Heat flow and arc efficiency at high pressures in argon and helium tungsten arcs

For control of welding underwater robotic systems, the arc characteristics and the heat quotation in cathode, arc column and anode (weld) were measured in GTAW with argon and helium shielding gas using the calorimetric method. The measurements were performed mainly in a pressure chamber. The pressure, the current and the arc length were varied from 0.1-6.0 MPa, 50-300 A and 2-11 mm, respectively. It was observed that the welding voltage is strongly dependent on system pressure for both shielding gases and an explicit minimum voltage/current was obtained for the argon arc characteristics at approximately 100 A. Furthermore, the field strength and the heat emission from the arc column increased exponentially with the pressure. A simple relation was developed to predict heat emission from the arc column and, consequently, for the arc efficiency. In addition, a calculation model for engineering use was derived based on the Ellenbaas-Heller equation to calculate the-heat flux from the arc to the weld (for both gases).