International Journal of Thermal Sciences 124 (2018) 447–458

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International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts

Numerical analysis of weld pool behaviors in plasma arc welding with the MARK
lattice Boltzmann method
Junjie Caia,e, Yanhui Fenga,b,∗, Junjie Zhoua, Yan Lic, Xinxin Zhanga,b, Chuansong Wud
a
School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
b
Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Saving and Emission Reduction for Metallurgical Industry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
c
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China
d
MOE Key Lab for Liquid-Solid Structure Evolution and Materials Processing, Institute of Materials Joining, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
e
China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute, China General Nuclear Power Corporation, Shenzhen 518031, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is first applied to both simulate and analyze the heat transfer and fluid flow
Plasma arc welding (PAW) with phase change in a workpiece of stationary plasma arc welding (PAW). The heating and key-holing effects
Weld pool are considered with a modified heat source model. The total enthalpy lattice Boltzmann model is employed to
Modified heat source investigate the phase change process in the weld pool. The predicted weld pool geometry agrees well with the
Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM)
experimental results and average relative errors remain below 12%. It seems that LBM is more intuitive to
Solid-liquid phase change
display the fluid flow in the weld pool, e.g. circulations, than the finite volume method. However, the effect of
fluid flow on the PAW process is indicated to be non-negligible, and particularly responsible for the upper shape
of the weld pool. Mechanisms of the formation of the hump in the fusion line are further analyzed from the
perspective of fluid motion. Finally, the sulfur activity of workpiece and welding current is discussed, showing
that sulfur activity only affects pool geometry. High welding current accelerates the penetration with low time
consumption and high energy efficiency; however, the optimum current is a better choice to ensure high weld
quality.

1. Introduction
With high energy density and a most powerful arc force, plasma arc
welding (PAW) is one of the most productive welding technologies.
During the PAW process, the plasma arc with extremely high tem-
perature instantly provokes local melting, resulting in a molten pool
during a short time. Afterwards, the liquid metal evaporates and if the
keyhole emerges, the welding process will be greatly accelerated.
Finally, the workpiece will be cooled by the ambient air and the weld
bead forms [1].
Recently, PAW has been widely used in industrial applications, e.g.
many delicate components of aircraft and the shell of missiles are PAW
welded. Consequently, PAW weld quality is extremely important. The
weld quality is strongly characterized by the weld pool properties,
which determine the mechanical properties of the weld [2,3]. To
achieve a full understanding of the weld pool properties and related
processing mechanisms, many numerical studies have been conducted.
It is crucial to model the key-holing process because both the keyhole
formation and weld pool development are inseparable. Generally, ex-
isting studies can be grouped into three major categories: (1)
characterizing the keyhole effect [4–7], (2) coupling the plasma arc and
weld pool [8–10], and (3) developing effective heat source models
[11–15]. In the first category, researchers employed the volume of fluid
method (VOF) [6] or the Level Set (LS) method [7] to track the dy-
namic-variation keyhole boundary in analyzing the fluid flow and heat
transfer in the weld pool [16]. Although the interface tracking methods
develop rapidly, the features of keyhole and plasma still remain difficult
to describe. The second category investigates the interaction between
the plasma arc and the weld pool and the complete welding mechanism
is better understood. In these models, the keyhole was dynamically
formed [8,9] or preset at a certain shape [10]. However, neither of
them could accurately predict the weld bead shape and the described
simulations were all cumbersome and time consuming. In the third
category, effective heat source models were developed for the energy
equation, considering the keyhole effect, instead of directly describing
the features of the keyhole. Apparently, the requirement of keyhole
interface tracking was removed and the computational domain was
only in the workpiece. Liu et al. [11] reported that a conical heat source
was superior to the widely used Gaussian surface heat source [17,18].
Wu et al. [12] applied a combined heat source, consisting of a double-

∗
Corresponding author. School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
E-mail address: yhfeng@me.ustb.edu.cn (Y. Feng).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2017.10.026
Received 3 December 2016; Received in revised form 2 September 2017; Accepted 23 October 2017
1290-0729/ © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
J. Cai et al. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 124 (2018) 447–458

Nomenclature Qm Discrete source term (W/m3)

