrous alloys is a high-productivity and cost-effective joining technology, which gained an undoubted interest especially in aerospace, chemical and medical industry, where high strength and corrosion resistant mechanical parts are required. Unfortunately some of the most used non-ferrous alloys are highly reactive with respect to the components of the environmental atmosphere: oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and humidity. This reactivity leads to the formation of porosities and to oxides and nitrides inclusion, which are responsible for a decrease of ductility and strength in welded joints.According to this a good shielding technique of the weld pool is of primary importance in order to obtain sound beads and reliable manufacturings. This paper deals with the opportunity of simulating the shielding gas behavior by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics software in order to understand the relationship among the outlet position, the shielding gas type and its flow rate.A simulation activity was carried out in order to evaluate the behavior of shielding gas concentration surrounding the weld pool. The simulated welding environment was simplified without considering the presence and the effect of the plasma plume. The main results concern the shielding gas contamination prediction with respect to the distance from the beam-material interaction zone.     

侧吹辅助气流对激光立焊5A90铝锂合金气孔影响

基于试验设计软件Design Expert V8设计试验，开展激光焊接5A90铝锂合金工艺试验，研究侧吹保护气流参数对焊缝气孔的影响规律，拟合侧吹流量、侧吹角度和等效气孔点数的函数图像，建立数学模型，优化保护气流参数，预测Ⅰ级焊缝保护气流参数范围。实验结果表明:侧吹气流的加入能明显抑制焊缝气孔，侧吹流量是显著因子，对气孔影响较大，随着流量的增加，气孔点数先增后减，在侧吹流量为5~7 L/min时有最小气孔点数；侧吹角度和交互项是不显著因子，在侧吹角度为20~30范围内，有一个较优值。气孔点数的最优响应模型为三阶模型，该模型拟合良好，经验证试验检验，模型误差范围小于10%，Ⅰ级焊缝易在侧吹流量为3~9 L/min，侧吹角度为15~52范围内获得。     

Study on the periodic oscillation of plasma/vapour induced during high power fibre laser penetration welding

High power fibre lasers have recently received much attention because of their inherent advantages such as high output power, high beam quality, compact size, and flexible fibre delivery. Studies on the mechanism behind fibre laser welding systems may further promote their practical application. In this paper, high speed video observations were used to study the characteristics of the plasma/vapour induced during the bead-on-plate welding of ZL114 using a high power CW fibre laser. We also analysed the cause of the periodic oscillation of the plasma/vapour. The results revealed that plasma/vapour induced from high power lasers oscillate periodically at 450–600 μs cycles above the weld pool surface. The use of a shielding gas has little effect on the oscillation cycle. The plasma/vapour absorption is not the main reason for the periodical oscillation of plasma/vapour induced during fibre laser welding. The periodic oscillation of the plasma/vapour can be attributed to the oscillation of the keyhole.     

Influence of shielding gas pressure on welding characteristics in CO2 laser-MIG hybrid welding process

The droplet transfer behavior and weld characteristics have been investigated under different pressures of shielding gas in CO2 laser and metal inert/active gas (laser-MIG) hybrid welding process. The experimental results indicate that the inherent droplet transfer frequency and stable welding range of conventional MIG arc are changed due to the interaction between CO2 laser beam and MIG arc in laser-MIG hybrid welding process, and the shielding gas pressure has a crucial effect on welding characteristics. When the pressure of shielding gas is low in comparison with MIG welding, the frequency of droplet transfer decreases, and thedroplet transfer becomes unstable in laser-MIG hybrid welding. So the penetration depth decreases, which shows the characteristic of unstable hybrid welding. However, when the pressure of shielding gas increases to a critical value, the hybrid welding characteristic is changed from unstable hybrid welding to stablehybrid welding, and the frequency of droplet transfer and the penetration depth increase significantly.     

Prediction of gas tungsten arc welding properties in mixtures ofargon and hydrogen

A theory of gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) arcs that treats the tungsten electrode, the arc, and the workpiece as a unified system has been applied to make predictions in two dimensions of the temperature distributions in the arc, the tungsten cathode, and the workpiece, for any given arc current and gas mixture. Predictions of arc temperatures, radii, and voltages are compared for argon and mixtures of argon and hydrogen. It is found that arcs in gas mixtures containing hydrogen are more constricted and have a higher maximum temperature and arc voltage than arcs in pure argon. The addition of hydrogen also significantly increases the volume of molten material in the weld pool due to the higher thermal conductivity of argon-hydrogen mixtures at temperatures at which molecules of hydrogen dissociate. Predictions are also compared for workpieces of steel and aluminum. The volume of molten material is very much less for aluminum, despite its lower melting point, because of the higher thermal conductivity of aluminum. Predicted arc voltages as a function of current for a mixture of 10% hydrogen in argon are in good agreement with experimental results     

