Multiphysical modeling of transport phenomena during laser welding of dissimilar steels

The success of new high-strength steels allows attaining equivalent performances with lower thicknesses and significant weight reduction. The welding of new couples of steel grades requires development and control of joining processes Thanks to high precision and good flexibility, laser welding became one of the most used processes for joining of dissimilar welded blanks. The prediction of the local chemical composition in the weld formed between dissimilar steels in function of the welding parameters is essential because the dilution rate and the distribution of alloying elements in the melted zone determines the final tensile strength of the weld. The goal of the present study is to create and to validate a multiphysical numerical model studying the mixing of dissimilar steels in laser weld pool. A 3D modelling of heat transfer, turbulent flow and transport of species provides a better understanding of diffusion and convective mixing in laser weld pool. The present model allows predicting the weld geometry and element distribution. The model has been developed based on steady keyhole approximation and solved in quasi stationary form in order to reduce the computation time. Turbulent flow formulation was applied to calculate velocity field. Fick law for diluted species was used to simulate the transport of alloying elements in the weld pool. To validate the model, a number of experiments have been performed: tests using pure 100 mu m thick Ni foils like tracer and weld between a rich and poor manganese steels. SEM-EDX analysis of chemical composition has been carried out to obtain quantitative mapping of Ni and Mn distributions in the melted zone. The results of simulations have been found in good agreement with experimental data. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.