Numerical modelling and experimental verification of thermal characteristics and their correlations with mechanical properties of double-sided laser welded T-joint

In this study, a three-dimensional model was developed to investigate the temperature fields during a double-sided laser welding process of T-joints, and the correlations between the thermal characteristics and the mechanical properties were researched in details. To verify the modelling results, welding experiments were conducted with two different welding parameters and the geometrical dimensions of the weld pool were measured. It was found that there was a good agreement between the calculated and the measured results. The calculated results showed that the temperature profile was bilateral symmetry along the stringer centre, and the temperature gradient became greater as running far from the stringer centre, especially on the skin side. All of the tensile specimens were fractured along the fusion line on the skin panels for the head and the hoop tensile tests. The loss of the alloying elements near the fusion line on the skin side resulted in the lowest micro-hardness value appeared here, and made it to be the weakest region of the welded T-joints. The calculated thermal cycles indicated that the materials closest to the fusion line on the skin side had been staying at higher temperature for a longer time, and which is the essential reason for the fracture behaviour, micro-hardness distribution and alloying elements distribution of the double-sided laser welded T-joint.