Development of Circumferential TIG welding process model

—A Simulation model for welding of pipe and plate—

Abstract

It is very valuable to develop a numerical model for various welding styles in order to understand the welding phenomena. The welding simulation models for a target work could be available for off-line robot programming or on-line robot control. The objective of this study is to develop a TIG welding simulation model for various works. Present model may apply to several work configurations with comparative ease. This paper discusses on a model for all position welding of plate and pipe, and the model applies to mild steel and aluminum and aluminum alloys. According to calculated results, it is made clear that homogenous weld is difficult to get for the fixed pipe welding due to the gravity effect, and that the weld bead shape on welding of plate and pipe is sensitive to changes in plate thickness. Accordingly, it is concluded that the model, proposed in this work, is useful for a simple simulation of TIG welding, and offers a powerful means for the estimation of optimum process parameters in the process.