等离子弧焊接熔池演变过程的模拟和验证

本文建立了描述等离子弧焊接熔池相变传热与流动的三维数理模型,考虑表面张力、电磁力和浮升力的作用,并针对等离子弧焊接特点,改进组合式体积热源模型,上部采用双椭球热源,下部采用圆锥体热源。重点分析了焊接熔池形状和温度场的演变过程,熔合线的模拟形状与实验焊缝吻合,较好地呈现了焊缝的凸起和熔池宽度,验证了数学模型和热源模型的正确性。本文还进一步开展了焊接功率和焊接速度的影响分析。研究结果表明,流动对焊缝形状的影响不容忽略,而表面张力在三个流动驱动力中占主导地位;焊接功率越大,焊接速度越小,越有利于焊件焊透,数值模拟得到优化的焊接功率和速度有益于实际焊接生产质量及效率。     

The influence of shielding gas in hybrid LASER-MIG welding

Hybrid LASER-GMAW welding technique has been recently studied and developed in order to meet the needs of modern welding industries. The two sources involved in this process play, in fact, a complementary role: fast welding speed, deep bead penetration and high energy concentration can be achieved through the LASER beam, while gap bridgeability and cost-effectiveness are typical of the GMAW process.Particularly interesting, in this context, is the CO₂ LASER-MIG welding which differs from the Nd:YAG LASER-MIG technique for the high powers that can be exploited and for the good power/cost ratio of the process.This paper is a part of a wide study on the hybrid CO₂ LASER-MIG welding and investigates the influence of the shielding gas both on the stability of the process and on the dimensional characteristics of the weld bead. Two different parameters have been taken into consideration in order to develop this analysis: the shielding gas composition and the shielding gas flow.The experiment, performed on AISI 304 stainless steel plates, has been planned exploiting design of experiment techniques. The results have been analyzed through a statistical approach in order to determine the real influence of each parameter on the overall process.     

3D transient multiphase model for keyhole,vapor plume,and weld pool dynamics in laser welding including the ambient pressure effect

The physical process of deep penetration laser welding involves complex, self-consistent multiphase keyhole, metallic vapor plume, and weld pool dynamics. Currently, efforts are still needed to understand these multiphase dynamics. In this paper, a novel 3D transient multiphase model capable of describing a self-consistent keyhole, metallic vapor plume in the keyhole, and weld pool dynamics in deep penetration fiber laser welding is proposed. Major physical factors of the welding process, such as recoil pressure, surface tension, Marangoni shear stress, Fresnel absorptions mechanisms, heat transfer, and fluid flow in weld pool, keyhole free surface evolutions and solid–liquid–vapor three phase transformations are coupling considered. The effect of ambient pressure in laser welding is rigorously treated using an improved recoil pressure model. The predicated weld bead dimensions, transient keyhole instability, weld pool dynamics, and vapor plume dynamics are compared with experimental and literature results, and good agreements are obtained. The predicted results are investigated by not considering the effects of the ambient pressure. It is found that by not considering the effects of ambient pressure, the average keyhole wall temperature is underestimated about 500 K; besides, the average speed of metallic vapor will be significantly overestimated. The ambient pressure is an essential physical factor for a comprehensive understanding the dynamics of deep penetration laser welding.     

Grain fragmentation in ultrasonic-assisted TIG weld of pure aluminum

Under the action of acoustic waves during an ultrasonic-assisted tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding process, a grain of a TIG weld of aluminum alloy is refined by nucleation and grain fragmentation. Herein, effects of ultrasound on grain fragmentation in the TIG weld of aluminum alloy are investigated via systematic welding experiments of pure aluminum. First, experiments involving continuous and fixed-position welding are performed, which demonstrate that ultrasound can break the grain of the TIG weld of pure aluminum. The microstructural characteristics of an ultrasonic-assisted TIG weld fabricated by fixed-position welding are analyzed. The microstructure is found to transform from plane crystal, columnar crystal, and uniform equiaxed crystal into plane crystal, deformed columnar crystal, and nonuniform equiaxed crystal after application of ultrasound. Second, factors influencing ultrasonic grain fragmentation are investigated. The ultrasonic amplitude and welding current are found to have a considerable effect on grain fragmentation. The degree of fragmentation first increases and then decreases with an increase in ultrasonic amplitude, and it increases with an increase in welding current. Measurement results of the vibration of the weld pool show that the degree of grain fragmentation is related to the intensity of acoustic nonlinearity in the weld pool. The greater the intensity of acoustic nonlinearity, the greater is the degree of grain fragmentation. Finally, the mechanism of ultrasonic grain fragmentation in the TIG weld of pure aluminum is discussed. A finite element simulation is used to simulate the acoustic pressure and flow in the weld pool. The acoustic pressure in the weld pool exceeds the cavitation threshold, and cavitation bubbles are generated. The flow velocity in the weld pool does not change noticeably after application of ultrasound. It is concluded that the high-pressure conditions induced during the occurrence of cavitation, lead to grain fragmentation in a pure aluminum TIG weld during an ultrasonic-assisted TIG welding process.     

