Characteristics of weld pool behavior in laser welding with various power inputs

This paper investigates the numerical simulations of multi-kilowatt disk laser and fiber laser welding, ranging from 6 to 18 kW to study the behavior of molten pool in 20-mm-thick steel plate by using Volume-Of-Fluid (VOF) method and several mathematical models like Gaussian heat source, recoil pressure, Marangoni flow, buoyancy force, and additional shear stress and heat source due to the metallic vapor. Vortex flow pattern is observed for higher laser power except for 6-kW case, and the higher the laser power, the bigger the vortex flow pattern. Welding speed has an influence on molten pool in terms of depth of penetration and size of molten pool, but overall shape of molten pool remains the same. The reasons for the vortex flow pattern in high-power laser welding are the absorption of more energy at the bottom of keyhole, which promotes more liquid metal at the bottom, while for lower power with lower speed, the melt formation is more uniform in the thickness direction and most of the molten metal in the lower part of keyhole reaches the top of molten pool, and consequently, no vortex flow pattern is observed in the keyhole bottom.