Numerical and experimental study of arc and weld pool behaviour for pulsed current GTA welding

A finite element model is introduced in this paper to describe the coupling between the welding arc and the weld pool dynamic in pulsed gas tungsten arc welding. The cathode, arc-plasma and melting anode regions are taken into account. The unified time-dependent model describes the heat transfer, fluid flow and electromagnetic fields in the three regions. The originality of the numerical model is its ability to treat the arc and weld pool time evolution under pulsed current welding in a unified formalism, taking into account eddy current in the weld pool. The case of thin plates with fully penetrated weld pools is also handled. To validate the predictions of the model, an Infra-Red camera is used to film the dynamic of the weld pool surface. Then an image processing algorithm permits to get the time evolution of the weld pool width directly from the film. The numerical model is applied to the 304 stainless steel welding, and the computed results show that the predictions are in fair agreement with the experimental results.