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Pore Formation during Laser Beam Welding of

Die-Cast Magnesium Alloy AM60B —


Mechanism and Remedy
Controlled remelting of the fusion zone led to removal of gas bubbles,
reducing porosity

BY H. ZHAO AND T. DEBROY

ABSTRACT. Weld metal porosity is a most weight and cost savings in the use addition, turbulent flow in the weld pool
major concern during laser beam weld- of automotive alloys, tailor-welded (Ref. 11) has also been linked with poros-
ing of magnesium alloys. This study seeks blanks are widely used in the auto body. ity formation. However, in a recent study,
to identify both the mechanism of pore Laser beam welding is a preferred Pastor, et al. (Ref. 12), found keyhole sta-
formation and a remedy for this problem method in the manufacture of tailor- bility played a major role in porosity for-
during continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser welded blanks due to its high speed, low mation during continuous-wave Nd:YAG
beam welding of die-cast magnesium heat input and low weldment distortion. laser beam welding of aluminum alloys
alloy AM60B. Preexisting pores in the Increasing the use of aluminum and mag- 5182 and 5754. Furthermore, they
base metal coalesced and expanded dur- nesium alloys in tailor-welded blanks showed segregation of hydrogen played
ing welding of this alloy and, as a result, will require improved technology to fab- an insignificant role in the formation of
large pores were commonly present in ricate structurally sound and defect-free large pores in the welds.
the weld metal. Unlike laser beam weld- welds easily and reproducibly. Although the mechanism of pore for-
ing of aluminum alloys, the stability of One of the major concerns during mation during welding of aluminum al-
the keyhole was not a major factor in welding of magnesium and aluminum al- loys is better understood than magne-
pore formation during laser beam weld- loys is the presence of porosity in the sium alloys, there are some similarities
ing of alloy AM60B. The porosity in the weld metal that can deteriorate mechan- between the welding of these two types
fusion zone increased with the increase ical properties, particularly tensile of alloys. Both aluminum and magne-
in heat input, i.e., increase in the laser strength and elongation (Refs. 1–3). sium have significantly higher hydrogen
power and decrease in the welding However, pore formation during welding solubility in liquid than in solid. For mag-
speed. It was found that well-controlled of magnesium alloys has not been sys- nesium, this difference in the hydrogen
remelting of the fusion zone led to re- tematically studied. In contrast, the solubility can be observed from Fig. 1
moval of gas bubbles and reduced poros- mechanism of porosity formation during (Ref. 13). Mikucki and Shearouse (Ref.
ity in the fusion zone. welding of aluminum alloys has received 14) found the amount of porosity in the
considerable attention (Refs. 4–12). Pore solidified magnesium alloy AZ91 was
Introduction formation has been attributed to hydro- proportional to the dissolved hydrogen in
gen rejection from the solid phase during the alloy. They also found that the rejec-
Magnesium and aluminum alloys are solidification (Refs. 4–7) and imperfect tion of hydrogen from the Mg17Al12 in-
finding increased use in the automotive collapse of the keyhole (Refs. 7–10). In termetallic compound assisted in the nu-
industry because of their excellent spe- cleation and/or growth of microporosity
cific strength, good elongation and during the last stages of solidification of
toughness. The specific strength, i.e., the alloy AZ91 (Ref. 15). The difference in
ratio of tensile strength and specific grav- the solubility between the solid and liq-
ity, of die-cast magnesium alloy AM60B, uid phases and the results of previous so-
KEY WORDS
122 MPa, far exceeds that of low-carbon lidification studies (Refs. 14, 15) indicate
steel, which is 45 MPa. The use of these hydrogen rejection needs to be consid-
lightweight alloys can help automakers Magnesium Alloys ered as a possible cause of porosity for-
improve fuel economy and reduce Porosity mation during solidification of magne-
greenhouse gas emissions. To make the Lasers sium alloys (Refs. 14, 15).
Laser Beam Welding Haferkamp, et al. (Ref. 16), observed
Die-Cast Magnesium more porosity in the fusion zone of non-
H. ZHAO and T. DEBROY are with the De- Automotive vacuum die-cast alloy AM60B than vac-
partment of Materials Science and Engineer-
uum die-cast alloy AZ91D, which had
ing, The Pennsylvania State University, Uni-
less gas inclusions in the base metal.
versity Park, Pa.

