Analytical Modeling of Weld Bead Shape in Dry Hyperbaric GMAW Using Ar-He Chamber Gas Mixtures

Hyperbaric arc welding is a special application of joining the pipeline steels under seawater. In order to analyze the behavior of the arc under ambient pressure, a model is required to estimate the arc efficiency. A distributed point heat source model was employed. The simulated isotherms were calibrated iteratively to fit the actual bead cross section. Basic gas mixture rules and models were used to calculate the thermal properties of the low-temperature shielding gas under the ambient pressure of 10 bar. Nine bead-on-plate welds were deposited each of which under different Ar-He chamber gas compositions. The well-known correlation between arc efficiency (delivered heat) and the thermal conductivity was established for different gas mixtures. The arc efficiency was considered separately for the transverse and perpendicular heat sources. It was found that assigning single heat efficiency factor for the entire arc, which is usually below unity, causes a noticeable underestimation for the heat transfer in the perpendicular direction and a little overestimation in the transverse direction.