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Study on keyhole characteristics and weld pool dynamics of Ti6Al4V alloy fabricated by continuous wave laser beam welding

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Abstract

Continuous wave laser beam welding (CWLBW) of titanium alloy has been widely investigated experimentally and numerically in terms of scientific understanding and technology application. The existing CWLBW related to numerical modeling mostly ignored the essence of continuous laser input, and the simulation was usually performed using a constant laser power. In this study, the deep penetration CWLBW process of Ti6Al4V plates was modeled mathematically by taking the high-frequency pulsed laser into account. The dynamics of the keyhole and weld pool at different welding speeds were numerically solved and contrastively analyzed. The results show that the improved heat source model yields sufficient accuracy on seam profile prediction. As the welding proceeds, temperature field and the keyhole morphology fluctuate significantly due to the variation of the heat input within a pulse period, which is hardly a common observation under a constant laser irradiating condition. With the increase of welding speed, the depth of weld pool decreases, and the keyhole dimensions becomes less symmetrical along the welding direction and less oscillating in quasi-steady stage, indicating a higher in-process dynamic stability. The current work provides a more precise description and a further understanding of heat and mass transfer behaviors during a CWLBW process.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledged the projects funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation No. 2020M671479.

Funding

The research is funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation No. 2020M671479.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Xiaomei Chen, Yanhong Wei, Yiting Chang & Bin Kong

  2. MIIT Key Laboratory of Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, College of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Jicheng Chen

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center of Novel Software Technology and Industrialization, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Jicheng Chen

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  1. Xiaomei Chen
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  2. Yanhong Wei
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Correspondence to Jicheng Chen.

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Chen, X., Wei, Y., Chang, Y. et al. Study on keyhole characteristics and weld pool dynamics of Ti6Al4V alloy fabricated by continuous wave laser beam welding. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 119, 2999–3012 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08595-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08595-x

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