204-s | AUGUST 2001


They found for the same porosity level in culated from the average
welds, large pores are more detrimental pore radius and the volume-
to strength than small pores. The pres- percent porosity, which is
ence of gas inclusions in the base metal equal to the measured area-
was thought to be an important factor in percent porosity.
contributing to the formation of large
pores during Nd:YAG laser welding of Results and Discussion
magnesium alloys (Ref. 16).
This research seeks to achieve both Enhanced Porosity Due to
better understanding of pore formation in Melting of the Base Metal
the AM60B fusion zone during laser
beam welding and alleviation of the During welding of alloy
porosity problem for wider application of AM60B it became clear the
this alloy in the automotive industry. area-percent porosity in the
fusion zone was often
Experimental Procedure higher than that in the base
metal that contained preex-
Bead-on-plate autogenous welds isting pores. Therefore, the
were produced on 2- to 6-mm-thick origin of the enhanced
plates of die-cast magnesium alloy porosity level in the fusion Fig. 1 — Solubility of hydrogen in magnesium (Ref. 13).
AM60B (Mg-5.2%Al) using a 3.0-kW, zone is an important ques-
continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser. The tion in this study. To answer
base metal, alloy AM60B, contained 1.8 this question fully, it is intu-
to 5 area-percent porosity, depending on itive to consider the mech-
plate thickness. The laser beam was de- anisms of porosity formation in the A
livered using a 600-µm-diameter fiber of welding of other nonferrous alloys. For
fused silica to an f2 focus lens. A robot example, during continuous-wave
was employed to manipulate the motion laser welding of automotive aluminum
of the lens assembly relative to the work- alloys, a significant number of large
piece mounted horizontally on a stage. pores was formed in the fusion zone
Prior to welding, the samples were (Ref. 12). The pore formation was
ground with 400-grit grind cloth and then found to result from the instability of
cleaned with acetone. The variables used the keyhole. Therefore, the role of key-
were laser power in the range of 1.0 to hole instability in the formation of
3.0 kW, welding speed between 125 and large pores in the welding of alloy
300 in./min (53 to 127 mm/s) and beam AM60B needs to be investigated to- 100µm
defocusing in the range of –3.5 to 3.0 gether with other possible causes of
mm. A nomenclature of positive defo- porosity enhancement resulting from
cusing to indicate the focal point of the the coalescence and expansion of pre- B
laser beam above the top surface of the existing pores.
workpiece and negative defocusing to Melting of the base metal can serve
represent the focal point below the top as a control experiment where the co-
surface is used throughout this paper. A alescence of the pores can be studied
cylindrical copper nozzle having an in- in the absence of any keyhole forma-
side diameter of 8.0 mm was utilized to tion. The solidus and liquidus temper-
provide helium as the shielding gas at a atures of alloy AM60B are 813 and
flow rate of 200 ft3/h (5.7 m3/h). Some 888 K, respectively. A few samples of
specimens were rewelded to study the ef- the base metal were partially melted at
fect of remelting on fusion zone porosity. 863 K and held for 2 h to study coa- 100µm
The area-percent porosity, pore size lescence of pores. In this system, the
distribution, and average pore radius in changes in porosity can be attributed
the base metal and fusion zone were mea- to heating, melting and pore coales- Fig. 2 — Micrographs showing features of poros-
sured by optical microscopy and com- cence while reducing the escape of ity on unetched samples of 2-mm-thick alloy
puter image analysis using Image Pro® gases that may occur easily from a AM60B plates both before and after heat treatment
software. Based on the observed mor- fully melted alloy. Figure 2 shows the at 863 K. A — Base metal before heat treatment;
phology and distribution of the pores in extent of porosity in the base metal B — holding for 2 h.
several cross sections, it was assumed the and solidified sample after 2 h of heat-
pores were spherical and evenly distrib- ing at 863 K. Quantitative microscopy
uted. Therefore, the values of average pore showed heating resulted in an increase in higher area-percent porosity than the
radii for 3-D spherical pores were calcu- the average pore radius from about 2 to 6 base metal.
lated by multiplying the average radii mm, a decrease in number density from The increase in pore size and de-
measured in 2-D cross sections by π/2 about 3400 to about 1500 per mm2, and crease in pore number density can be
based on Fullman’s theory (Ref. 17) for a an increase in area-percent porosity from readily attributed to pore coalescence.
polydispersed system of spheres. Unless about 1.8% to about 7.0%. In short, the However, coalescence alone cannot ex-
otherwise specified, all the data of pore control experiment showed partial melt- plain the increase in area-percent poros-
radii in this paper are 3-D pore radii. The ing of the alloy resulted in significant in- ity observed in the partially melted and
number of pores per unit volume was cal- crease in pore size and, more important, solidified samples. The thermal expan-

