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Abstract: Utrasonic treatment of the solidifying metal is a promisi ng method for improving the quality of
fusion welding. A method to combine the ultrasonic waves to the welding process using arc-excited ultrasonic
em ssion called arc-ultrasonic, was high frequency modulation of the arc-plasrra. The effects of arc-ultrasonic
on the wei d i ncluding the fusion zone, the partially rrelted zone and the heat-affected zone are described. The
arc-ultrasonic energy changes the weld m crostructure. In the fusion zone, the primary dendrite arm spacing
decreases significantly and more acicular ferrite appears. In the partially melted zore, a large amount of fine
grains appear. In the heat-affected zone, the width of the terrpered zone increases with increasing modulation
frequency and the m crostructure is refined. The results show that arc-ul trasonic is a new and effective way for
improving wei d quali ty.
Key words: arc-ultrasonic; fi ne grain; fusion zore, partially rrelted zone; heat-affected zone
Introduction
transducers can not be used over a sufficiently wide
Fine grains help reduce the susceptibility of the temperature range for all applications, especially
weld metal to solidification cracking during welding processes. In addition, as the weld
welding and im prove the mechanical properties of moves, the ultrasonic field changes since the
the weld, for example, the ductility and the ultrasonic transducer can not be easily moved with
fracture toughness. Therefore, much effort has the torch. Consequently, up to now, there is no
been made to refine the grains in the weld. Grain- appropriate way to deliver ultr asonic vibration to
refining techniques originally developed for the welding process in pr act ice.
[ 1,2] h
.
castlng ave b een us ed . M a~netIc
. st
.irrmg
. [3] an d
W u [7] et al. dev elo ped an arc--ex cited
low frequency arc oscillation[ ,5] have also been ultrasonic, arc-ultras on ic, w here the arc acts not
used during the welding process. only as a thermal source, but also as an ul trasonic
Tewari[6] applied mechanical vibrations (0- emission mechanism. The present study describes
300 Hz) to the solidifying metals to improve the the use of arc-ultrasonic in the welding process.
fusion welding quality, and concluded that The experimental results show that arc-ultrasonic
increased frequencies provided better grain size significantly influences the whole weld including
reduction than increased amplitudes, but the the fusion zone, the partially melted zone, and the
mechanical vibration frequency can not be too heat-affected zone (H AZ) .
high, and ultrasonic waves are considered as a
better method to refine the grains. There are many
1 E xperimental
ways to generate ultrasound, with the most T he welding circuit arc can be considered as a
common being piezoelectric transducers. There dynamic resis tance with no frequency restriction
must be some medium (typically fluid cou p lan t] to within the ultrasonic spectrum. Ultrasonic waves
transmit (or couple) the ultrasound from the were excited in the welding circuit with the
transducer to the sample. Since there is no suitable experimental system shown In Fig. 1. An
e le ct ro nic exc it at io n sour ce w as co up le d wit h a
Received: 2000-D5-22; revised: 2001-D5-23 conventional welding power supply used in various
* Supported by the Nat ional Natural Science Foundation welding systems including submerged arc welding
of China (N o. 59775061) (SA W) and C02 gas-shielded arc welding.
476 Tsinghua Science and Technology , December 2001, 6(5): 475 - 478
ou t side th e fu sion zon e IS where t he peak vibration strengthens the weld pool convection and
temperature during welding is below the liquidus causes partially melted grains to detach themselves
but ahove 1100C. Generally, this is dangerous from the base metal imm ediately adjacent to the
since this region has mainly coarse grains. weld pool. Finally, nonlinear puls ation and
Figure 3 show s the grain structure of the compression, and surface distortion result in the
partially melted zone in two welds made with and appearance of impact pulses of pressure and
without excitation. Examination of the grain increase the wettability of the solid/liquid inter-
structure indicates that the arc-ultrasonic face, which stimulates the generation of new
significantly reduces grain size and improves grain nuclei. All of these actions may improve the
refinement. In contrast to the weld made without structure and the properties of the partially melted
excitation, a much finer structure was observed zone.
w hen the exciting signal was coupled to the
welding circuit. 3. 3 Effect of arc-ul trasonic on HAZ
T he typical example morphologies for four
differen t cases are show n in Fig. 4. T he welding
current and voltage were 500 A and 30 V in each
case. T he pictures show that the modulating
frequency significantly affects the HAZ with higher
modulation frequencies having greater ultrasound
effect s.
Ultrasonic vibration significantly Increases
heat conduction. When the ultrasonic propagates
through the matrix, the matrix is alternately
compressed and expanded, which leads to periodic
chang es of the matrix density. During co mpres sion
the matrix volume decreases, which leads to a
higher temperature. During ex pansion the m atr ix
volume increases, which leads to a lower
temperature. T he temperature gradient between
the compressing and expanding areas causes heat
transfer in the matrix to flow from the higher
temperature area to the lower temperature area,
which accelerates heat transfer, changes the
temperature distribution, and increases the HAZ.
As the u lt rason ic en er gy is trans ferred to the
crys tal lattice, the mechanical ultraso und energy is
transformed into heat energy, and excited
Fig. 3 Typical micrographs in the coarse grain zone electrons move around the system of crystal
lattice, transferring energy to neighboring
U lt r as on ic vib ratio n ac celer at e d he at electrons. Since the amplitude of the ultrasonic
conduction and changed thermal circle in the weld vibration is biggest along the arc axis and the
so that the cooling rate during solidification was ultraso und effect is strongest along the same
increased with ultrasonic treatment, which means direction, the HAZ along that direction is deepest.
that when the metal temperature is above Ac3 the Traditionally, narrower HAZ IS more
time is shortened, and which reduces the grain size desirable, however, ultrasonic vibration enlarges
in the partially melted zone. the HAZ. SEM was used to observe the grain
Ultrasonic vibration also has some other refinement in the tempered zone. T he tern pered
effects on the partially melted zone. First, zone has the finest grain structure in the HAZ so it
u ltr as on ic v ib rat ion can break th e ox ides film s on has better properties than the matrix. The pictures
the solidI liquid interface during solidification in Fig. 5 show that the average grain size with arc-
which activate the metal surface w here partially ultrasonic decreases to about 50% of that without
melted grains are loosely held together by the arc-ultr as on ic-
liquid films between them. Secondly, ultrasonic
478 Tsinghua Science and Technology , December 2001, 6( 5): 475 - 478
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