Numerical Simulation of Electron Beam Welding

P.O. BARRIOZ1, V. BRUYERE2, P. NAMY2, A. BROSSE1
1FRAMATOME, 2 Rue Professeur Jean Bernard, LYON, FRANCE
2SIMTEC, 5 rue Felix Poulat, GRENOBLE, FRANCE
Published in 2023

Electron beam welding process is a high-energy welding technique that uses a focused beam of electrons to join metal components. It is widely used in various industries, including aerospace, nuclear industry, automotive, and electronics, due to its ability to produce high-quality welds with minimal distortion and heat input. However, this process involves numerous parameters that can affect the final weld quality, making it challenging to optimize and control. A thermohydraulic model is developed to describe the dimensions of the molten zone and the resulting shape of the free surface on a geometry with chamfers. A level set approach is used to study the influence of surface tension and Marangoni effects on the shape of the weld pool. After adapting the solvers, the influence of the mesh and numerical parameters is studied. Finally, the numerical results are compared with experimental trends and the importance of the amount of vaporized material is discussed.

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