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT | 205-s


A B

1 mm 500 µm

Fig. 3 — Pores observed in weld pool of laser beam C D


welded alloy AM60B. Plate thickness 6 mm, laser
power 1.5 kW, welding speed 250 in./min (106
mm/s), beam defocusing +1.0 mm, and shielding
gas flow rate 200 ft3 /h (5.7 m3 /h) of helium.

sion of gas in the pores also has to be con-


sidered to understand the enhanced
porosity in the heated metal as discussed
later in this paper.
Fig. 4 — Formation of large pores in the fusion zone (the black region) due to the expansion
Enhanced Porosity in Welded Metal and coalescence of the preexisting pores in the base metal (the gray region) of alloy AM60B.
All figures have the same magnification as shown in A.
It is observed from Fig. 3 that many
large pores were formed in the fusion
zone during laser welding of alloy
AM60B. These pores are much larger Table 1 — Pore Number Density, Average Pore Radius, and Area Percent Porosity in the Base
than the preexisting pores in the base Metal and Weld Metal of 2-mm-Thick Alloy AM60B Plates
metal shown in Fig. 2A. Figure 4 shows
many large pores are connected with the Base Metal Weld Metal
preexisting smaller pores in the base
Welding Speed 53 64 74 85 95 106
metal through one or more channels. For
(mm/s)
example, Fig. 4A shows a pore near the Measured number of 3.4 x 103 51 33 52 43 43 51
center of the picture was expanding by pores per unit area (mm–2)
infusion of gas from the small preexisting Number of pores 5.37 x 105 223 119 293 199 193 280
pores in the base metal. Figure 4B shows per unit volume (mm–3 )
a large pore was formed from the coales- Measured average 2-D 1.3 43.7 52.8 37.1 42.0 42.4 36.0
cence of several preexisting pores. Simi- pore radius (µm)
larly, Figs. 4C and 4D show large pores Average 3-D pore 2.0 68.6 82.9 58.3 65.9 66.6 56.5
radius (µm)
in the fusion zone grew from the expan - Estimated average 3-D 66.5 82.7 60.4 69.2 69.9 61.4
sion and coalescence of small preexist- pore radius (µm)
ing pores. The elongated shapes of these Measured area 1.8 30.7 28.6 22.7 24.0 24.3 20.6
pores indicate they were expanding from percent porosity
the fusion boundary into the fusion zone. Estimated area 27.5 28.2 27.1 27.6 27.6 27.1
The proximity and connections between percent porosity
the large and the small pores and the Welding conditions: laser 1.5 kW, focused beam, shielding gas flow rate 200 ft3/h (5.7 m3h) of helium, and various welding
shape of the large pores in Fig. 4 reveal speeds.
the growth of the pores resulted from the
coalescence and expansion of the preex-
isting pores in the base metal near the fu-
sion boundary.

