Thermal Analysis of Welding on Aluminum Plates

This study investigated the temperature distribution of aluminum plates welded by gas tungsten arc. The heat of fusion, the size and distribution of heat source, the travel speed, the heat conduction in the welding direction and the surface heat loss during welding were considered. A numerical scheme was developed to solve the three-dimensional problem. With the help of a mathematical model, the effect of welding parameters such as heat input of the weld, preheating of the workpiece and moving velocity of heat source on weld penetration in moderately thick plates were discussed. The steady-state temperature profiles of the welded plate were solved by finite difference method. In addition, an experiment was conducted to verify the theoretical results. The predicted values from the proposed model compared favorably with the experimental data.