s 0 , s e , sε ,
s j, sq , s p Relaxation factors
a1, a2, b Shape coefficients of heat source
S Relaxation matrix in the moment space
B0 ∼B4 Coefficients of fitting curves
t Time (s)
c Lattice speed (m/s)
T Temperature (K)
Cp Specific heat at a constant pressure (J/(kg·K))
Tl, Ts Liquidus and solidus temperature (K)
ei Discrete lattice velocity in direction i (m/s)
u Velocity (m/s)
f Density distribution function (kg/m3)
ux , uy Horizontal, vertical components of u (m/s)
fi Density distribution in direction i (kg/m3)
U Welding voltage (V)
fl Liquid fraction
x, y Coordinates (m)
Fi Sum of force terms in direction i (N/kg)
F Sum of force terms (N/kg)
Greek symbols
Fm Discrete force term in moment space (N/kg)
Fx, Fy Horizontal, vertical components of F(N/kg)
α Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
g Temperature distribution function (J/kg)
β The included angle (degree)
gi Temperature distribution in direction i (J/kg)
δt Time step
h Shape coefficient of heat source
δx Lattice space
H Total enthalpy (J/kg)
Λ Relaxation matrix in the velocity space
Hl, H s Enthalpy of liquidus, solidus point (J/kg)
η Welding efficiency coefficient
I Current (A)
μ Dynamic viscosity (kg/(m·s))
I Unit matrix
ρ Density (kg/m3)
kT Thermal conductivity (W/(m·K))
ν Kinetic viscosity (m2/s)
L Thickness of the workpiece (mm)
χ1, χ2 Energy distribution coefficient
Lα Latent heat of melting (J/kg)
m Distribution functions in the moment space
Superscripts and subscripts
M Orthogonal transformation matrix
p Pressure (Pa)
eq Equilibrium distribution function
q Internal heat source (W/m3)
i, j Directions in a lattice
Q0 Thermal energy absorbed from plasma arc (W)
T Transposition of matrix
Qi Heat source in direction i (W/kg)
Q Heat source (W/kg)

ellipsoidal heat source and a cylindrical heat source. The predicted regarded as a more suitable approach. Jiaung et al. [33] first proposed
cross-section of the weld geometry matched well with the measured an enthalpy-based model for heat conduction. In conjunction with an
cross-section. Li et al. [13] modified the previous model and established enthalpy formulation for the treatment of solid–liquid phase change,
a volumetric model, combining a double-ellipsoidal heat source with a one-dimensional half-space melting and solidification as well as two-
conical heat source. The resulting shape of the modified heat source dimensional solidification were simulated in a corner. A large amount
model is more approximate to the actual configuration of welds. of iterations were required at each time step. To simplify the iteration
All these studies are based on macroscopic continuum equations, procedure, Chatterjee and Chakraborty [34] employed a thermo-
and it is difficult to mathematically model the underlying details in dynamically-consistent enthalpy-updating scheme that was previously
microscopic physics [19]. In recent years, the lattice Boltzmann method proposed by Brent et al. [35]. In their follow-up research, Chatterjee
(LBM) has become an alternative and promising numerical scheme for and Chakraborty modeled the phase change in the presence of fluid
modeling fluid flows. Due to its mesoscopic nature, the LBM has ad- flow, viscous heat dissipation, and crystal growth [32,36–38]. To avoid
vantages over conventional methods including finite element, finite iteration steps and to improve both the formulation stability and effi-
volume, and finite difference methods. The LBM succeeds in simula- ciency, Eshraghi and Felicelli [39] treated the latent heat source term
tions involving interfacial dynamics and complex boundaries [20]. It is by solving linear equations. Huang et al. [40] proposed a new model to
easy to perform parallel computation with a simple but efficient cal- avoid the iteration steps or by solving a group of linear equations. The
culation procedure [21]. More detailed introductions of the origin and phase interface was traced by updating the total enthalpy. Huang's
development of the LBM can be found in previous publications [19,21]. model simplified the calculation procedure, which saved much time.
Developed over decades, the LBM has been widely used to simulate
phase change problems such as crystal growth in foundry [22], foam
production [23], melting of fatty acids [24], and natural convection in
porous media [25,26]. Generally, two types of methods are applied
including the phase-field method and the enthalpy-based method. The
phase-field method was first employed by De Fabritiis et al. [22]. The
phase transition, which was redefined as a chemical reaction by ana-
logy, was traced by introducing an auxiliary parameter and a series of
extended work was conducted subsequently [27–31]. The solidification
problems with anisotropic crystal growth and dendritic growth in a
binary-alloy system were solved via the phase-field model. Although
the phase-field method possesses a strong fundamental basis, it is not
effective in practice due to certain stringent computational constraints
[32]. To resolve the interfacial region, extremely finer grid spacings are
required. Therefore, the fixed-grid enthalpy-based method was Fig. 1. Physical model of PAW process.

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Table 1
Welding conditions in PAW experiments [1].

Parameters Values

Distance from torch to workpiece 6.0 mm

Orifice diameter 3.8 mm
Plasma gas (pure Argon) flow rate 3 L/min
Shielding gas (pure Argon) flow rate 20 L/min
Welding voltage (Case A) 21.4 V
Welding voltage (Case B) 24.2 V
Welding current (Case A) 140 A
Welding current (Case B) 169 A

Table 2
Chemical composition of 0Cr18Ni9 [1].

Fig. 2. Combined heat source model.

Alloy element C Cr Ni Mn Si S P Fe

Content (wt %) 0.08 17–19 8–11 2.0 1.0 0.2 0.035 Balanced

Table 3
Thermophysical properties of 0Cr18Ni9 [1].

Symbol Nomenclatures Values

Ts Solidus temperature 1663 K

Tl Liquidus temperature 1723 K
Lα Latent heat of material 2.6 × 105 J/kg
ρ Density 7200 kg/m3
Cp Specific heat 630 J/(kg·K)

change in welding process has been accomplished via the LBM.

