Behavior of AISI 316L Steel Subjected to Uniaxial State of Stress at Elevated Temperatures

This paper presents an experimental investigation on an AISI 316L stainless steel regarding mechanical properties and short uniaxial creep tests at elevated temperatures. The short time creep tests were carried out under different but constant stresses. The obtained data of ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, creep curves and effects of elevated temperatures on mechanical properties were presented. For a selected rheological model, material parameters were obtained. As a justification, such rheological model is implemented in the finite element procedure for an uniaxially stressed specimen in selected environmental conditions.

Acquisition and processing of coaxial image of molten pool and keyhole in Nd:YAG laser welding with high power

An experimental setup of acquiring the coaxial visual image of the molten pool and keyhole in high power Nd:YAG laser welding is introduced in this paper. It is one of the most difficult problems in acquiring coaxial image that the coaxial imaging signal of molten pool and keyhole must be separated from the laser beam with high power. This problem was resolved by designing a dichroitic spectroscope. The characteristics of imaging signal were analyzed and the coaxial image of molten pool and keyhole was acquired. A smoothing filter and a homomorphic filter were designed to remove the low frequency noise and to enhance the image according to the characteristics of imaging signal. At last, edges of molten pool and keyhole were detected and extracted based on image segmentation with threshold.

INFLUENCE OF BLADES' STRESS STATE ON FRANCIS TURBINE RUNNER'S INVALIDATION

Numerical simulation on Francis turbine runner＇s welding temperature field and welding stress field is carded out on the base of solving the problem of welding heat source＇s movement along any spatial routes and the problem of heat elimination between the complicated blade and air. The evolvement law of welding stress and the distribution of the stress field after welding are obtained. The results indicate that the peak value of the welding residual stress appears on the outlet edge of blade near the contact area between blade and band or blade and crown. Associated with the distribution of the runner＇s working stress, the invalidation reason of the Francis turbine runner is explained.

Microstructural zones and tensile characteristics of friction stir welded joint of TC4 titanium alloy

TC4 titanium alloy was friction stir welded using a W-Re pin tool,and the defect-free weld was produced with proper welding parameters.The joint consists of stir zone,heat affected zone and base material.The stir zone is characterized by equiaxed dynamically recrystallized α phases and transformed β phases with fine α+β lamellar microstructure.The microstructure of the heat-affected zone is similar to that of the base material,but there is an increase in the volume fraction of β.Transverse tensile strength of the joint is 92% that of the base material,and the joint is fractured in the stir zone and the fracture surface possesses typical plastic fracture characteristics.The stir zone is the weakest part of the joint,through which the tensile characteristics of the TC4 joint can be explained.

Electron beam welding of Ti-15-3 titanium alloy to 304 stainless steel with copper interlayer sheet

Electron beam welding of Ti-15-3 titanium alloy to 304 stainless steel with a copper sheet as interlayer was carried out.Microstructures of the joint were studied by optical microscopy(OM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and X-ray diffractometry(XRD).In addition,the mechanical properties of the joint were evaluated by tensile test and the microhardness was measured.These two alloys were successfully welded by adding copper transition layer into the weld.Solid solution with a certain thickness was located at the interfaces between weld and base metal in both sides.Regions inside the weld and near the stainless steel were characterized by solid solution of copper with TiFe2 intermetallics dispersedly distributed in it.While weld near titanium alloy contained Ti-Cu and Ti-Fe-Cu intermetallics layer,in which the hardness of weld came to the highest value.Brittle fracture occurred in the intermetallics layer when the joint was stretched.

Si diffusion behavior during laser welding-brazing of Al alloy and Ti alloy with Al-12Si filler wire

In laser welding-brazing of Al alloy (5A06) and Ti alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) with rectangular CO2 laser spot and with Al-12Si filler wire, element Si enriches at the interface between Ti substrate and the filler metal. It is found that the Si diffusion behavior has a significant effect on the formation of interfacial intermetallic compounds. To analyze the Si diffusion behavior, a model for the prediction of the chemical potential for ternary alloy was established. According to the calculated results of the influence of the element content and temperature in Ti-Al-Si system on Si chemical potential, the diffusion behavior of Si element was analyzed for Ti dissolution and melting mode, which presents a good agreement with the experimental data. Further, formation mechanism of the interfacial intermetllic compound was clarified.

