Estimation of a source term in a two-dimensional heat transfer problem: application to an electron beam welding, theoretical and experimental validations

This article is concerned with the estimation of a heat source applied in the electron beam welding process by using temperature measurements in solid phase. The aim is to identify the energy distribution which is applied in the liquid and vapour zones. This identification is realized at each time in a transversal plan perpendicularly to the welding axis. For this work, the goals are, first, to analyse the feasibility of the estimation and, second, to estimate the energy distribution in a real case. The thermometallurgical model does not take into account the convective phenomena in the fused zone. We show the development of the experimentation, its realization and the exploitation of measurements. At last, the iterative regularization method and the measurements will be used for this two-dimensional metallurgical inverse heat transfer problem.