Fig. 3. Schematic sketch of discrete velocities for D2Q9 model.
Afterwards, Huang et al. [41] modified their model, thus considering
the variations of properties. In engineering applications, the LBM has
been applied in casting [42], injection moulding [43], and jet flows
[44]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no research on phase
To date, most numerical simulations of the PAW process are based
on the continuum equations and the calculation is time-consuming with
cumbersome procedures. Furthermore, few analyses have been per-
formed on the formation mechanism of weld bead, due to the defi-
ciencies of conventional methods. In this paper, to raise the numerical
efficiency and to better understand the inherent mechanism, we de-
veloped a two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann (LB) model to describe
the heat transfer and fluid flow during the stationary PAW process,
which was based on the total enthalpy model. An effective heat source
was applied to take the heat effect of the plasma arc into account. The
predicted results were compared to the experimental data and the re-
sults of the finite volume method (FVM). To better understand the weld
pool properties, the weld bead, the velocity distribution, and the tem-
perature field were further analyzed in detail. The effect of varied sulfur
concentrations in material and welding currents were studied. Our

Fig. 4. Experimental system setup. (a) Schematic sketch and (b) platform photograph.

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Fig. 5. Comparison of the fusion zones between experimental images and simulated results. (a) Case A and (b) Case B.

Table 4 3) The thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity depend on the

Detailed comparison of experimental data and calculated results. temperature and other thermal properties such as density and spe-
cific heat, which are assumed to be constant [1].
Parameters Case A Case B
4) The model is two dimensional and symmetrical along the y-axis
Measured LBM FVM Measured LBM FVM since the welding torch is stationary [9].
5) The thermal boundary conditions are set to be adiabatic [5,45,62].
Top surface width (mm) 4.89 5.02 4.92 5.13 5.09 5.34
Bottom surface width 1.12 1.03 1.03 1.00 0.90 0.99
(mm)
Based on the above assumptions, the governing equations are ex-
pressed as [35]:
Average relative error – 11.75 15.27 – 11.88 22.04
(%)
∂ρ
+ ∇ ·(ρu) = 0
Maximum relative error – 21.06 30.63 – 28.49 47.26 ∂t (1)
(%)
∂ (ρ u)
+ ∇•(ρuu) = −∇ p+ ∇•(μ∇u) + ρFe
∂t (2)
work offers several indications to further study and improve the PAW
process. The model and the method presented in this paper can be ∂ (ρCp T ) ∂ (ρfl La)
+ ∇•(ρCp T u) = ∇•(kT ∇T ) − +q
modified and adopted for other welding processes with similar me- ∂t ∂t (3)
chanisms such as the tungsten inert gas welding (TIG), gas tungsten arc Where ρ, u, p and T represent the density, velocity, pressure, and
welding (GTAW), and gas metal arc welding (GMAW), provided that temperature, respectively. μ, Cp and kT represent the dynamic viscosity,
some modifications upon the heat source are employed. specific heat at constant pressure, and thermal conductivity, respec-
tively. fl and Lα represent the liquid fraction and latent heat of melting,
2. Mathematical model respectively. Fε represents the sum of external forces including the
Marangoni shear on the free surface, equivalent frictional resistance on
2.1. Physical model the solid-liquid interface (i.e. the Darcy's resistance), buoyancy force,
and electromagnetic force. These forces have previously been defined
During the common PAW process, the plasma arc impinges on the [10,13]. q represents the internal heat source. The heat source model
workpieces, creates a weld pool, and then passes along the joint area. [13] is redeveloped as schematically demonstrated in Fig. 2. It consists
However, in a stationary PAW, the welding torch is fixed so that the of a semi-ellipsoidal and a trapezoidal heat source. The heat source
welding speed is equal to zero and the numerical model can be sim- distributions are expressed as follows:
plified as two-dimensional. As schematically presented in Fig. 1, the Upper part: ellipsoidal heat source:
Cartesian coordinate is established at the cross-section of the workpiece
(the shadowed part) to simplify the calculation. AB (15 mm), BC 1200 3 Q0 χ1 3x 2 3y 2
q (x , y ) = b
exp ⎛− 2 ⎞ exp ⎛− 2 ⎞
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟

(6 mm), CO (15 mm), and OA (6 mm) are the boundaries of the hπ π ⎝ b ⎠ ⎝ h ⎠ (4)
2
workpiece, i.e. the simulation domain 15 mm × 6 mm, respectively. In
the Results and discussions section, the numerical results from 0 to Lower part: trapezoidal heat source:
6 mm on the x-axis are shown while those from 6 to 15 mm are hidden 900Q0 χ2 3x 2
because the temperature at the rear end (far away from the arc) of the q (x , y ) = exp ⎛⎜3 − 2 ⎞⎟
π (L−h)(exp(3) − 1)(a12 + a22 + a1 a2) ⎝ x0 ⎠ (5)
workpiece is too low to aid further analysis.
L−h−y
2.2. Governing differential equations x 0 (y) = a2 − (a2 − a1)
L−h (6)

The continuum model is developed by introducing the following
assumptions.
1) The effects of both plasma arc and keyhole are indirectly considered
via the effective heat source model.
2) The flow is treated as a laminar and incompressible Newtonian fluid
flow [13].
where Q0 = ηUI represents the thermal energy absorbed from plasma
arc, which depends on the welding efficiency coefficient η, voltage U
and current I. η is set to be 0.5 in this paper according to [12,46]. χ1 and
χ2, which are energy distribution coefficients, are set to be 0.75 and
0.25, respectively and the sum of both remains at 1 [13]. a1, a2, b and h
represent shape coefficients of the heat source. L represents the thick-
ness of the workpiece. This heat source model is built by previous ex-
perience [12], experiments [46], and a number of tests. Although it

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Fig. 6. Temperature fields and velocity distributions.