保护条件变化的激光焊接等离子体光谱分析

保护气体在激光焊接过程中起重要的作用,保护条件的改变对焊接质量会有显著地影响。研究Nd∶YAG激光焊过程中保护条件的变化对激光等离子体的电子温度和电子密度等特征参数的影响,通过设计分步减小保护气流量的激光焊试验进行规律性研究,通过模拟实际可能发生的保护不良的激光焊试验进行验证性研究。在试验研究过程中,利用光谱仪采集激光焊接过程中产生的光致等离子体的光谱信息,通过相对光强法计算不同保护条件下等离子体的电子温度,通过斯塔克展宽机制计算不同保护条件下等离子体的电子密度。研究结果表明,保护条件的改变对Nd∶YAG激光焊接过程中产生的光致等离子体的电子温度和电子密度有重要影响,随着保护条件的变化,光致等离子体的电子温度和电子密度的平均值会发生变化,其波动幅度也会发生变化。在保护良好的条件下,等离子体的电子温度和电子密度均较小,且波动幅度也较小;在保护不良的条件下,等离子体的电子温度和电子密度都比较大,且波动幅度也比较大,这种变化的特征有助于对激光焊接过程进行质量监控。     

Effect of carbon black on temperature field and weld profile during laser transmission welding of polymers: A FEM study

The influence of the carbon black on temperature distribution and weld profile, during laser transmission welding of polymers, is investigated in the present research work. A transient numerical model, based on conduction mode heat transfer, is developed to analyze the process. The heat input to the model is considered to be the volumetric Gaussian heat source. The computation of temperature field during welding is carried out for polycarbonates having different proportion of carbon black in polymer matrix. The temperature dependent material properties of polycarbonate are taken into account for modeling. The finite element code ANSYS^® is employed to obtain the numerical results. The numerically computed results of weld pool dimensions are compared with the experimental results. The comparison shows a fair agreement between them, which gives confidence to use the developed model for intended investigation with acceptable accuracy. The results obtained have revealed that the carbon black has considerable influence on the temperature field distribution and the formation of the weld pool geometry.     

Numerical and experimental studies of molten pool formation during an interaction of a pulse laser (Nd:YAG) with a magnesium alloy

A pulse laser (Nd:YAG) interaction with an AZ91 magnesium alloy has been experimentally and numerically studied. A two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric model of a molten pool created by a laser heat source has been developed. The elaborated model solves the coupled equations of a laminar fluid flow and heat transfer to demonstrate the flow behavior in the pool. This model takes into account the coupled effects of buoyancy and Marangoni forces, the thermophysic variation properties with temperature, and the radiation and convection heat losses. Concerning numerical results, the molten temperature distribution, velocity field and molten shape were discussed. It was noted that the Marangoni flow significantly alters the characteristics of the thawing and solidifying processes, and makes the molten pool wider and shallower. On the other hand, the experimental results showed that the material thermal properties have significant effects on the transport phenomena which takes place in the molten pool, and consequently on the formation as well as the shape of the pool. Finally, a comparison between the numerical and experimental results exhibited a good agreement.     

A keyhole volumetric model for weld pool analysis in Nd:YAG pulsed laser welding

This study presents a new model for analyzing the temperature distribution and weld pool shape in Nd:YAG pulsed laser welding. In the proposed approach, a surface flux heat transfer model is applied in the low laser energy intensity region of the weld, while a keyhole heat transfer model based on a volumetric heat source is applied in the high laser energy intensity region of the weld. The correlation between the intensity of the laser input energy and the geometric parameters of the volumetric heat source is derived experimentally. A series of MARC finite element simulations based on the proposed single pulse model are performed to investigate the shape and size of the weld pool given different laser energy intensities. A good agreement is observed between the simulation results and the experimental results obtained under equivalent single pulse welding conditions. Thus, the basic validity of the proposed model is confirmed.     

