The Effects of Oxide Fluxes on the Penetration Depth of 316L and A516 Steels in A-TIG Welding: a Comparative Study

Journal of Advanced Materials and Processing

دوره 10، شماره 2 - شماره پیاپی 38، تیر 2022، صفحه 39-46   

نوع مقاله: Research Paper

نویسندگان

Mohammad Emami¹؛ Seyed Hossein Elahi^{* 2}

¹Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Bonab, Bonab, Iran.

²Department of Mechanical engineering, Arak University of Technology, Arak, Iran

چکیده

The present work evaluates the mechanisms that cause the weld geometry to change in activating flux TIG (A-TIG) welding. For this purpose, an austenitic 316 stainless steel and ferritic A516 steel in conventional TIG and A-TIG welding were compared and evaluated under the same process parameters. Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, MnO₂, SiO₂, and TiO₂ powders were used as activating fluxes. The depth of penetration and width of the beads were measured metallographically. In conventional TIG, the welds of carbon steel and stainless steel had a thickness of about 2.2 mm and 1.7 mm, respectively. A-TIG welding of 316 SS using TiO₂, MnO₂, and Fe₂O₃ led to a 75% increase in the weld depth. In the case of Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ the weld depth increased 50% and 9%, respectively. However, in A516 steel, less thermodynamically stable oxide fluxes such as MnO₂, and Fe₂O₃ had a smaller effect i.e., 9-22% increases. More stable oxides like Al₂O₃, SiO₂, and TiO₂ caused a decrease of about 30% in the weld depth compared to the conventional TIG weld. It was proposed that when the penetration increases, reverse Marangoni is dominant. This mechanism is mainly associated with viscosity and surface tension that vary by the dissolution of oxygen in the melt. Regarding penetration reduction, as in the case of more stable oxides like SiO₂, the energy dissipation by the flux through heating and dissociation of the oxide and barrier effect of the undissolved oxide dominate.

کلیدواژه‌ها

A-TIG؛ oxide flux؛ viscosity؛ surface tension؛ reverse Marangoni

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