Modelling of Temperature in HAZ of GMAW Weld by Using RSM and Ansys 10

Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) has been extensively used for almost all genre of engineering fabrications ranging from sea vessels, nuclear plants, and to aeronautical vehicles. This is owing to the numerous advantages GMAW offers over other welding techniques, such as higher deposition rate, deeper penetration, good joining efficiency and very clean joining due to the absence of heavy slag. However, problems pertaining to welding like distortion, residual stress are contemporary and poses plenty of challenges to the engineers. These problems are attributed to higher heat input than required for a particular thickness of material resulting in heat affected zone (HAZ). Lately, these problems had been tackled through expensive experimental investigations only. However, with the advent of computer simulations and optimization tools, it is possible to provide solutions to many of the welding problems. Present work reports the response surface methodology (RSM) based experimental investigations on GMAW. Also, effort has been made to develop an FEA model in ANSYS 10 capable of process simulation of the GMAW for measuring the temperature distribution and areas corresponding to the HAZ.