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Fig. 7. Geometric developments of the weld pool versus time.

Fig. 8. Comparison of solidus lines between the conditions with and without fluid flow.

Fig. 10. (a) Heat flux, (b) velocity, (c) temperature gradient and (d) included angle be-
tween velocity vector and temperature gradient adjacent to the solidus lines at 2.0s.

directs at the 6-mm thickness workpiece, it can also be applied to dif-

ferent thicknesses in the form of Eqs. (4–6) and only the coefficients
should be revised correspondingly. In the above equations, all proper-
ties of welding material (stainless steel 0Cr18Ni9) and other related
parameters, such as μ, Cp, kT, and μ0 are given by previous publications
Fig. 9. Streamlines and solidus line at 2.0s.

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Fig. 11. Variation of weld pool properties with sulfur concentration at 2.0s. (a) Surface tension coefficient, maximum flow speed in the weld pool and top surface width and (b) solidus
lines.

[10,13]. The model is suitable for stainless steel and other similar m g (x, t ) = m g (x, t ) − Sg [m g (x, t ) − meq
g (x , t )] + δt (I−Sg /2) Qm (11)
materials with a high melting point (beyond 1000 K) and low thermal
conductivity (below 100 W m−1 K−1). If the object is some type of where mf and m g represent the post-collision distribution functions in
material like an aluminum alloy, which conducts heat and melts swiftly, the moment space. I is the unit matrix. With an orthogonal transfor-
the stability and accuracy of the simulation should be studied and mation matrix M given by Lallemand and Luo [48].
tested.
⎛ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ⎞
−4 −1 −1 −1 −1 2 2 2 2
⎜ ⎟
2.3. Lattice Boltzmann equations 4 −2 −2 −2 −2 1 1 1 1
⎜ 0 1 0 −1 0 1 −1 −1 1 ⎟
M=⎜ 0 −2 0 2 0 1 −1 −1 1 ⎟
By neglecting the viscous dissipation and compression work, the ⎜ 0 0 1 0 − 1 1 1 − 1 − 1⎟
double-distribution-function lattice Boltzmann model first proposed by ⎜ 0 0 −2 0 2 1 1 − 1 − 1⎟
Shan and Chen [47] is redeveloped. The velocity and temperature fields ⎜ 0 1 − 1 1 − 1 0 0 0 0 ⎟⎟
⎜
are solved via the distribution functions for density and temperature, ⎝ 0 0 0 0 0 1 − 1 1 − 1⎠ (12)
respectively. To simplify the calculation, the total enthalpy-based
model obtains the temperature field and phase-fraction distribution. The distribution functions, relaxation matrix and other terms can be
The distribution functions with MRT collision scheme can be ex- transformed into new forms in moment space.
pressed as follows: For the velocity field, mf = Mf is the distribution function and
Sf = MɅfM−1 is the relaxation matrix, which is generally given as:
fi (x + ei δt , t + δt ) = fi (x, t ) − Λf − ij ⎡f j (x, t ) − f jeq (x, t ) ⎤ + δt Fi Sf = diag (sf − 0, sf − e, sf − e, sf − j, sf − q, sf − j, sf − q, sf − p, sf − p) (13)
⎢ ⎥ (7)
⎣ ⎦
The equilibrium function can be expressed according to Lallemand
gi (x + ei δt , t + δt ) = gi (x, t ) − Λg − ij ⎡gj (x, t ) − g jeq (x, t ) ⎤ + δt Qi and Luo [48] as:
⎢ ⎥ (8)
⎣ ⎦ T
meq 2 2 2 2
f = (ρ , − 2ρ + 3u , ρ − 3u , u x , − u x , u y , − u y , u x −u y ,u x u y ) (14)
where f and g denote the distributions for density and temperature,
respectively. The subscripts i and j represent the directions in a lattice. where the superscript “T” denotes the transposition of matrix. To con-
As Fig. 3 depicts, for the D2Q9 discrete velocity model, the nine discrete sider the discrete lattice effects and to recover the exact Navier-Stokes
velocities are given by: equations, the discrete force term in moment space is given as [49,50]:

