Effect of post weld heat treatment on properties of variable polarity TIG welded AA2219 aluminium alloy joints

AA2219 aluminium alloy joints were fabricated by variable polarity tungsten inert gas （VPTIG） welding process and the effects of post weld heat treatment （PWHT） on the tensile properties, microstructure and fatigue behaviour of the welded joints were investigated. The VPTIG welding process was adopted because it could meet the need of cathode cleaning and meanwhile it could reduce the deterioration of tungsten electrode furthest. The welded samples were divided into as-welded （AW） sample and PWHT sample. The PWHT method used on the samples was solution treatment （535 ℃, 30 rain）, water quenching and artificial aging （175 ℃, 12 h）. The experimental results show that, compared with the AW samples, the microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties of the AA2219 joints after PWHT were significantly improved. The improvement of yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and fatigue strength are 42.6%, 43.1% and 18.4%, respectively.

Characteristics of arc in variable polarity plasma arc welding of aluminum alloy

A double invert variable polarity plasma arc （VPPA） power source based on 16-bit MCU applied for aluminum alloys was developed. Mechanics, electrical and the produced heat mechanism of VPPAW arc were tested and analyzed. Results indicate that during the VPPA welding procedure of aluminum alloy, the arc of electrode negative （EN） has more effect on force, whereas the arc of electrode positive （ EP ） has more effect on heat. It should be noted that keeping the balance of the force and heat is the critical element of VPPAW. This power source had been successfully used to weld aluminum alloy with a 15 mm thickness in vertical welding. The conclusions are applicable to the variable polarity plasma arc welding technique used in the aerospace industry.

A novel variable polarity welding power based on high-frequency pulse modulation

A new type of variable polarity welding power modulated with high-frequency pulse current is developed. Series of high-frequency pulse current is superimposed on direct-current-electrode-negative （DCEN）, which can improve the crystallization process in the weld bead as a result of the electromagnetic force generated by pulse current. Digital signal processor （DSP） is used to realize the closed-loop control of the first inverter, variable polarity output of the second inverter and high-frequency pulse current superposition.

Study on the measureto improve the arcstabilization in smaller current welding for the variable polarity GTAW powersource

The variable polarity power source which incorporates a constant current power and a secondary inverter does not need special apparatus for stabilizing arc. The pulse for stabilizing arc is created by the circuit structure itself. The paper analyzes the principle of acquiring the pulse, provides the better method to improve the arc stabilization under smaller welding current. Test shows the arc is highly stable , and the process has no high frequency electromagnetic interference, which is suitable for automatic welding case.

Experimental Analysis on the Variable Polarity Plasma Arc Pressure

Arc pressure is one of the key factors for variable polarity plasma arc（VPPA） and welding pool formation. In this paper, VPPA pressure is measured by pressure transducer and U-tube barometer methods, and advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are compared. The effects of welding parameters, including with straight polarity（SP） current, reverse polarity（RP） current, time ratio of SP to RP, plasma gas flow rate, on VPPA pressure are investigated by using an orthogonal design. The experimental results indicate that the influencing degree of the welding parameters are in the order of plasma gas flow rate, SP current, time ratio of SP to RP, RP current. These results are important to researches of VPPA welding process and its mechanism. The physics behavior of VPPA is taken into account when the above influence mechanisms are analyzed. Firstly, according to the mechanism of the cooling compression to the arc, the compression to VPPA is enhanced with the increase of plasma gas flow, so the VPPA pressure would increase obviously. Secondly, although the temperature of VPPA is as a function of the welding current, the radius of VPPA is also enhanced. So the effects of SP current on VPPA pressure are inferior to the effects of plasma gas flow. Thirdly, VPPA pressure increases as a function of time ratio of SP to RP because the frequency of welding current influences the arc pressure to the some degree; Finally, the RP intervals are farther less than the SP intervals, so the influence to the pressure is minimal.