Microstructure and porosity analysis in ultrasonic assisted TIG welding of 2014 aluminum alloy

The ultrasonic assisted tungsten inert gas （U-TIG） welding is a newly developed arc welding method, which is aimed at improving the weld quality and efficiency. TIG welding and U-TIG welding of 2014 aluminum alloy with 5 mm thickness were experimentally carried out in this paper. The microstructure and porosity of welded joints were analyzed. Compared with conventional TIG welding, the columnar crystals are changed into equiaxed crystals at the centre of weld zone and the grain of fusion zone in U-TIG welding is refined and equiaxed. The porosities of joint decrease after the ultrasonic was applied on the arc. The mechanism of crystal grain refinement is discussed in this paper and the reasons of porosity decrease in U-TIG welded joint may be due to the effect of acoustic streaming and cavitation, which need further research.

Repair welding process of friction stir welding groove defect

The groove defect formed in the friction stir welding dramatically deteriorates weld appearances and mechanical properties of the joints owing to its larger size and penetration. Therefore, the friction stir repair welding was utilized to remove such a groove defect, and the focus was placed on the mechanical properties and microstructural characteristics of the repair joints so as to obtain an optimum repair welding process. The experimental results indicate that the groove defect can be removed by friction stir repair welding, and the offset repair welding process is superior to the symmetrical repair welding process. In the symmetrical repair welding process, a large number of fine cavity defects and an obvious aggregation of hard-brittle phase Al2Cu occur, accordingly the mechanical properties of the repair joint are weakened, and the fracture feature of repair joint is partially brittle and partially plastic. A good-quality repair joint can be obtained by the offset repair welding process, and the repair joint is fractured near the interface between the weld nugget zone and thermal-mechanically affected zone.

Joint performance of laser-TIG double-side welded 5A06 aluminum alloy

The influence of welding parameters on mechanical properties and microstructure of the welds of laser-TIG double-side welded 5A06 aluminum alloy was investigated. The results show that the weld cross-sectional shape has an intimate relation with the mechanical properties and microstructure of the welds. The symmetrical "X" cross-section possesses a relatively higher tensile strength and elongation than the others, about 91% and 58% of those of base metal, respectively. The good weld profiles and free defects are responsible for the improvement of tensile properties. Due to low hardness of the fusion zone, this region is the weakest area in the tensile test and much easier to fracture. The loss of Mg element is responsible for the decrease of mechanical properties of the joints. The microstructure of "X" cross-section has an obvious difference along the direction of weld depth, and that of the "H" cross-section is consistent and coarse.

Background removal and weld defect detection based on energy distribution of image

The lateral wave in ultrasonic TOFD （time of flight diffraction） image has a tail in transit time, which disturbs the detection and evaluation of shallow weld defect. Meanwhile, the lateral wave and back-wall echo that act as background add redundant data in digital image processing. In order to separate defect wave from lateral wave and prepare the way for following image processing, an algorithm of background removal method named as mean-subtraction is developed. Based on this, an improved method by statistic of the energy distribution in the image is proposed. The results show that by choosing proper threshold value according to the axial energy distribution of the image, the background can be removed automatically and the defect section becomes predominant. Meanwhile, diffractive wave of shallow weld defect can be separated from lateral wave effectively.

The arc characteristic of ultrasonic assisted TIG welding

Many applications of ultrasonic-assisted methods were used during metal solidification, but they could not be introduced into weld pool. In this paper, a way of ultrasonic assisted TIG welding is introduced. By directly imposed ultrasonic vibration on welding arc, the vibration interacts with arc plasma and passes to the weld pool. Measurement results show that arc pressure is significantly increased with the ultrasonic vibration and the arc pressure distribution models are changed. Bead-on-plate welding tests on SUS304 confirm that this technology can influence the style of metal melting and increase weld penetration depth.

Mechanical properties of underwater friction stir welded 2219 aluminum alloy

Underwater friction stir welding of 2219 aluminum alloy was carried out in order to further improve the joint performances by varying welding temperature history.The results indicated that the tensile strength of the joint can be improved from 324 MPa by external water cooling action in normal to 341 MPa.However,the plasticity of the joint is deteriorated.The underwater joint tends to fracture at the interface between the weld nugget zone and the thermal mechanically affected zone on the advancing side during tensile test,which is significantly different from the normal joint.

Effect of pulse parameters on microstructure of joint in laser beam welding for SiC_p/6063 composite

The restraint effects of pulse frequency and pulse duty cycle on the precipitates of harmful needle like Al 4C 3 phase were studied in CO 2 impulsed laser welding through the experiment on the SiC p/6063 composite, and the microstructures of the weld under the different process parameters (pulse time from 1 ms to 20 ms,duty cycle from 50% to 91%) were analyzed. In order to compare, CO 2 continuous laser was conducted under the same efficiency. The results demonstrate that the proper laser pulse frequency and duty cycle can restrain the formation of Al 4C 3 effectively. However, the burning loss of SiC is more serious and the fluidity of molten pool is less in continuous laser welding than in impulsed laser welding.

