Submesoscale flows impact Agulhas leakage in ocean simulations

Agulhas leakage, the warm and salty inflow of Indian Ocean water into the Atlantic Ocean, is of importance for the climate-relevant Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. South of Africa, the eastward turning Agulhas Current sheds Agulhas rings, cyclones and filaments of order 100 km that carry the Indian Ocean water into the Cape Basin and further into the Atlantic. Here, we show that the resolution of submesoscale flows of order 10 km in an ocean model leads to 40 % more Agulhas leakage and more realistic Cape Basin water-masses compared to a parallel non-submesoscale resolving simulation. Moreover, we show that submesoscale flows strengthen shear-edge eddies and in consequence lee cyclones at the northern edge of the Agulhas Current, as well as the leakage pathway in the region of the filaments that takes place outside of mesoscale eddies. This indicates that the increase in leakage can be attributed to stronger Agulhas filaments, when submesoscale flows are resolved.

Defects of Steel Sheets Joined by Laser Welding

Introduction of new technologies demands a new access to quality evaluation of products. Joining of steel sheets with laser butt welding requires increased demand on precision of welded sheet ends alignment as well as condition of cutting edge. Moreover, increased requirements are placed on purity of environment, flatness of strips, gases, etc. The paper deals with evaluation of quality of laser butt welds of steel sheets and description of defects which could occur on welds from the metallographic point of view. The influence of relative displacement of welded strips ends alignment, different relative sheet thickness alignment, welding gap size and quality of sheet shear edge on quality of weld will be described. The most significant effect on quality of weld joints and their final mechanical properties has relative position of strip ends and geometry of cutting edge.

An Innovative Shearing Process for AHSS Edge Stretchability Improvements

A beveled shear hole piercing process has recently been developed for advanced high strength steel (AHSS). The preliminary results have shown the new process is able to improve the quality of the sheared edge and the edge stretchability of AHSS. The goal of the current study is to optimize the beveled shearing process and identify the optimal shearing conditions for AHSS. Four different advanced high strength steels, including DP600, DP780, TRIP780, and DP980 with various thicknesses together with a conventional high strength steel, HSLA50, are selected in this study. The hole expansion test is used to evaluate the effect of shear edge conditions on the edge stretchability. The results show that an optimal selection of the die clearance and the shearing angle results in a less damaged edge, which significantly delays edge fracture in the forming process and increases the edge stretchability for AHSS. To further validate the advantages of the beveled shearing process in improving the shear edge quality of AHSS, a straight edge shearing device with the capability of adjusting the shearing variables (rake angles and die clearance) with respect to different sheet thicknesses was also developed and built. The edge stretchability of the straight edge sheared specimen was then evaluated using the sheared edge tension test. A similar trend to the beveled shear hole piercing process of AHSS is observed, and a significant improvement in the edge stretchability is also obtained with optimal shearing conditions.