Formative mechanism of the undercut defect in horizontal variable polarity plasma arc welding

Abstract Horizontal welding is important for heavy or huge welding structures. Keyhole mode variable polarity plasma arc welding of aluminum alloy plates with medium thickness was carried out in horizontal position. The characteristic of welding defects was introduced. Preliminary experiments indicated that the undercut defect could not be eliminated easily. The relationship between welding parameters and the undercut defect showed that this deject could be lessened by using higher heat input. The fluid flow of weld pool was observed by a high speed camera. The fluid flow in weld pool was not symmetric and much of molten metal gathered in the lower part. The fluid flow velocity in the lower part was bigger than that in the upper part. To this end, the formative mechanism of the undercut defect was proposed. The flowability of the molten metal was an influential factor for the undercut defect. A preheating method was designed to verify the formative mechanism.

Effect of variable polarity frequency on 2A14-T6 aluminum alloy welds using HPVP-GTAW process

Hybrid ultrahigh frequency pulse variable polarity gas tungsten arc welding （HPVP-GTAW） for 2A14-T6 high strength aluminum alloy was carried out and the effects of variable polarity frequency with constant pulse current frequency 40 kHz on weld bead geometry, microstrueture and microhardness were analyzed. Experimental results indicate that, compared to that of the conventional VP-GTAW process, the weld depth and ratio of weld depth to width are improved significantly by the variable polarity frequency in the HPVP-GTAW process, which the ratio of weld depth to width is improved by 36% at equal variable polarity frequency of 100 Hz, and improved by 55% with that of 200 Hz. Weld microstructure and microhardness distribution are changed obviously with the increase of variable polarity frequency. In the conventional VP-GTA W process, the grains in weld central zone are coarser, and the microhardness in weld central zone and fusion zone is about 95 HV and the lowest 82 HV, respectively. The microhardness is enhanced to a certain extent both in the weld central zone and fusion zone with the variation of variable polarity frequency in the HPVP-GTAW process due to the refinement and uniformity of weld microstructure. With the variable polarity frequency of 600 Hz, the microhardness in weld central zone and fusion zone reaches nearly 110 HV and 97 HV, respectively.

Cathodic cleaning in variable polarity plasma arc welding of aluminum alloys

Variable polarity plasma arc welding (VPPAW) is one of the most excellent processes used for welding aluminum alloys recently. It combines the advantages of variable polarity welding and plasma arc welding, and can achieve the most rational heat distribution and cathodic cleaning. With the VPPAW equipment developed by authors, the cathodic cleaning regularity that is one of the most important problems in VPPAW is investigated in this paper. The results will be helpful in realizing the real cleaning mechanism.

Study of Beam Scan with Variable Linear Polarisation Directions of Antenna Arrays Using MMIC T/R Modules

The beam scan with variable linear polarization directions of antenna arrays using MM/C transmit-receive (T/R) modules is explored. It is shown that the beam scan and the polarizations of electric fields can be controlled simultaneously if the forms of module arrangement are chosen properly and the amplitudes and the phases of array excitation are determined by the method presented in this article. Moreover, the calculations of the amplitudes and the phases of array excitation are simplified greatly while using the bounded conditions properly, and the desired beam sweep rate is achieved.

Beam pointing correction of variable polarization MMW/IR combined detection

A kind of beam-scanning algorithm of variable polarization millimeter array antenna based on the phased array technology is put forward in this paper. The algorithm can be successfully applied to deal with beam directivities inconsistency of millimeter wave/infrared（ MMW/IR ） multimode detector, it can keep electric axis and optical axis coincident. Accordingly, this method can decrease the data fusion difficulty and improve the accuracy of angle measurement. Simulation results show that variable polarization millimeter array antenna has flexible beam-scanning abibility within ±0.5° after the algorithm was adopted, simultaneously, antenna polarization purity is better than 20 dB within the half power beamwidth, sidelobe imbalance keeps high available and antenna gain of the sum beam is over 26.8 dB.

