The front line of modeling heat and mass transfer in arc welding processes

Abstract

Unified models are believed to be the trend for the modeling of arc welding processes. 2D unified models have been developed to simulate the arc and the weld pool until full penetration. 3D unified models will be needed to address the 3D welding properties such as arc wandering. 3D modeling of multi-pass welding processes with feeding wire, droplet, and powder will be also beneficial to the new welding-based SFF technologies. A tightly coupled 3D whole-process model will be the ultimate goal for the modeling of arc welding processes. Parallel computing will be more widely used in the modeling of welding processes. More advanced meshing techniques such as unstructured mesh will replace boundary-fitted coordinate and stepwise approximation to better describe the complex geometry shape. In summary, with the continuing growth in computer capability and computational techniques, and increasing effort on the research about the science of modeling, the contributions of modeling to industrial welding processes will be more and more promising.