Journal of Manufacturing Processes 49 (2020) 438–446

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Journal of Manufacturing Processes

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/manpro

Experimental and numerical study of temperature field and molten pool T

dimensions in dissimilar thickness laser welding of Ti6Al4V alloy
Zhixiong Lia,b, Khashayar Rostamc, Afshin Panjehpourc, Mohammad Akbaric, Arash Karimipourc,
Sara Rostamid,e,*
a
State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Simulation and Safety, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
b
School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran
d
Laboratory of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
e
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Laser study is an important consideration in the present century with advances in laser technology. Titanium
Laser welding alloys are of great importance to the defense industry, aerospace and other industries due to its properties,
Molten pool including strength to weight. In this research, experimental and numerical study are investigated for laser
Ti6Al4V alloy welding on sheets of Ti6Al4V alloy with different thicknesses. Analysis of the temperature distribution around
Heat transfer
the molten pool and dimensions of the depth and width of the molten pool are performed by changing the
Different thicknesses
parameters of laser such as focal length, speed of laser welding and power. The results show that the heat
affected zone (HAZ) and molten pool is diverted to the thinner sheet. Also, by decreasing the focal length, the
temperature of the workpiece and the dimensions of depth and width of the molten pool are increased. In
addition, with enhancing the laser speed, the laser beam contact time with the workpiece surface reduces and the
temperature decreases, resulting in a decrease in the dimensions of the depth and width of the molten pool.
Eventually, as the power increases, the dimension of the melt pool increase and at both 180 W and 240 W
powers, the thinner sheet experiences higher temperatures compared to the thicker sheet. In this study, the
results of numerical simulation are matched with the experimental results and can be applied to obtain the
temperature and geometry of the melt pool in other cases to reduce the cost and time.

1. Introduction
In the new century, laser discovery has revolutionized the industry
and new sciences. Laser has wide applications in industry and medicine,
which reveals the need for extensive research to obtain the new tech-
nologies [1–8]. Due to its physical and mechanical properties, Ti6Al4V
alloy is of great interest to the industries, especially the aerospace,
shipbuilding, nuclear and military industries. As a result, its analysis is
very important. In most cases, evaluation of the temperature distribu-
tion has a high importance under laser processing operations. The same
property of all these issues is the existence of an interface that separates
the solid and liquid areas. The expansion of this surface to the liquid or
solid region depends on the temperature gradient of its both sides, and
the rate of heat dissipated from the solid-liquid interface determines the
rate of release of mentioned surface. Many studies have been conducted
on the investigation of heat transfer in the molten pool under laser
welding processing. Acherjee and Kuar [9] surveyed the black carbon
effect on the rate of heat transfer during laser welding of polymer
substances. In this study, the determination the temperature field for
polycarbonate with different ratios of black carbon was performed. In a
similar three-dimensional solution, Acherjee and Kuar [10] investigated
the black carbon effect on the heat transfer process and the calculation
of the temperature gradient and dissipation during laser welding of
polycarbonate with different ratios of black carbon. Nekouie Esfahani
and Coupland [11] developed a model for investigation the molten pool
in laser welding applying the CFD. Using the developed model, the
precidting the molten pool properties using a diferent process para-
meters of laser welding, is matched with the emprical results. The
presented model is applied to obtain the suitable welding properties for
industrial applications. By simulating and using the finite volume
method, Shaibu et al. [12] surveyed the heat transfer of the molten
pool, microstructure of fusion zone for the stainless steel and copper

