AN INVESTIGATION OF A MATHEMATICAL-MODEL FOR PREDICTING WELD BEAD GEOMETRY

In recent years, there has been a significant growth in the use of aut omated and/or robotic welding systems. To develop these systems, mathe matical models that correlate welding process parameters to the weld b ead geometry are required. Partial-penetration, single-pass, bead-on-p late welds were therefore fabricated on 12mm mild steel AS 1204 flats varying a number of different welding process parameters to obtain rel ationships between welding process parameters and weld bead geometry. Experimental results are compared to outputs obtained using a set of p ublished formulae relating input variables to output parameters, and a lso utilized to develop a mathematical model explaining the relationsh ip between gas metal are welding (GMAW) variables and weld bead geomet ry. Using the theory of least squares, the welding process parameters such as wire diameter, welding voltage, are current, welding speed are calculated from a desired weld bead size. Copyright (C) 1996 Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd