Search

Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is a versatile and easy process originally developed for welding aluminum and other ferrous materials. Further it was applied to steels because of faster welding time compared to other processes. The changes in welding parameters affect the shape of the bead geometry, mechanical properties and microstructure of the weldments. In this work, AISI 202 grade steel of 10mm thickness is used and experiments are conducted by varying four input process parameters viz.: welding voltage, welding speed, wire feed rate and gas flow rate. The mathematical models for bead geometry parameters like bead height, bead width and bead penetration are presented and the optimum process parameters are found out using teaching–learning-based optimization algorithm. The effects of four input welding parameters on mechanical properties like tensile strength, Vickers hardness and microstructure of weldments are also presented. Furthermore, thermo-mechanical analysis using ANSYS simulation software is carried out to predict the thermally induced residual stresses distribution in the weldment.