Numerical Simulation and Industrial Application of High Speed Tandem TIG Welding
Abstract Self-developed high speed tandem TIG welding equipment were adopted to manufacture titanium welded tubes with high efficiency and high quality. The joint made by this high efficient welding process met Chinese standard requirements. A coupled electrode, arc and weld pool numerical model was also developed to investigate temperature and velocity distributions, and energy propagation of this welding process. The numerical results showed that the Marangoni stress was much higher than the arc shear stress, and was mainly positive after leading and trailing arcs in the x and y directions, so the molten metal flowed backward on the top weld pool surface. Previous studies proposed that a “pull-push” flow pattern defined as a backward molten metal flow after the leading arc and a forward molten metal flow before the trailing arc existed on the top weld pool surface in tandem arc welding processes, while it was not observed in this case. The calculated arc efficiency of the high speed tandem TIG welding was about 79.8%.