⎧ (0,0) i=0 Fm = (0,6F⋅u , −6F⋅u , Fx , −Fx , Fy , −Fy , 2Fx u x −2Fy u y , Fx u y + Fy u x ) T

ei = c(cos [(i − 1) π /2], sin[(i − 1) π /2]) i = 1,2,3,4 (15)
⎨
⎩ 2 c(cos [(2i − 1) π /4], sin[(2i − 1) π /4]) i = 5,6,7,8 (9) where F=(Fx,Fy)T. With the post-collision distribution function mf , the
where c = δx/δt represents the lattice speed. δx and δt are set as distribution function f in the velocity space can be updated through the
5 × 10−5 m and 10−5 s, respectively. In the direction i, fi (or gi), and inverse transformation f = M−1mf . After collision process and inverse
fieq (orgieq ) are distribution function and equilibrium distribution func- transformation, the advection process f (x + eiδt,t+δt) = f (x,t) is
tion for density (or temperature), respectively. Λf − ij (or Λg − ij ) are the executed.
relaxation parameters. Fi and Qi represent discrete force term and heat Similarly, the temperature field evolution can be performed. The
source term, respectively. Accordingly, f (or g), feq (or geq), Λf f (or Λg ),F equilibrium function and discrete source term are given as:
and Q are in the form of matrices.
⎛ u2 u2
In the calculation, the evolution of the model consists in two steps: meq
g = ⎜H , − 4H + 2Cp T + 3Cp T 2 , 4H − 3Cp T − 3Cp T 2 ,
collision and advection. The collision and advection are conducted in ⎝ c c
T
moment space and velocity space, respectively. Generally, the collision u u uy uy u 2
x − u 2
y ux u y ⎞
is executed as [48–50]: Cp T x , −Cp T x , Cp T , −Cp T , Cp T ,Cp T ⎟
c c c c c2 c2 ⎠
mf (x, t ) = mf (x, t ) − Sf [mf (x, t ) − meq
f (x , t )] + δt (I−Sf /2) Fm (10) (16)

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Fig. 12. Velocity profiles under different sulfur concentrations at 2.0s. (a) 0.4% (b) 1.2% (c) 2.0% (d) 2.8%.

T
q −2q q ⎧ 0, H ≤ Hs
Qm = ⎜⎛ , , , 0,0,0,0,0,0⎟⎞ ⎪ Hl − H
⎝ρ ρ ρ ⎠ (17) fl = H − H , Hs < H < Hl
⎨ l s
⎪1, H ≥ Hl (20)
⎩
where H represents the total enthalpy. The macroscopic variables such
as density, velocity, total enthalpy temperature, and liquid fraction are where Hs (or Hl) represent the total enthalpy at the solidus (or liquidus)
obtained by: temperature Ts (or Tl). The kinetic viscosity ν and the thermal diffusivity
8 8 8 α satisfy ν = δt (1/sf-p-0.5)/3 and α = δt (1/sj-g-0.5)/3, respectively.
δt δt q To simplify the calculation, the boundary conditions for energy are
ρ= ∑ fi , u= ∑ ei fi +
2
F, H = ∑ gi + 2 ρ
i=0 i= 0 i=0 (18) set to be adiabatic [5,45,62]. For momentum, as shown in Fig. 1, the
boundary OA is set to a symmetrical boundary. The bounce-back
H −H
scheme [62] is employed to the boundary BC to ensure the conservation
s
⎧Ts − Cp , H ≤ Hs of mass and momentum, which always remains at solid state. The non-
⎪
Hl − H H − Hs equilibrium extrapolation scheme [51] is applied to the top and bottom
T = Ts H − H + Tl H − H , Hs < H < Hl
⎨ l s l s boundaries where the Marangoni force and viscous shearing stress
⎪Tl + H − Hl , H ≥ Hl counterbalance with each other for better stability and applicability.
⎪ Cp (19)
⎩
The simulation was self-programmed with the C++ language. The
CPU time for one simulation was about 4 h on an Intel Xeon E5-2687 W,
3.10 GHz computer.

