FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION OF HYBRID WELDING PROCESS FOR WELDING 304 AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL PLATE

Amudala Nata Sekhar Babu, Lakshmana Kishore.T

Abstract: Although autogenous laser welding has many advantages over traditional welding methods in many applications, still the process has a main disadvantage of poor gap bridging capability, which limits its applicability for wider industrial use. Owing to this limiting factor, a great deal of research work was carried out to overcome this disadvantage by using Arc source with laser welding. The combination of laser and Arc (MIG/TIG) welding processes in a same process zone is known as Hybrid Welding. This process involves very high peak temperature and rapid change in thermal cycle both of which are difficult to measure in real time. In this dissertation work, a 3- dimensional finite element model was developed for the analysis of hybrid welding process. Ansys Parametric Design language (APDL) code was developed for the same. The FEA results were validated with experimental results showing good agreement. Hybrid welding Simulations were carried out for AISI 304 Austenitic stainless Steel plate. The effects of laser beam power, Arc Welding and torch angle on the weld-bead geometry i.e. penetration (DP), welded zone width (BW) were investigated. The experimental plan was based on three factor 5 level central composite rotatable design. Second order polynomial equations for predicting the weld-bead geometry were developed for bead width and depth of penetration. The results indicate that the effect of arc current (AC) on bead width was more than on depth of penetration. Hence, the proposed models predict the responses adequately within the limits of welding parameters being used.

Keywords: Hybrid Welding, Ansys Parametric Design language (APDL), FEA, AISI 304 Austenitic stainless Steel, and Central composite rotatable design

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2012.0103037