Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of a Gas Tungsten Arc Welding Process

Abstract

Welding processes are widely used in many industries. The determination of welding parameters and the study of their influence on the mechanical and metallurgical behavior of materials require multiple experiments, and the relevant studies are costly in terms of time and resources. Thus, numerical simulations can serve as a solution when it comes to choosing the appropriate welding process and optimizing its parameters while minimizing costs. The present work contributes to the development of a finite element code, using MATLAB software, for the prediction of thermo-mechanical and metallurgical behavior during the Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding process. Numerical computation is based on the mathematical formulation of physical phenomena and thermal exchanges. In this paper, results dealing with the prediction of the temperature field evolution during the C50 steel TIG-welding process are presented. In this case, the thermal problem is solved numerically using the finite element method. The memory and computation time problems are solved using optimal stocking and resolution algorithms. To validate the developed computation code, numerical results are first compared with other published numerical results, then with our experimental data. A satisfactory concordance between simulated temperature evolutions and those measured with thermocouples implanted in the welded sheets was found.

Keywords

• Finite elements
• Mathematical formulation
• Thermal simulation
• TIG welding