In welding and wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), a mobile arc is the heat source that enables the deposition of metals and the resulting properties of the final product. Because the arc involves temperatures of 20 000 K, and gas velocities of the order of 300 m/s, there are only a few experiments and models available to determine optimal, or at least acceptable, parameters for the operation such as current, voltage, and arc length. On the other hand, there is a lack of engineering guidance to optimize the processes resulting in costly and time-consuming trial-and-error optimization methods, which also involve wasteful use of energy and scrap parts. In this work, a numerical model of the gas-tungsten arc welding (GTAW) arc was created and validated against experiments. The model considers the arc interactions between a non-consumable electrode and the weld pool and accounts for multiple coupled heat transfer mechanisms: Joule heating, conduction, advection, radiation, and Thomson effect. The conditions considered cover the vast majority of GTAW welding operations. The results are generalized in the form of engineering expressions suitable to be embedded in metamodels, in which the heat source is just a part. Applications include penetration and width of welds and deposition rate in external-wire WAAM.
This work expands findings about the dominant heat transfer mechanisms in argon and helium arcs at atmospheric pressure for monoatomic (Ar, He, 50% Ar–50% He), diatomic (air, $${\hbox{N}}_{2}$$ N 2 , $${\hbox{O}}_{2}$$ O 2 , $${\hbox{F}}_{2}$$ F 2 , $${\hbox{Cl}}_{2}$$ Cl 2 ), and triatomic ($${\hbox{CO}}_{2}$$ CO 2 ) gases. The objective is to understand the dominant mechanisms in atmospheric plasmas through validated numerical modeling for GTAW welding process. Arcs of all gases have lengths of 10 mm and 200 A current. Five heat transfer mechanisms are considered: Joule heating, convection, radiation, conduction, and Thomson effect. Results indicate that the general structure of the arcs and dominant mechanisms are qualitatively similar for all gases; sizes change depending on the gas. The dominant energy input near the cathode is Joule heating, while that near the anode is convection. The dominant energy output always follows the same sequence: Thomson effect next to the cathode followed by convection, radiation in the arc column, and conduction near the anode. Joule heating is the most significant in Ar, while in He, it has the lowest significance. This is due to differences in electric conductivity of He (higher up to 21,000 K and lower beyond 21,000 K than other gases) and high viscosity of He, which creates a small Joule heating versus a large convection region. He transfers the most heat towards the anode by convection while $${\hbox{N}}_{2}$$ N 2 has the lowest; due to the high enthalpy and viscosity of He compared to $${\hbox{N}}_{2}$$ N 2 . Finally, Ar has the most significant radiative emission and He the smallest due to their net emission coefficient.
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