Thermally Induced Reduction of Hot Cracking Susceptibility in Electron Beam Welding of CuCr1Zr: A Numerical Approach

Electron Beam Welding (EBW) is a highly effective and accurate welding process that is being increasingly used in industrial work and is of growing importance in manufacturing. In the current study, solidification cracking in EBW of a CuCr1Zr cylindrical geometry was explored. To investigate and prevent occurrence of hot cracking, a thermomechanically coupled numerical model was developed using Finite Element Method (FEM). An additional heat source was considered, in order to influence the resulting residual stress state, namely to minimize tensile stresses in the fusion zone during solidification. Hence, a methodical assessment of relevant parameters, such as the power, the diameter of the additional heat source and the distances between both heat sources was employed using Design of Experiments (DoE). It was found that for a particular parameter configuration, solidification cracking most likely could be averted.