Correlation between wire feed speed and external mechanical constraint for enhanced process stability in underwater wet flux-cored arc welding

It is a great challenge to improve the process stability in conventional underwater wet welding due to the formation of unstable bubble. In this study, mechanical constraint method was employed to interfere the bubble generated by underwater wet welding, and the new method was named as mechanical constraint assisted underwater wet welding. The aim of the study was to quantify the combined effect of wire feed speed and condition of mechanical constraint on the process stability in mechanical constraint assisted underwater wet welding. Experimental results demonstrated that the introduction of mechanical constraint not only suppressed the bubble without floating but also stabilized the arc burning process. The degree of influence of mechanical constraint, which changed with wire feed speed, played an important role during the mechanical constraint assisted underwater wet welding process. For all wire feed speeds, the fluctuations of welding electrical signal were decreased through introduction of mechanical constraint. The difference in the proportion of arc extinction process between underwater wet welding and mechanical constraint assisted underwater wet welding became less with increasing wire feed speed. At wire feed speed lower than 7.5 m/min, the improvement of process stability was very significant by mechanical constraint. However, the further improvement produced limited effect when the wire feed speed was greater than 7.5 m/min. The observation results showed that a better weld appearance was afforded at a large wire feed speed, corresponding to a lower variation coefficient.