Influence of the welding parameters on the heat affected zone for aluminum welding

Abstract

This work analyzes the heat affected zone in an aluminum alloy welded assembly using the metal inert gas welding technique. Making use of numerical simulations of the involved thermal processes, the aluminum alloy cooling curve is calculated and the extension of the heat affected zone is evaluated. The connection between this last parameter, the cooling rate, and the maximum obtained temperature is assessed. Additionally, the response surface method is exploited to fit the dependence of the heat affected zone with the welding parameters and to optimize these parameters in order to minimize that region.