Pore Coalescence and Expansion cates significant coalescence of the pre- expansion due to coalescence of the pre-
existing pores during welding. The aver- existing pores needs to be considered.
Figure 5 shows the typical number age pore radius, number density and When the base metal is melted, pressure
densities of pores of various sizes in the area-percent porosity measured in the in the pores tends to equal the sum of the
base metal and weld metal. It is observed base metal and weld metal for different surface tension pressure and the pressure
that the pore radii in the fusion zone are welding speeds are given in Table 1. It is in the surrounding liquid. Since surface
more than one order of magnitude larger observed that the area-percent porosity tension pressure decreases with an in-
than those in the base metal, while the in the weld metal was about 11 to 17 crease in pore radius and the pressure in
pore number densities in the weld metal times that in the base metal depending on the surrounding liquid is almost constant,
are nearly two orders of magnitude welding speed. the pressure inside a small pore is larger
smaller. The reduction in the number of To understand the increase in area- than that in a large pore. If several small
pores per unit area of fusion zone indi- percent porosity in the weld metal, pore pores coalesce to form a large pore, there

206-s | AUGUST 2001


will be a net increase in total pore vol- pool characteristic of the
ume due to both coalescence and reduc- keyhole mode of welding A
tion of surface tension pressure. Further- formed. Porosity was rarely
more, pores in the alloy can expand observed in either conduc-
when they are heated to higher tempera- tion or the keyhole mode of
tures. Therefore, the thermal expansion welding. How e ve r, when
of pores also needs to be considered. beam power density was
During welding, significant pore expan- just above the threshold
sion occurs due to heating. How e ve r, value for keyhole forma-
during solidification, the pores shrink tion, an unstable keyhole
with the reduction in the temperature of was formed that collapsed
the liquid metal. The shrinking continues with any small disturbance.
until the solidus temperature is reached. As a result, in various cross
Any further lowering of temperature re- sections of the same
duces pore sizes by a much smaller welded sample, the weld
amount. Thus, the net expansion due to pool shapes characteristic
temperature change is equivalent to heat- of either conduction or key-
ing the pores from room temperature to hole mode were observed.
solidus temperature. Porosity was formed pri- B
The average pore radius and area-per- marily in this mixed mode
cent porosity in the weld metal for differ- of welding due to keyhole
ent welding conditions were estimated instability in the automo-
considering pore coalescence and ther- tive aluminum alloys as
mal expansion. The calculation proce- shown in Fig. 7.
dure is described in the Appendix. Re- The absence of a mixed
sults in Table 1 show fair agreement was mode of welding during
achieved between the measured and es- welding of magnesium
timated values of average pore radius and alloy AM60B indicates the
area-percent porosity. The good agree- keyhole was more stable
ment indicates the increase in weld metal than the one for the weld-
porosity can be attributed to pore coa- ing of aluminum alloys. The
lescence and thermal expansion during stability of the keyhole de-
welding. pends on a balance be-
tween surface tension pres-
Keyhole Stability sure and vapor pressure. Fig. 5 — Pore size distributions. A — Base metal; B — fusion
Surface tension pressure zone of laser-welded alloy AM60B using a focused beam. Plate
In order to study the influence of key- tends to close the keyhole thickness 2 mm, laser power 1.5 kW, welding speed 125
hole stability on porosity formation, dif- while vaporization tends to in./min (53 mm/s), and shielding gas flow rate 200 ft3/h (5.7
ferent laser beam power densities were keep it open. Aluminum al- m 3/h) of helium.
used by changing the extent of beam de- loys have higher surface
focusing during welding of alloy AM60B. tension and much lower
The porosity in the fusion zone is plotted vapor pressure than mag-
as a function of beam defocusing in Fig. nesium alloys (Ref. 18).
6. It is observed that the amount of poros- Therefore, it is easier to
ity is not sensitive to beam defocusing. maintain a keyhole for the
The welding mode gradually changed welding of magnesium al-
from keyhole to conduction mode as the loys than aluminum alloys.
extent of beam defocusing increased. Furthermore, vapor pres-
The mixed mode of welding, character- sure in the keyhole during
ized by the presence of two types of weld laser welding of alloys
pool geometry typical of both conduc- 5182 and 5754 was mainly
tion and keyhole modes in various cross due to magnesium in the al-
sections of the same welded sample, was loys (Refs. 19, 20). Because
not observed in the welding of AM60B. of its low concentrations in
In contrast with the mode of welding these alloys, magnesium
for AM60B, three modes of welding were could be depleted from the
identified depending on the degree of keyhole surface, resulting
beam defocusing in the welding of alu- in vapor pressure drop and,
minum alloys 5182 and 5754 (Ref. 12). consequently, collapse of
At a high degree of beam defocusing, the keyhole. On the other
beam power density was lower than the hand, magnesium is the
threshold value for keyhole formation, main constituent in alloy Fig. 6 — Porosity formed in laser welds of alloy AM60B at sev-
resulting in conduction mode welding AM60B and vaporization of eral beam defocusing values. Plate thickness 6 mm, laser
and a shallow weld pool. When the magnesium has little im- power 1.5 kW, welding speed 250 in./min (106 mm/s), and
beam was nearly focused, the power pact on the alloy composi- shielding gas flow rate 200 ft3/h (5.7 m3/h) of helium.
density was well above the threshold tion. Therefore, the keyhole
value to form a keyhole and a deep weld was more stable during

