Effect of weld travel speed on solidification cracking behavior. Part 3: modeling

Abstract

Solidification cracking is a weld defect common to certain susceptible alloys rendering many of them unweldable. It forms and grows continuously behind a moving weld pool within the twophase mushy zone and involves a complex interaction between thermal, metallurgical and mechanical factors. Research has demonstrated the ability to minimize solidification cracking occurrence by using appropriate welding parameters. Despite decade's long efforts to investigate weld solidification cracking, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the particular effect of travel speed. While the use of the fastest welding speed is usually recommended, this rule has not always been confirmed on site. Varying welding speed has many consequences both on stress cells surrounding the weld pool, grain structure, and mushy zone extent. Experimental data and models are compiled to highlight the importance of welding speed on solidification cracking. This review is partitioned into three parts: Part I focuses on the effects of welding speed on weld metal characteristics, Part II reviews the data of the literature to discuss the importance of selecting properly the metrics, and Part III details the different methods to model the effect of welding speed on solidification cracking occurrence.

How to avoid solidification cracking in arc welding of aluminum alloys: a review on weld metal grain refinement approaches

“…Solidification cracking is a phenomenon that occurs similar to hot tearing in casting and is highly complex for the welding process [26][27][28]. Cracking, which can occur during solidification in both casting and welding processes, mainly results from the solidification shrinkage that creates stresses in a material [29].…”