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Fig. 13. (a) Heat flux and (b) resultant flow speed adjacent to the solidus lines at 2.0s.
3. Experimental description
The plasma arc welding machine Trans Synergic 5000, manu-
factured by the FRONIUS Company, Austria, was utilized in our ex-
periments. The machine included a digital welding power source, a
plasma module, a PAW torch, and a working table. A control PC was
used to adjust the process parameters and tp monitor the process signals
via input/output interfaces. The vision sensor consisted of an image
acquisition card and a CCD camera with filter. The CCD camera was
fixed at the backside of the workpiece. The observation angle between
the camera axis and the horizontal plane was 70°. The distance between
the camera and the target was 200 mm. This enabled a rapid feedback
and adjustment for different welding conditions Via digital DSP mi-
croprocessor that can supervise the entire welding procedure. Expected
arc plasma can be produced in the FPM plasma module by adjusting
both welding current and voltage, as shown in Fig. 4. The shielding gas
surrounds the workpiece fixed on the platform and the plasma arc can
straight impinge on the workpiece. More details of the system can be
obtained from previous publications [52,53]. Two cases of experiments
with different welding power were conducted and the related condi-
tions are listed in Table 1. After the experiments, the workpiece was
processed in a metallographical way. For this, the fusion zones at the
transverse cross-section of the workpiece (or weld beads) were visua-
lized as shown in the following section. The chemical composition and
thermophysical properties of the material are listed in Tables 2 and 3,
respectively.
Table 5
Top surface width at the moment of penetration.
Sulfur concentration (%) 0.2 0.6 1.0
Size (mm) 6.53 6.51 6.49
International Journal of Thermal Sciences 124 (2018) 447–458
4. Results and discussions
4.1. Experimental and simulated results
To validate the welding simulations, numerical results of the LBM
are compared with experimental data and calculation results in our
previous publication [13] with FVM, as shown in Fig. 5. The weld beads
simulated via LBM agree well with the experimental images for two
cases. The simulated results of FVM are also coincident with the actual
cross-section of the fusion zone. It should be pointed out that there are
46 × 39 grids in FVM [13], but 300 × 120 grids in LBM, respectively.
However, the computational time for LBM is about half of that for FVM.
This indicates that LBM is more efficient in the calculation, an ad-
vantage that will be far more significant for parallel computing.
Comparisons of the weld bead widths and relative errors between
LBM simulations and experiments are listed in Table 4. Since the geo-
metry of the molten pool is normally discussed depending on different
fusion depths, data points with the same value of “y” are extracted. The
x-distance errors from each measured point to the corresponding si-
mulated point are firstly calculated. Then, the relative errors are ob-
tained with the experimental points divided by the errors, as Eq. (21).
relative error = (x experiment − x calculation )/ x experiment × 100% (21)
The average relative errors of both cases are below 12%. In addi-
tion, either average or maximum relative errors are smaller for LBM
than for FVM.
4.2. Evolution of the temperature, velocity and weld pool geometry
In this section and in section 4.3, all results and discussions are
given upon Case A. At the bottom right corner of each panel of Fig. 6,
the reference vector 0.1 m/s may help to recognize the magnitude of
the flow speed. From Fig. 6: (a) at 0.4 s, as marked in the contour lines,
the temperature increases to 1663 K (i.e. the melting point) and solid-
liquid phase change begins at the top of the workpiece. The mushy zone
(i.e. solid-liquid two-phase zone) only appears, where the fluid hardly
flows; (b) at 0.6 s, the molten pool with liquid zone and mushy zone
emerges, and continues to enlarge both in width and depth. At the
upper part, the temperature keeps increasing, along with apparent fluid
flow, while the fluid is nearly stagnant at the lower part; (c) at 0.8 s, the
workpiece has been completely melted through. Rapid penetration is
caused by a large amount of heat transferred to the bottom, which
stems from the distribution of the heat source. The shape of the fusion
zone appears like a “reversed bugle”, which coincides nicely with
previous research [4,6,13]; (d) at 1.0 s (after penetration), the contour
lines mainly develop in the horizontal direction, along with the
widening molten pool. The fluid flow diffuses to the lower part, but the
speed is still low; (e) - (f) between 1.2 and 1.4 s, at the upper part,
primarily driven by the Marangoni shear, the flow speed increases
sharply and the maximum emerges with 0.07 m/s. The fluid flows along
the top surface, follows along the edge of pool (or solidus line), then
swerves to the center of the pool, and finally turns back to the top
surface. As a result, a clockwise circulation flow emerges. Furthermore,
at the lower part, under the effects of electromagnetic force and upper
flow, the fluid speed increases gradually and another circulation is
found, which flows in counterclockwise direction. Two circulations
become more and more apparent, as illustrated in Fig. 6(g)–(j) between
1.6 and 2.2 s. At 2.0 s, the maximum temperature increases to 3200 K
and the contour lines indicate that the top and bottom widths of the
1.4 1.8 2.2 2.6 3.0 Conduction
6.48 6.47 6.47 6.46 6.45 6.44
455
J. Cai et al.
Fig. 14. Variation of weld properties with welding current at penetration. (a) Time consumption, energy consumption and top surface width and (b) average growth rates of depth and
top surface width and the ratio between them.
molten pool enlarge to 5.02 mm and 1.03 mm, respectively. The
maximum flow velocity is about 0.11 m/s (at x = 3 and approximately
y = 5.9), which is consistent with most published research results
[5,54,55]. Circulation flows have been observed in the simulation with
unified FVM models, which couples the plasma arc and the weld pool
[9,10], but the calculations were cumbersome and time consuming.
However, no circulations were displayed in the FVM simulations of the
weld pool alone [6,7,13]. We attribute this to the fact that the plasma
