Heat transfer and fluid flow and their effects on the solidification microstructure in full-penetration laser welding of aluminum sheet

Shaoning Geng¹，Ping Jiang¹，Xinyu Shao¹，Lingyu Guo²，Xuesong Gao²

1. The State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology2. Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University

摘 要：Understanding the behaviors of heat transfer and fluid flow in weld pool and their effects on the solidification microstructure are significant for performance improvement of laser welds. This paper develops a three-dimensional numerical model to understand the multi-physical processes such as heat transfer, melt convection and solidification behavior in full-penetration laser welding of thin 5083 aluminum sheet. Solidification parameters including temperature gradient G and solidification rate R, and their combined forms are evaluated to interpret solidification microstructure. The predicted weld dimensions and the microstructure morphology and scale agree well with experiments. Results indicate that heat conduction is the dominant mechanism of heat transfer in weld pool, and melt convection plays a critical role in microstructure scale. The mushy zone shape/size and solidification parameters can be modulated by changing process parameters. Dendritic structures form because of the low G/R value. The scale of dendritic structures can be reduced by increasing GR via decreasing heat input. The columnar to equiaxed transition is predicted quantitatively via the process related G³/R. These findings illustrate how heat transfer and fluid flow affect the solidification parameters and hence the microstructure, and show how to improve microstructure by optimizing the process.

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