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT | 207-s


A

Fig. 7 — Porosity produced at several beam defocusing values


in alloy 5754. Plate thickness 1.45 mm, laser power 3.0 kW, B
welding speed 150 in./min (64 mm/s), and shielding gas flow
rate 200 ft3/h (5.7 m3/h) of helium (Ref. 12).

Fig. 9 — Weld pool area produced in laser welds of alloy


AM60B plates, with thickness of (A) 2 mm and (B) 6 mm, for
different welding speeds and laser powers using focused beam
and shielding gas flow rate 200 ft3/h (5.7 m3/h) of helium.

Fig. 8 — Porosity formed in laser welds of alloy AM60B plates,


with thickness of (A) 2 mm and (B) 6 mm, for different weld- Fig. 10 — Area percent porosity produced on as-welded (sin-
ing speeds and laser powers using focused beam and shield- gle-run) and remelted (double-run) samples of alloy AM60B
ing gas flow rate 200 ft3/h (5.7 m3/h) of helium. with a focused beam. Plate thickness 6 mm, laser power 1.5
kW for first run and 1.0 kW for second run, and shielding gas
flow rate 200 ft3/h (5.7 m3/h) of helium.

208-s | AUGUST 2001


laser beam welding of AM60B than dur- remelting of the fusion zone significantly References
ing laser beam welding of aluminum al- reduced porosity. Therefore, well-con-
loys. The keyhole instability was not a trolled remelting of the fusion zone by a 1. Lawrence, F. V., Jr. 1973. WRC Bulletin
problem in the pore formation during second run of welding can reduce poros- 181: 1–23.
2. Ashton, R. F., and Wesley, R. P. 1975.
laser beam welding of alloy AM60B. ity by allowing some pores formed during Welding Journal 54(3): 95-s to 98-s.
the first run of welding to be removed. The 3. Katoh, M. 1996. Welding International
Reduction of Weld Metal Porosity keyhole mode of welding was obtained (UK) 10(10): 771–777.
for both the first and second run of weld- 4. Woods, R. A. 1974. Hydrogen in Met-
The area-percent porosity formed in ing. The reduction of porosity in the als, eds. I. M. Bernstein and A. W. Thompson,
the fusion zone for different welding con- remelted fusion zone also indicated pp. 713–725. ASM International, Materials
ditions is shown in Fig. 8. The data show porosity due to keyhole instability during Park, Ohio.
5. Masahiro, U., and Satoru, O. 1974.
the porosity in the fusion zone was much welding was not significant and porosity
Trans. Nat. Res. Inst. Met. 16(2): 67–74.
higher than that in the base metal for formed in the fusion zone was due to the 6. Kutsuna, M. 1993. Welding in the World
most welding conditions used. It is also coalescence and expansion of preexisting IIW 31: 126–135.
observed the porosity in the fusion zone pores in the base metal. 7. Katayama, S. 1996. Journal of Light
decreased with decreasing heat input, Metal Welding and Construction 34(4):
i.e., decreasing laser power and increas- Summary and Conclusions 31–41.
ing welding speed. At low heat input, it 8. Schauer, D. A., and Giedt, W. H. 1978.
Welding Journal 57(7): 189-s to 195-s.
was possible to obtain welds with poros- The mechanism of porosity formation
9. Whitaker, I. R., McCartney, D. G., and
ity levels similar to that in the base metal. during continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser Steen, W. M. 1992. ICALEO ’92: 565-573.
However, the weld pool cross-section beam welding of die cast magnesium 10. Matsunawa, A., Kim, J. D., Seto, N.,
area decreased with a decrease in heat alloy AM60B has been studied. A practi- Mizutani, M., and Katayama, S. 1998. Journal
input, especially with a decrease in laser cal method to alleviate the porosity prob- of Laser Applications 10(6): 247–254.
power as shown in Fig. 9. For a given lem was sought based on the mechanis- 11. Kim, J. S., Watanabe, T., and Yoshida,
plate thickness, the heat input has to be tic understanding. The major findings are Y. 1995. Journal of Laser Applications 7(1):
higher than a certain level to obtain full as follows: 38–46.
12. Pastor, M., Zhao, H., Martukanitz, R. P.,
penetration welding. Therefore, besides 1) Significant increase in volume per- and DebRoy, T. 1999. Welding Journal 78(6):
reducing heat input, a more practical cent of porosity was observed in the fu- 207-s to 216-s.
