Mathematical Modelling of Heat Affected Zone Width in Submerged Arc Welding Process

One of the most important issues faced in the submerged arc welding process is the heat affected zone softening which affects the bead geometry, penetration depth and microstructure of the deposited weld metal. Therefore, the study of heat affected zone is imperative for controlling the quality of the weld. The probability of failures increases if there is a large heat affected zone which is caused by the heating and cooling cycles in the weld zone. The objective of this work is to assess the heat affected zone of welded mild steel plates through the numerical analysis and compare it with experimental results. The relation between the input parameters on heat affected zone width has also been established. The measured data of heat affected zone had excellent agreement with the predicted data from the developed model. This agreement suggests the efficacy of the developed model for predicting the HAZ characteristics in submerged arc welding processes. The microstructural study of heat affected zone is also performed in this study.