Heat and Mass Transfer in Gas Metal Arc Welding. Part I: The Arc

A unified comprehensive model was developed to simulate the transport phenomena occurring during the gas metal arc welding process. An interactive coupling between arc plasma; melting of the electrode; droplet formation, detachment, transfer, and impingement onto the workpiece; and weld pool dynamics all were considered. Based on the unified model, a thorough investigation of the plasma arc characteristics during the gas metal arc welding process was conducted. It was found that the droplet transfer and the deformed weld pool surface have significant effects on the transient distributions of current density, arc temperature and arc pressure, which were normally assumed to be constant Gaussian profiles