arc effect was taken into consideration by introducing the heat source
in the energy equation; however, its effect on the fluid flow in the
welding pool has been underestimated. Interestingly, in this paper, it is
found that the LB model (with only an effective heat source in the
energy equation) could reveal the circulation flows in the weld pool,
with the benefit of with much less computational load. This is possibly
because the LBM is based on a particle picture, which it is physically
more intuitive than the FVM.
Fig. 7 shows variations of fusion depth, top surface width and
bottom surface width of the weld pool. Prior to 0.35 s, no metal has
melted yet and all sizes are equal to zero. At 0.4 s, the weld pool forms,
with a top surface width of 3.1 mm and a depth of 0.3 mm. At 0.4–0.6 s,
as shown by the local enlargement plot in Fig. 7, the top surface width
rises quickly in a nearly constant rate. In contrast to the top surface
width, the growth pattern of depth is “increasing sharply - turning
slowly - increasing again”, which coincides with previous publications
[7,56]. At 0.71 s, the workpiece is completely penetrated through and
the bottom metal is also fused. The bottom surface width keeps growing
slowly and at the meanwhile, the fusion depth stops rising. Finally, the
top and bottom surface widths enlarge to their maximum sizes of
10.04 mm and 2.06 mm, respectively.
4.3. Analysis of the weld bead
Fig. 8 demonstrates how the fluid flow affects the formation of the
weld bead. In comparison to the solidus lines formed via conduction
only (i.e. without consideration of fluid flow), those under the condi-
tion with fluid flow are slightly wider. This means that during the PAW
process, the conduction is the dominant mechanism of heat transfer,
especially at the lower part of the weld pool. However, above 4.8 mm
on the y-axis (i.e. the upper part), the fluid flow markedly promotes
pool enlargement. In addition, at 2.0 s, an apparent hump (marked with
a red circle in Fig. 8) in the solidus line is observed in both experiment
and simulation with fluid flow, which is different from the smooth line
obtained via conduction. Therefore, it can be shown that the fluid flow
is mainly responsible for the shape of the weld bead. A similar con-
clusion was drawn in previous research [13].
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International Journal of Thermal Sciences 124 (2018) 447–458
Due to the limits of macroscopic continuum models, few researchers
provided a reasonable explanation for how the fluid flow affected the
shape of the weld pool. With a mesoscopic kinetic background, the LBM
makes it easier to understand the hydromechanical principles in the
weld pool. Fig. 9 displays the streamlines in the weld pool at 2.0 s. Two
circulations exist at the weld pool, one at the upper part and in clock-
wise direction and the other at the lower part in counterclockwise di-
rection. According to Ref. [1], both are primarily driven by the Mar-
angoni shear and the electromagnetic force, respectively. At the upper
part, the fluid particles flow along the top surface of the weld pool until
they run into an obstacle (or unmelted metal). Due to Darcy's re-
sistance, the fluid particles are bounced back or stream along the so-
lidus line. In a similar way, at the lower part, the fluid particles flow in
the opposite direction. The two fluid flows collide with each other,
where a speed drop appears (see insets in Fig. 9). It can be rationally
concluded that near the solid surface, where the two flows are con-
fluent, the temperature increases by inches and the heat transfer rate
drops remarkably.
To validate this theory and to obtain deep insight into the heat
transfer adjacent to the solid phase, the heat flux adjacent to the solidus
lines are shown in Fig. 10 (a). Firstly, the heat flux under fluid flow is
close to the conduction case between 1 mm and 1.6 mm on the x-axis
(i.e. the lower part) and much larger beyond 3.2 mm (i.e. the upper
part), which is consistent with the conclusions drawn in the above
sections. Secondly, focusing only on the case of fluid flow, the heat flux
drops at the area between 1.8 and 2.8 mm, corresponding to the hump
shown in Fig. 8. Therefore, the hump appearing at this area is caused by
the lower heat flux compared to the nearby areas on the solidus line. In
addition, it is remarkable that the undulation of the heat flux keeps
pace with the variation of the resultant speed in Fig. 10 (b), especially
at the area beyond 2.2 mm on the x-axis. This implies that the fluid flow
actually contributes to the widening of the weld pool. According to the
field synergy principle proposed by Guo et al. [57,58], the convection
heat transfer depends on three fields: velocity vector, temperature
gradient, and the included angle β between them. The heat transfer
enhancement requires large values of velocity and temperature gradient
and small included angle. As shown in Fig. 10 (b), (c), (d), these three
requirements are simultaneously met at around 3.5–4.0 mm. Moreover,
at the hump area (i.e. 1.8–2.8 mm), a β smaller than 90° does not en-
hance the heat transfer rate because of the speed drop. Among the three
requirements, it is clear that the flow speed is most influential in this
paper. Intrinsically, the pattern of fluid flow (two circulations in our
case) determines the effect of field synergy and the geometrical char-
acteristics of the weld bead (e.g. the hump).
J. Cai et al.
4.4. Effects of sulfur concentration in the specimen and welding current
The above sections showed that the weld pool geometry is greatly
influenced by the Marangoni shear [59], which in turn depends on the
surface tension coefficient. According to Sahoo [60], the surface tension
coefficient varies inversely with the sulfur concentration in the spe-
cimen at high temperature. Using the numerical model in this paper, we
tested the weld pool behavior under different sulfur concentrations
(0.2–3.0%), as displayed in Figs. 11–13.
In Fig. 11 (a), the surface tension coefficient decreases with in-
creasing sulfur concentration. With the weakening Marangoni effect,
the maximum flow speed drops from 0.11 m/s to about 0.04 m/s. This
indicates that the heat transfer is also weakened at the upper part of the
weld pool. Therefore, the top surface width is narrowed. The detailed
geometry is shown in Fig. 11 (b). At the lower part, the fusion zones
almost overlap because theoretically, the conductive and electro-