Effects of pulse parameters on arc characteristics and weld penetration in hybrid pulse VP-GTAW of aluminum alloy

A novel ultrafast-convert hybrid pulse variable polarity gas tungsten arc welding process （HPVP-GTAW） is developed. High frequency pulse square-wave current which has a frequency of more than 20 kHz is exactly integrated in the positive polarity current duration. The effects of pulse current parameters on arc characteristics and weld penetration have been studied during the HPVP-GTAW process using Al-5. 8 Mg alloy plates. The arc characteristics studied by arc voltage and its profile, weld penetration noted by the ratio of weld depth to width have been found to be influenced significantly by the pulse current. The experimental results show that the HPVP-GTA W process can improve the arc profile predominantly and obtain the higher weld penetration with lower heat input. The observation may help in understanding the weld characteristics with respect to variation in the pulse current parameters which may be beneficial in using the novel HPVP-GTAW process to produce the better weld quality of aluminum alloy plates.

Approximate entropy analysis of arc stability in VPPA-GMAW hybrid welding

Variable polarity plasma arc-gas metal arc welding(VPPA-GMAW)integrates the advantages of VPPA and GMAW,and it is particularly applied to weld thick-plates aluminum alloys.High-speed camera and data acquisition system were used to analyze the arc shape and the welding process electrical signal.According to the analysis of arc swing amplitude and the approximate entropy of arc voltage signal denoised by wavelet threshold method,the influence of VPPA frequency on the arc stability was studied.The results show that the approximate entropy of GMAW arc voltage decreases with the increase of VPPA frequency in a certain range,and the stability of the hybrid arc is significantly improved.The spectral analysis shows that the arc stability is reduced due to the resonance effect between the VPPA and the GMAW arc when the VPPA frequency closes to the GMAW arc pulse frequency.The results are helpful to understand hybrid welding mechanism and the selection of welding process parameters.

Optimization of HPVP-GTAW aluminum alloy process parameters for Al-Mg welded joints

Optimization of hybrid ultrahigh frequency pulse variable polarity gas tungsten arc welding （HPVP-GTAW） process was carried out to obtain the optimum weld characteristics of 5AO6-HX4 aluminum-magnesium alloy sheets of 3 mm thickness. The square butt joints were produced by HPVP-GTA W process, the microstructure and mechanical properties were systematically investigated. It is observed that the process parameters influence the weld microstructure and mechanical properties significantly. Weld microstructure is mainly composed of grid a （A1） solid solution, with a large number of intermetallic （ Mg2Al3 ） precipitates distributed in the matrix. The amount of ~ （ Mg2Al3 ） precipitates has an obvious difference with different parameters. Compared with that of the base material, tensile strength of 5AO6-HX4 alloy welded joints has a certain reduction, as well as the elongation and reduction of area. The optimized welding process parameters for 5A06-HX4 alloy sheets are presented.

Effect of pulse frequency on hardness characteristics of Al-Cu alloy HPVP-GTAW joints

AA 2219-0 Al-Cu alloy single bead welds were obtained by hybrid ultrahigh frequency pulse variable polarity gas tungsten arc welding （HPVP-GTAW） process with pulse frequency varying from 25 kHz to 70 kHz. Weld hardness characteristics which mainly depicted by microhardness and its gradient were investigated systematically. The results show that pulse frequency has a great effect on the hardness characteristics. The weld zone microhardness and its gradient with different pulse frequency present an evident fluctuant trend. The fluctuation of gradient is slight, illustrating that the mierostructure is uniform with pulse frequcncy varied from 35 kHz to 60 kHz. The fusion zone microhardness and its gradient foUow the similar trends but fluetuate greatly. Maximum value of gradient appears around the fusion boundary due to the coarse and non- uniform microstrueture. The maximum gradient at 60 kHz is only 25.5 % of that at 45 kHz. According to the study, the best hardness characteristics are achieved at 60 kHz frequency.

