Marangoni convection in the rear part of melting pool in keyhole laser welding

The article devoted to modeling of influence of thermo-capillary convection on heat transfer in melting pool during CW laser welding. An approximation of potential flow with boundary layers was used for solution of hydrodynamic problem in melting pool. A hydrodynamic problem was formulated in terms of current function. To determine a value of melt velocity circulation a condition of equality of mechanical powers of driving force (Marangoni tension) and braking force (viscous tension in boundary layer) was used. Calculations show that Marangoni convection increase an upper part and diminish a bottom part of melt pool.