TSINGHUA SOENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ISSN 1007-0214 14/21 pp475 - 478

Volume 6, Number 5, December 2001

Improving Weld Quality by Arc-Excited Ultrasonic Treatment

ZHANG O1unlei( 5~*~) , WU Minsheng( *-~!), DU Jinglei( ~GSiJ1)

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beij ing 100084, China

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

fluid couplant for use above 500 e , piezoelectric

a

Introduction
Fine grains help reduce the susceptibility of the
weld metal to solidification cracking during
welding and im prove the mechanical properties of
the weld, for example, the ductility and the
fracture toughness. Therefore, much effort has
been made to refine the grains in the weld. Grain-
refining techniques originally developed for
[ 1,2] h
.
castlng ave b een us ed . M a~netIc
. st
.irrmg
. [3] an d
low frequency arc oscillation[ ,5] have also been
used during the welding process.
Tewari[6] applied mechanical vibrations (0-
300 Hz) to the solidifying metals to improve the
fusion welding quality, and concluded that
increased frequencies provided better grain size
reduction than increased amplitudes, but the
mechanical vibration frequency can not be too
high, and ultrasonic waves are considered as a
better method to refine the grains. There are many
ways to generate ultrasound, with the most
common being piezoelectric transducers. There
must be some medium (typically fluid cou p lan t] to
transmit (or couple) the ultrasound from the
transducer to the sample. Since there is no suitable
Received: 2000-D5-22; revised: 2001-D5-23
* Supported by the Nat ional Natural Science Foundation
of China (N o. 59775061)
transducers can not be used over a sufficiently wide
temperature range for all applications, especially
welding processes. In addition, as the weld
moves, the ultrasonic field changes since the
ultrasonic transducer can not be easily moved with
the torch. Consequently, up to now, there is no
appropriate way to deliver ultr asonic vibration to
the welding process in pr act ice.
W u [7] et al. dev elo ped an arc--ex cited
ultrasonic, arc-ultras on ic, w here the arc acts not
only as a thermal source, but also as an ul trasonic
emission mechanism. The present study describes
the use of arc-ultrasonic in the welding process.
The experimental results show that arc-ultrasonic
significantly influences the whole weld including
the fusion zone, the partially melted zone, and the
heat-affected zone (H AZ) .
1 E xperimental
T he welding circuit arc can be considered as a
dynamic resis tance with no frequency restriction
within the ultrasonic spectrum. Ultrasonic waves
were excited in the welding circuit with the
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
conventional welding power supply used in various
welding systems including submerged arc welding
(SA W) and C02 gas-shielded arc welding.
 476 Tsinghua Science and Technology , December 2001, 6(5): 475 - 478

temperature, which supports the observation that

the ar c-ultrasonic acceler ates cooling 0 f the fusion
melt.

