Modelling of heat transfer in submerged arc welding process

In this work, an analytical model for transient temperature distribution during submerged arc welding for joining two steel plates is presented. The conservation of energy equation is used to represent the thermal behaviour of the submerged arc welding process. A three-dimensional double-paraboloid shape for volumetric heat source with Gaussian distribution is considered for electric arc during welding, and a parabolic-shaped cross section for the weld pool is considered. A set of experiments is conducted to determine the geometric parameters. The final analytical solution considers effect of the electric arc, convective heat transfer from the exposed surface and heat of molten electrode material. Subsequently, the prediction is compared with experimentally predicted temperatures where a good agreement is found.