method to alleviate the porosity problem sion zone for most of the welding condi- 13. Avedesian, M,. and Baker, H. 1999.
has to be found. This issue is addressed tions used. The coalescence and Magnesium and Magnesium Alloys, ASM In-
in the following paragraph. expansion of small preexisting pores due ternational, Materials Park, Ohio.
The transport of gas bubbles in a weld to heating and reduction of internal pres- 14. Mikucki, B. A. and Shearouse, J. D. III.
pool containing recirculating liquid sure contributed to the porosity increase 1993. Proceedings of Magnesium Properties
and Applications for Automobiles Confer-
metal is complex. During welding, gas in the fusion zone. ence, Detroit, Mich., Society of Automotive
bubbles drifted with the flow of liquid 2) The stability of the keyhole was not Engineers, Inc., pp. 107–115.
metal and at the same time had a ten- a major factor in fusion zone pore for- 15. Shearouse, J. D. III, and Mikucki, B. A.
dency to float upward due to the differ- mation during laser beam welding of 1994. SAE Transactions. Journal of Materials &
ence in the densities of the bulk liquid alloy AM60B. The keyhole formed during Manufacturing, Vol. 103, pp. 542–552.
and the bubbles. Furthermore, the vigor- welding of alloy AM60B was more stable 16. Haferkamp, H., Bach, Fr.-W.,
ous flow of weld metal promoted coales- than that formed in aluminum alloys Burmester, I., Kreutzburg, K., and Niemeyer,
M. 1996. Proceedings of the Third Interna-
cence of bubbles. It is fair to expect that 5182 and 5754. tional Magnesium Conference, Edited by
due to the rapid thermal cycle, the pores 3) The amount of porosity in the fu- Lorimer, G. W., pp. 89–98. The Institute of Ma-
formed in the fusion zone had little time sion zone decreased with a decrease in terials, London, U.K.
to float out of the weld pool in a single heat input, i.e., decrease in laser power 17. Fullman, R. L. 1953. Trans. AIME, 197:
welding thermal cycle. Therefore, small or increase in welding speed. Porosity 447–452.
pores that require a long time for flotation levels similar to that in the base metal 18. Brandes, E. A. 1983. Smithells Metals
could not be removed from the weld pool could be obtained when heat input was Reference Book, 6th edition, London, Boston,
Butterworth, in association with Fulmer Re-
within the available time. If a second run low.
search Institute Ltd.
of welding was performed, the pores in 4) Well-controlled remelting of the fu- 19. Block-Bolten, A., and Eagar, T. W.
the fusion zone that are already much sion zone allowed some of the pores to be 1984. Metallurgical Transactions 15B:
larger than the preexisting pores in the removed, resulting in reduced porosity in 461–469.
base metal might have a second chance the fusion zone. The reduction in porosity 20. Zhao, H., and DebRoy, T. 2001. Met-
to float out of the weld pool. Moreover, also indicates keyhole instability during allurgical and Materials Transactions 32B:
these pores could also coalesce to form laser beam welding of alloy AM60B was 163–172.
even larger bubbles. Therefore, more sig- not important for pore formation.
nificant flotation of these bubbles should
take place during remelting of the fusion Acknowledgment
zone since larger bubbles are more eas- Appendix
ily separated by gravity. The authors thank Dr. D. White of
Based on these considerations, a sec- Ford Motor Co. for the donation of allo y Estimation of Pore Expansion
ond run of welding was performed on AM60B used in this study. This research during Welding
some welded samples to examine the ef- was funded by the U.S. Department of
fect of remelting on porosity reduction. Energy (Grant Nos. DE-FG02- The pressure inside a stable bubble,
Figure 10 shows the area-percent poros- 96ER45602 and DE-FG02-84ER45158). Pi, is the sum of surface tension pressure,
ity formed in the as-welded (single run) We thank Dr. S. A. David for his gener- Ps, and pressure in the liquid, Pa, i.e.,
and remelted (double run) samples for dif- ous help in conducting the rewelding ex-
ferent welding speeds. It is observed that periments. Pi = Ps + Pa (1a)