Influence of polydisperse distributions of both primary particle and aggregate size on soot temperature in low-fluence LII

An improved aggregate-based low-fluence laser-induced incandescence (LII) model has been developed. The shielding effect in heat conduction between aggregated soot particles and the surrounding gas was modeled using the concept of the equivalent heat transfer sphere. The diameter of such an equivalent sphere was determined from direct simulation Monte Carlo calculations in the free molecular regime as functions of the aggregate size and the thermal accommodation coefficient of soot. Both the primary soot particle diameter and the aggregate size distributions are assumed to be lognormal. The effective temperature of a soot particle ensemble containing different primary particle diameters and aggregate sizes in the laser probe volume was calculated based on the ratio of the total thermal radiation intensities of soot particles at 400 and 780 nm to simulate the experimentally measured soot particle temperature using two-color optical pyrometry. The effect of primary particle diameter polydispersity is in general important and should be considered. The effect of aggregate size polydispersity is relatively unimportant when the heat conduction between the primary particles and the surrounding gas takes place in the free-molecular regime; however, it starts to become important when the heat conduction process occurs in the near transition regime. The model developed in this study was also applied to the re-determination of the thermal accommodation coefficient of soot in an atmospheric pressure laminar ethylene diffusion flame. PACS 44.05.+e; 61.46.Df; 65.80.+n     

Numerical analysis of plasma arc physical characteristics under additional constraint of keyhole

The physical characteristics of a plasma arc affect the stability of the keyhole and weld pool directly during keyhole plasma arc welding(KPAW). There will be significant change for these characteristics because of the interaction between the keyhole weld pool and plasma arc after penetration. Therefore, in order to obtain the temperature field, flow field, and arc pressure of a plasma arc under the reaction of the keyhole, the physical model of a plasma arc with a pre-set keyhole was established. In addition, the tungsten and base metal were established into the calculated domain, which can reflect the effect of plasma arc to weld pool further. Based on magneto hydrodynamics and Maxwell equations, a two-dimensional steady state mathematical model was established. Considering the heat production of anode and cathode, the distribution of temperature field, flow field, welding current density, and plasma arc pressure were solved out by the finite difference method. From the calculated results, it is found that the plasma arc was compressed a second time by the keyhole. This additional constraint results in an obvious rise of the plasma arc pressure and flow velocity at the minimum diameter place of the keyhole, while the temperature field is impacted slightly. Finally, the observational and metallographic experiments are conducted, and the shapes of plasma arc and fusion line agree with the simulated results generally.     

Vision-based weld pool boundary extraction and width measurement during keyhole fiber laser welding

In keyhole fiber laser welding processes, the weld pool behavior is essential to determining welding quality. To better observe and control the welding process, the accurate extraction of the weld pool boundary as well as the width is required. This work presents a weld pool edge detection technique based on an off axial green illumination laser and a coaxial image capturing system that consists of a CMOS camera and optic filters. According to the difference of image quality, a complete developed edge detection algorithm is proposed based on the local maximum gradient of greyness searching approach and linear interpolation. The extracted weld pool geometry and the width are validated by the actual welding width measurement and predictions by a numerical multi-phase model.     

基于光谱诊断的氩-氮P-TIG焊引弧的动态电弧物理特性研究

焊接电弧等离子体的物理特性直接决定了焊接接头的成形形貌,分析双组分保护气体的脉冲钨极惰性气体保护焊（P-TIG）动态电弧物理特性,为深入开展混合气体保护焊的焊缝成形物理过程研究提供理论基础。氩-氮混合气体保护焊电弧具有高热特性可以增加熔深,但在焊接前混合均匀的保护气体,引弧后气体浓度会重新分布,使电弧等离子体物理特性的实时动态变化特点变得复杂。光谱诊断是电弧等离子体物理特性测量的最重要手段,但对双组分气体保护的P-TIG焊电弧特性的研究仍需深入进行,特别是对于易引起缺陷的起弧过程,其动态物理特性亟需深入分析。针对氩-氮混合气体P-TIG焊的引弧过程,以P-TIG焊产生的氩-氮双组分电弧等离子体为研究对象,提出利用窄带滤光片与CCD相结合的高速摄影实验系统采集双组分电弧等离子的动态光谱信息,获取特征谱Ar Ⅰ 794.8 nm和N Ⅰ 904.6 nm的P-TIG焊电弧光谱强度动态分布;提出利用双元素双组分标准温度法计算P-TIG焊引弧过程中距离钨极下方1,2,3和4 mm位置处电弧等离子体的动态温度及浓度,定量分析80%Ar+20%N₂保护的P-TIG焊从引弧至电弧稳定过程的电弧等离子体物理特性实时分布。实验结果表明,80%Ar+20%N₂保护的P-TIG焊电弧强度、电弧温度及浓度的变化均与脉冲电流的变化同步,焊接电流在3 ms内达到稳定状态,而电弧等离子体的强度、温度及浓度需要更长时间达到平衡状态。从起弧到电弧等离子稳定燃烧的过程中,基值期间和峰值期间的电弧等离子体强度均呈现先升高再降低的趋势;由于阴极的热传导及电流密度的变化,使得电弧等离子体轴向位置的峰值温度及基值温度均出现迅速升高再缓慢降低的现象;由于粒子间碰撞及摩擦力的影响,使得电弧等离子体的峰值及基值期间氩的浓度均呈迅速减小再缓慢增加的趋势,且氩的浓度均低于焊前浓度。