Fig. 1 Arc-ultrasonic experimental setup

The ex cit ing de vice is a s w itc h ed e le ct ro nic

circuit with a wide frequency response range from
1 kHz to 1 MHz. T he experiments used
modulation frequency ranges from 1 kHz to 200
kHz. The square wave signal was coupled in
parallel with the welding circuit. An industrial
PZT AE transducer, a digital oscilloscope and a
PC data-eollection card were used in the test
system. A high frequency response microphone
was installed in the testing ground to monitor the
acou s tic signal.
Work pieces of mild steel were welded using
stationary and modulated arcs. Test samples were
cut to size from the welded work piece. Test
specimens were etched by 4% nital and observed
under an optical microscope and with scanning
electron microscope (SEM) .
Fig. 2 Typical micrographs in the fusion zone
2 Results and discussion Generally, AF is responsible for the high
The character and the essential principle of arc- toughness of the weld. According to Dal lam!", AF
ultrasonic were described by Wu et al[7]. This is formed intragranularly, resulting in randomly
paper discusses the effects of the arc-ultrasonic on oriented short ferrite needles. T his nature,
the weld. together with its fine grain size, provides the
maximum resistance to crack propagation by
3. 1 Effect of arc-ultrasonic on the fusion zone cleavage, whereas the formation of more FSP is
Figure 2 shows the fusion zone structure for detrimental to weld metal toughness, since these
different condit ions. T he welding curren t and micros tructures prov ide easy crack propag ation
voltage were 160 A and 22 V in both cas es- The paths.
welding speed was 50 cm/min. The modulating T he effect of the arc-ultrasonic on the fusion
current was 15 A and the modulating frequency zone toughness was evaluated using Charpy U-
was 50 kHz. notch tests of weld metal made with various
As shown in Fig. 2, the grain structure m odulat ion frequencies and mo dulatio n current s .
changed considerably. The arc-ultrasonic changed The samples were tested at room temperature
the weld micro structure from lam ellar to acicular according to G B2650--81. T he results showed that
ferrite (AF). Primary dendrite arm spacing for all the arc-ultrasonic vibration conditions, the
(PDAS) in Fig. 2(b) was much less than in Fig.2 fusion zone toughness was improved by about 6%-
( a). M oreov er, there was m ore acicular ferrite 11.2%. The influence of the modulation
(AF) with the arc-ultrasonic vibration whereas p aramet ers 0 n th e weld w as an al yzed in det ail by
Zhang et al [9].
there was m ore ferrite with side plates (FSP)
without the arc-ultrasonic vibration. As a rule, 3. 2 Effect of arc-ul trasonic on the partially
FSP grow s at a higher tern perature than AF. The melted zone
results suggest that the arc-ultrasonic vibration
reduced the time when the weld was at high T he partially melted zone located immediately
ZHANG Chunlei (5*~1i) et al: Improving Weld Quality by Arc-Excited
ou t side th e fu sion zon e IS where t he peak
temperature during welding is below the liquidus
but ahove 1100C. Generally, this is dangerous
since this region has mainly coarse grains.
Figure 3 show s the grain structure of the
partially melted zone in two welds made with and
without excitation. Examination of the grain
structure indicates that the arc-ultrasonic
significantly reduces grain size and improves grain
refinement. In contrast to the weld made without
excitation, a much finer structure was observed
w hen the exciting signal was coupled to the
welding circuit.
Fig. 3 Typical micrographs in the coarse grain zone
U lt r as on ic vib ratio n ac celer at e d he at
conduction and changed thermal circle in the weld
so that the cooling rate during solidification was
increased with ultrasonic treatment, which means
that when the metal temperature is above Ac3 the
time is shortened, and which reduces the grain size
in the partially melted zone.
Ultrasonic vibration also has some other
effects on the partially melted zone. First,
u ltr as on ic v ib rat ion can break th e ox ides film s on
the solidI liquid interface during solidification
which activate the metal surface w here partially
melted grains are loosely held together by the
liquid films between them. Secondly, ultrasonic
. 477
vibration strengthens the weld pool convection and
causes partially melted grains to detach themselves
from the base metal imm ediately adjacent to the
weld pool. Finally, nonlinear puls ation and
compression, and surface distortion result in the
appearance of impact pulses of pressure and
increase the wettability of the solid/liquid inter-
face, which stimulates the generation of new
nuclei. All of these actions may improve the
structure and the properties of the partially melted
zone.
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
electrons move around the system of crystal
lattice, transferring energy to neighboring
electrons. Since the amplitude of the ultrasonic
vibration is biggest along the arc axis and the
ultraso und effect is strongest along the same
direction, the HAZ along that direction is deepest.
Traditionally, narrower HAZ IS more
desirable, however, ultrasonic vibration enlarges
the HAZ. SEM was used to observe the grain
refinement in the tempered zone. T he tern pered
zone has the finest grain structure in the HAZ so it
has better properties than the matrix. The pictures
in Fig. 5 show that the average grain size with arc-
ultrasonic decreases to about 50% of that without
arc-ultr as on ic-
 478
Fig. 4
Fig. 5 SEM micrograph of the tempered zone
4 Conclusions
The following conclusions were drawn from the
experimental investigation:
( 1) The fusion zone microstructures were
refined with more acicular ferrite, which improved
the fusion zone toughness.
( 2) The arc-ul trasonic also refined the
microstructure in the partially melted zone.
( 3) The arcllltrasonic frequency had a
pronounced effect on the HAZ with reduced grain
size and improved grain refinement.
( 4) Arcllltrasonic treatment significantly
influences the fusion zone, the partially melted
zone and the HAZ. This technique show s
significant promise for material processing and
other engineering applications.
Tsinghua Science and Technology , December 2001, 6( 5): 475 - 478
Weld morphologies
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