Analysis of temperature distribution in rotating arc welding

Mathematical model of heat source in rotating arc welding (RAW) process was developed for investigating the heat and temperature distribution. The effect of rotating parameters on the temperature field in complex welding motion trajectory was studied. In this work, a transient three-dimensional (3D) model was established and computed by a finite element analysis computer program MARC as well as its subroutine. Comparing with non-rotating arc (NRAW) process, the width of temperature distribution enlarges, and the peak temperature of weld pool decreases. The effect of the rotating arc process becomes more and more significant with the increasing of rotating radius. In the weld center, the peak temperature increases with the rotating frequency. But in peripheral region of the weld, when rotating frequency is lower than 10 Hz, the peak temperature increases firstly and then decreases with the increasing of the rotating frequency. It is contradictory with the traditional view. Good agreement is shown between the computed results and experimental results of thermal circle in rotating arc welding process.