magnetic effects have no correlation with the chemical composition of
the material. At the hump area (see insets in figure), higher sulfur
concentration leads to a flattering solidus line, which is closely related
to the slower fluid flow and the weaker heat transfer at the upper part
of the weld pool. We illustrated the velocity profiles under different
sulfur concentrations in Fig. 12. This shows that as the sulfur con-
centration increases, while the fluid velocity in the upper molten pool
decreases significantly, resulting in weaker heat transfer. Fig. 13 shows
the heat flux adjacent to the solidus lines under different sulfur con-
centrations. Beyond 2.2 mm on the x-axis, the heat flux strongly de-
pends on the fluid flow speed. It is remarkable that the flow speed
below 0.4% sulfur concentration is much higher than the others,
combined with a larger heat flux. Especially at the peak around 4 mm,
the heat flux is twice that of the case under 2.8% concentration.
However, the slump is also distinct at around 2.6 mm, which is why the
hump sharpens as the sulfur concentration decreases in Fig. 11 (b).
Basically, the weld bead is considered to be high-quality if its depth-
to-width ratio is large [2]. Accordingly, the Marangoni shear, which
immensely widens the geometry of the weld pool, damages the joining
of workpieces. However, it is interesting to note that when the work-
piece is just penetrated, the top surface width seems to be invariable, as
listed in Table 5. From this, it can be inferred that at the outset of the
welding, the fluid flow is still and then the heat transfer has not been
substantially promoted. Therefore, if the welding is stopped at the
moment of penetration, the Marangoni effect could be weakened and
high-quality welding could be accomplished. In general, the penetra-
tion mainly depends on the distance between torch and workpiece,
plasma gas flow rate, welding current, and welding speed. Among these
parameters, the welding current directly affects the melt of the work-
piece and is intuitively described in our heat source model. To improve
the weld performance, tests with 0.2% sulfur concentration under dif-
ferent welding currents (135–170 A) were conducted.
The energy consumption typically grows with an increasing welding
current when the voltage is constant. However, in our tests, the total
energy cost drops from about 2.2 kJ to 1.5 kJ with an increase of
current from 135 A to 170 A, as shown in Fig. 14 (a). This energy saving
is attributed to the shortened time cost from 0.75 s to 0.41 s. It can be
concluded that with high welding current, the welding process is ac-
celerated and the energy efficiency is improved. However, the optimum
current still requires to be studied because excessive current harms both
workpiece and electrode [61]. In addition, depicted by the red dots in
Fig. 14 (a), the top surface width varies irregularly, which is incon-
sistent with common principles. Generally, the geometry of the weld
pool should be widened when the welding power (i.e. the welding
current in our tests) increases. However, three factors are possible to
counteract the effect of increasing current. First, the penetration is ac-
complished rapidly so that there is not enough time for the top surface
to grow. Second, the ratio of transferred heat to the bottom relative to
the top continuously increases, corresponding to the sharper and
sharper keyhole effect of the practical PAW process. Third, the
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International Journal of Thermal Sciences 124 (2018) 447–458
electromagnetic force also increases, which opposes the Marangoni
shear [15]. In this case, the development of the top surface width is
inhibited to a certain degree. If those factors eliminate the effect of
increasing current, the top surface might be narrowed and vice versa.
This uncertainty leads to a distinct difficulty to theoretically predict the
geometry of the weld pool. However, our tests provide the preliminary
instruction to obtain the optimum value within definite currents. As
shown in Fig. 14 (b), both growth rates of top surface width and depth
are increasing with welding current. However, the ratio between them
(depth to top surface width) is not stable and the maximum is ap-
proximately 94%. This indicates that the peak of depth-to-width ratio of
the weld pool geometry as well as the best weld quality are most likely
accomplished below 150 A.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, a thermal LB model with an effective heat source was
built to describe the unsteady transport phenomena that accompany
melting in the welding pool of PAW. The model was verified via ex-
periment and further compared to FVM simulation results. The evolu-
tion of temperature field, velocity field, and weld bead geometry have
been presented, and the related mechanisms were further analyzed. A
discussion has been provided on the effects of sulfur concentration in
the specimen and welding current. The main conclusions are summar-
ized as follows.
(1) The predicted weld beads were in good agreement with the mea-
sured data and the average relative errors were below 12%.
Compared to FVM, the computational time-consumption of LBM
could be decreased without compromising numerical accuracy.
(2) The outline of the weld bead was shaped as a “reversed bugle” and
the maximal velocity of the fluid flow reached a magnitude of
0.1 m/s. The weld pool appeared at 0.35 s and the complete pe-
netration through the workpiece cost 0.71 s. The width of fusion
increased at a stable rate and the depth grew with an “increasing
sharply - turning slow - increasing again” pattern.
(3) The fluid flow played an important role in the weld process at the
upper part of the weld pool. Benefiting from the mesoscopic kinetic
background of the LBM, two circulation flows were found in the
weld pool and the principle of weld bead formation could be ex-
plained.
(4) Low sulfur concentration in the material led to a wider top surface
width of the weld pool and a sharper hump on the solidus line.
Within a reasonable range, the high welding current lead to the
welding process being efficient and timesaving. However, con-
sidering the weld quality, the optimum welding current among our
tests was 150 A.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 51422601).
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