Revisiting the X-ray emission of the asynchronous polar V1432 Aql

As the only eclipsing asynchronous polar,V1432 Aql provides an excellent laboratory to study the interaction between the accreted matter and the magnetic field.Here,we report an analysis of the X-ray data from the contemporaneous NuSTAR and Swift-XRT observations.The X-ray data present a profile with a low-intensity state for almost half an orbital period,a dip at 0.6 phase,and a peak at 0.75 phase,which suggests that there was only one accretion region during the observation and the claim is supported by the spectral analysis.The comparison with the previous data indicates that the X-ray data have an orbital modulation,as the case in BeppoSAX,rather than a spin one observed in ROSAT.We attribute the orbit and spin modulations to the different accretion geometries at work.The spectral analysis of the wide-band data presents a significant reflection effect,a commonly observed soft X-ray temperature,and the energy balance in V1432 Aql.Additionally,we obtained a low total accretion rate of 1.3×10~(-10)M yr~(-1)and a high specific accretion rate of 3.8 g cm~(-2)s~(-1)which explains the strong reflection from the surface of the white dwarf.However,due to its complex emission,a more physical understanding of its accretion geometry is still outstanding.

Refractive Focusing of Interstellar Clouds and Intraday Polarization Angle Swings

Intraday variations of compact extragalactic radio sources in flux density and polarization are generally interpreted in terms of refractive scintillation from the continuous interstellar medium of our Galaxy. However, continuous polarization angle swings of - 180° （for example, the one observed in the QSO 0917＋624） could not be interpreted in this way. Qian et al. have shown that the polarization angle swing observed in the QSO 1150＋812 can be explained in terms of focusing-defocusing effect by an interstellar cloud, which occults two closely-placed polarized components. Here we further show that the polarization angle swing event observed in the QSO 0917＋624 can also be explained in this way. We also found evidence for the cloud eclipsing a non-polarized （core） component during a short period out- side the swing. A particular （and specific） plasma-lens model is proposed to model-fit the polarization swing event of 0917＋624. Some physical parameters related to the plasma-lens and the source components are estimated. The brightness temperatures of the two lensed components are estimated to be -1.6× 10^13 K. Thus bulk relativistic motion with a Lorentz factor less than -20 may be sufficient to avoid the inverse - Compton catastrophe.

A novel broadband and high-gain microstrip reflectarray antenna with variable polarization

This article proposes a new kind of microstrip reflectarray antenna,of which the polarization could be reconfigured among all the polarization states instead of some fixed states in a dual-or multi-polarized antenna.The mechanism for polarized variability is so simple that only mechanical rotation is needed.Theoretical analysis shows that the reflected polarization covers all states and that the dual-or multi-layered unit structure sandwiched with air-gaps can broaden the bandwidth efficiently.Moreover,it is demonstrated that adopting more elements can enhance antenna gain.With these advantageous features,this kind of antenna has the potential significance for engineering applications in radar,communication,etc.In this article,a complete theoretical analysis as well as a specific design sample is given to verify this method.

Variable optical attenuators with ability to independently control two orthogonal linearly polarized light amplitudes

New techniques for controlling the amplitudes of two orthogonal linearly polarized light are presented. One is based on adjusting the DC voltage into a Mach–Zehnder modulator（MZM） to alter the amplitude of the light traveling on the slow axis of a fiber into the modulator with little changes in the fast-axis light amplitude.Another is based on adjusting the input DC voltages of a dual-polarization MZM operating in the reverse direction, which enables independent control of the two input orthogonal linearly polarized light amplitudes.Experimental results demonstrate that more than 30 dB difference in slow-and fast-axis light power can be obtained by controlling an MZM input DC voltage, and over 24 dB independent power adjustment for light traveling on the slow and fast axes into a dual-polarization MZM.