Determination of material properties for welding models by means of arc weld experiments

Moving heat source solutions to the conduction heat flow equation are used to estimate the thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of nine engineering alloys. A technique is developed using gas tungsten arc edge weld data that enables least square fitting of the experimental weld size and heating parameters to the 2D and 3D conduction heat flow equations. Effective values of the thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity are determined. Dimensionless parameters for the 2D and 3D solutions are given that correlate well with the experimental data and the weld theory. Property estimates for several 304 stainless steel weld experiments indicate the method yields property variations with an uncertainty of 11.1%. The experimental results are intended for welding software models to enable prediction of weld effects on the production floor.