AN ANALYTICAL SOLUTION TO PREDICT THE TRANSIENT TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN FILLET ARC WELDS

This paper presents an analytical solution for predicting the transien t temperature distribution in fillet are welds. The analytical solutio n is obtained by solving a transient, three-dimensional heat conductio n equation with convection boundary conditions on the surfaces of an i nfinite plate with finite thickness and mapping an infinite plate onto the fillet weld geometry with an energy equation. The electric are he at input on the fillet weld and on the infinite plate is assumed to ha ve a traveling bivariate Gaussian distribution. To check the validity of the solution, gas tungsten are (GTA) and flux cored are (FCA) weldi ng experiments were performed under Various conditions. The actual iso therms of the weldment cross sections at various distances from the ar e start point are compared with those of the simulation result. As the result shows satisfactory accuracy, this analytical solution can be u sed to predict the transient temperature distribution in fillet welds of finite thickness under a moving bivariate Gaussian distributed heat source. The simplicity and short calculation time of the analytical s olution provide rationale to use the analytical solution for modeling welding control systems or for optimizing welding process parameters.