Study on the effect of welding current during laser beam-resistance seam welding of aluminum alloy 5052

The effect of welding current on the weld shape and tensile shear load during laser beam-resistance seam welding （LB-RSW） of aluminum alloy 5052 is studied. Experimental results show that the penetration depth, weld width ,tensile shear load and the ratio of penetration depth to weld width of LB-RSW are bigger than those of laser beam welding（ LBW） under the same conditions and the former three parameters increase as welding current rises. The weld shape of LB-RSW below 5 kA welding current is nearly the same as that of LBW. The weld morphology is protuberant under the condition of 5 kA welding current and 0. 8 m/min welding speed. Furthermore, the microstructure of the weld seam of LB-RSW is coarser than that of LBW.

Numerical simulation of temperature fields for T-joint during TIG welding of titanium alloy

Three-dimensional finite element model was established to simulate temperature fields of T-joint titanium sheets during TIG welding with finite element method （FEM） software. Temperature dependent material properties and the effect of latent heat were considered. A technique of element birth and death was used to simulate the process of welded metal filling. Dynamic variation process of temperature fields during T1G welding was achieved. The simulated results agreed well with the measured results.

SIMULATION ON TEMPERATURE FIELD OF FRICTION STIR WELDED JOINTS OF 2024-T4 Al

The thermal model of FSW based on the thermal elastic-plastic finite element method, and the transient temperature distribution of FS welded joints of 2024-T4 Al was simulated by using this model, which provides useful information for the investigation of FSW process. Simulation resuits show that the temperature distribution of the weld gradually decreases toward periphery in a radiate format, whose center is the probe, and the highest temperature in the weld can reach about 400℃. The initial terminal of the weld is a zone, in which the temperature gradient is great, and defects of the welding are easily produced in this zone. Temperature change at the end of the welded joint is as layer variation, the local serious defects are not easy to produce in this zone.

Three dimensional numerical simulation of welding temperature fields in stainless steel

Three kinds of mathematical models representing welding heat sources are presented. Among them, Gaussian model and double ellipsoidal model are used to analyze the thermal distributions with finite element method. At the same time, this paper analyzed the influences of the heat source models, the latent heat and the welding parameters on the temperature distributions. The comparisons between the simulated results and the experiments show double ellipsoidal model is good for three-dimensional numerical simulations. Furthermore, the adaptive mesh technique is applied in the three-dimensional model which greatly reduces the number of nodes and elements in the simulation.

Research on CMT welding of nickel-based alloy with stainless steel

Cold Metal Transfer （CMT） welding technique is a new welding technique introduced by Fronins company. CMT welding of nickel-based alloy with stainless steel was carried out using CuSi3 filler wire in this paper. Effects of welding parameters, including welding current, welding speed, etc, on weld surface appearance were tested. Microstructure and mechanical properties of CMT weld were studied. The results shaw that the thickness of interface reaction layer of the nickel- based alloy is 14. 3 μm, which is only 4. 33% of base material. The weld is made up of two phases, α-copper and iron-based solid solution. Rupture occurs initially at the welded seam near the edge of stainless steel in shear test. The maximum shear strength of the CuSi3 welded joint is 184. 9 MPa.

Physics characteristic of coupling arc of twin-tungsten TIG welding

Twin-tungsten TIG welding was developed, in which two electrodes were placed in a single welding torch. In order to master this process, the arc physics characteristic was studied. The twin-tungsten coupling arc shape was observed by using CCD camera, and the arc pressure was measured. The results show that the coupling arc includes two arcs that pull each other according to Lorentz force and one big coupling arc is formed; the coupling arc pressure is much lower than that of conventional TIG arc. In the end, a simple welding experiment was carried out. This proves that stable welding process can be achieved by twin-tungsten TIG at higher current than that of conventional TIG because of its low arc pressure and the high efficiency welding is realized.

Microstructure of Cu-based Amorphous Composite Coatings on AZ91D Magnesium Alloy by Laser Cladding

To improve the sliding wear resistance of AZ91D magnesium alloy, Cu-based amorphous composite coatings made of CuaTTi34Zr11Nis and Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8＋20 wt pct SiC powders were fabricated on AZ91D magnesium alloy by laser cladding, respectively. SEM （scanning electron microscopy）, EDS （energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy）, XRD （X-ray diffraction） and TEM （transmission electron microscopy） techniques were employed to study the phases of the coatings. The results show that the coatings mainly consist of amorphous phase and different intermetallic compounds. The reason of formation of amorphous phase and the function of SiC particles were explained in details.