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT | 209-s


The surface tension pressure is given by bubbles before and after the heating and equivalent to heating the pores from
coalescence, respectively. Combining room temperature (298 K) to the solidus
Ps = 2σ/r (2a) Equations 5a and 6a, we obtain temperature of 813 K for alloy AM60B.
Therefore, taking N = 2408, r0 = 2.0 µm,
where σ and r are the surface tension and (2σ/r + Pa)r3 = (T/T0)N(2σ/r0 + Pa)r03 T0 = 298 K, T = 813 K, P a = 1.013 x 105
pore radius, respectively, and the pres- (7a) Pa, and σ = 0.56 Nm-1, we can solve
sure in the liquid consists of the ambient Equation 7a and obtain the average ra-
pressure and a small hydrostatic head. The radius r of the large bubble can be dius of the resulting large pores in the
Consider that N number of small calculated from Equation 7a from known weld metal to be r = 66.5 µm. The ratio
spherical bubbles of radius r0 are heated values of σ, Pa, T, T0, N, and r0. The ratio of total volume of pores in the weld metal
from temperature T0 to temperature T of volumes after and before the heating and that in the base metal is calculated
and then these pores coalesce to form a and coalescence is given by by
single large spherical bubble of radius r.
Assuming the pores are stable before and V/V0 = r3/(Nr03) (8a) V/V0 = r3/(Nr03) =
after heating and coalescence, and con- 66.53/(2408 x 2.03) ≈ 15.3
sidering for simplicity a constant surface Let us consider the coalescence of pre-
tension, σ, the pressure inside the small existing pores in the weld metal obtained Since the area-percent porosity is
bubbles is given by using laser power of 1.5 kW and welding equal to volume-percent porosity, the
speed of 53 mm/s. As shown in Table 1, area-percent porosity in the weld metal
P0 = 2σ/r0 + Pa (3a) in the base metal, the average radius of will be estimated to be 1.8 x 15.3 = 27.5.
the preexisting pores is 2.0 µm, the pore Similar calculations were done for other
And the pressure inside the large bubble number density is 5.37 x 105 per mm 3, welding conditions to estimate the area-
is given by and area percent porosity is 1.8. In the percent porosity in the weld metal and
weld metal, the pore number density is the results are shown in Table 1. It is ob-
P = 2σ/r + Pa (4a) 223 per mm3. Therefore, on ave ra g e , served that the estimated values of aver-
about 2408 of preexisting pores in the age pore radius and area-percent poros-
According to ideal gas law, we have base metal coalesced to form one large ity in the weld metal fairly agree with the
pore in the weld metal. During welding, measured values. The good agreement
nRT0 = P0V0 = (4/3)πN(2σ/r0 + Pa)r03 the weld metal was first heated to very indicates the increase in porosity in the
(5a) high temperatures and the pores in the weld metal can be attributed to pore co-
metal expanded significantly. During the alescence and thermal expansion during
nRT = PV = (4/3)π(2σ/r + Pa)r3 subsequent cooling process, the pores welding.
(6a) shrank with the reduction in the temper-
where n is the total number of moles of ature of the liquid metal until the solidus
gas in the bubbles, R is the gas constant, temperature was reached. Thus, the net
and V0 and V are the total volumes of the expansion due to the temperature is

210-s | AUGUST 2001

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