⁎
Corresponding author at: Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
E-mail addresses: lzx___520@163.com (Z. Li), sara.rostami@tdtu.edu.vn (S. Rostami).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2019.11.024
Received 5 September 2019; Received in revised form 13 November 2019; Accepted 22 November 2019
1526-6125/ © 2019 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Li, et al.
workpieces and used Co2 as a shielding gas. The formed melt pool is
asymmetric and the experimental results confirm the simulation results.
Kubiak et al. [13] obtained the temperature field during the combined
welding process of the laser and the arc using a mathematical and
numerical model. The finite volume method was used for numerical
solution. The metal used in this research is steel. Experimental methods
have been used to determine the applied parameters in the laser
welding. Numerical simulation of thermo mechanical phenomenon in
combined welding of steel sheets using the laser beam and electrical arc
heat sources was done by Saternus et al. [14]. Casalino et al. [15]
proposed a simple model for analysis the process of laser welding for
lightweight sheet metal. The aim of this research is to predict the
welding method using the laser welding parameters. The metals used in
this study were pure industrial aluminum and titanium alloy. Shay-
ganmanesh and Khoshnoud [16] studied the effects and properties of
laser beam in laser welding of silicon by numerical solution. For
modelling the process of welding, heat transfer equations were solved.
The effect of different pulsed laser parameters (e.g pulse duration, pulse
energy, frequency and welding speed) were studied. The findings de-
monstrated that the values of thermophysical parameters are important
in laser welding modeling. Faraji et al. [17] presented a numerical
model using a finite volume method for process of laser welding. An
electromagnetic model based on Maxwell's equations was used to ob-
tain the electromagnetic forces in the molten pool. The results of si-
mulation including temperature, density of current, electromagnetism
and melting rate of materials are presented. They found that fluid flow
had important effects on the shape and dimensions of the molten pool.
Kumar [18] presented a numerical solution of the fusion zone and the
rate of the cooling which significantly affects the melt pool and the
structure of workpiece. A 3D heat transfer model in dissimilar materials
laser welding has been proposed by Isaev et al. [19]. In this study, an
algorithm is proposed to gain both the temperature field and dimension
of the melt pool in titanium and stainless steel laser welding by placing
the copper as the intermediate metal. The melting and solidification
process during welding highly depends on the beam strength, its ve-
locity and the focal point position that have been studied. Liang and
Luo [20] studied a transient heat transfer numerical model for pulsed
laser dissimilar welding of metals. The model has composed of melting
and evaporation and the effects these phenomena on the formation of
the molten pool and welding width have been investigated. The results
of the model used for pulse laser welding simulation showed that the
temperature distribution, molten flow rate and surface waves are
asymmetric because of clear descrepancies of materials physical prop-
erties. The obtained resulrs of the experiments have an agreement with
the simulation results from the proposed model. Sun et al. [21] per-
formed the tension and hardness tests for workpieces made of alu-
minum and stainless steel which were welded by laser with different
laser parameters. The final tensile strength for optimum welding was
about 120 MPa. The extraordinary properties of the NiTi alloy and its
properties such as environmental compatibility and good mechanical
properties make this alloy useful for a range of medical supplies and
industries. Pouquet et al. [22] investigated the melt pool and NiTi alloy
and austenitic stainless steel structure which were bonded by laser
welding. Gui et al. [23] studied the laser welding of different Ti6AL4V
and BTi6431S titanium alloys with different material’s thickness. The
relationships between depth of penetration and laser power were pro-
posed for various speeds. Tensile strength was more than 1090 and 750
MPa at room and high temperature (500 °C) orderely. Always, joining
the two dissimilar metals in the industries has been important to obtain
the better properties. Miranda et al. [24] experimentally conducted the
laser welding of NiTi and Ti6Al4V plates with 1 mm thickness and
different input thermal energy to control the cooling rate. Micro-
structural observations on butt joints of these alloys indicated the
presence of a good dendritic structure in the fusion zone. Balasu-
bramanian [25] has done a research on laser welding of Ti6Al4V alloy
with stainless steel plate with silver foil as the middle layer in different
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 49 (2020) 438–446
values of laser parameters. The yield stress was surveyed at different
temperatures and pressures and the results showed that the tempera-
ture had more effect on the shear stress than the pressure. Tan et al.
[26] studied laser welding-soldering process for magnesium alloy and
stainless steel with variation the process of parameters such as speed of
the welding; wire feed speed and inlet heat. The microscopic and me-
chanical structure of the welds were studied applying the SEM and
TEM. Yildiz et al. [27] studied the joining of pure titanium and ferritic
stainless steel plates using a nickel layer at several temperatures (800,
825, 850 and 875 °C) under a constant pressure (3 MPa). The Argon gas
was used as means of shielding the melting zone area. Hardness testing
was performed to determine the surface strength. Zhang et al. [28]
presented a method for 3D determination the shape of molten pool
during the process of laser welding for two dissimilar metals of low
carbon steel and stainless steel using the triple regression equations.
These equations prerents the relation between the parameters of laser
welding (power and speed) or even geometrical parameters of the
molten pool. Shen et al. [29] performed a research on laser welding of
different titanium alloys. Both the mechanical properties and micro-
structure of the joints were analyzed. Kumar et al. [30] experimentally
studied the laser welding of Ti6AL4V alloy 5 mm sheet thickness. The
laser Parameters such as power, speed of welding and defocus positions
of the laser beam on the molten pool geomery were investigated.
Blackburn et al. [31] performed a high quality welding on a 3.25 mm
thickness of Ti6Al4V alloy using a laser heat source. They conducted a
welding with very low porosity. Comparison of Ti6Al4V alloy proper-
ties in pulsed laser welding and tungsten welding with argon shielding
gas has been done by Gao et al. [32]. They found that comparing with
the argon welding, the laser welded specimens had a lower distortion,
smaller heat affected zone, better microstructure and higher hardness.
In other words, pulse laser welding of Ti6Al4V is much better than
argon welding. Kong et al. [33] introduced a numerical model for
prediction of the width and depth of HAZ in Ti6Al4V laser heating and
showed that the width and depth of HAZ reduced with increasing the
speed of laser. Pulsed laser welding of Ti6Al4V alloy was performed by
Akman et al. [34]. Their findings demonstrated that the penetration
depth and molten pool dimensions can be monitored by accurate con-
trol of the laser parameters. They found that the ratio of pulse energy to
pulse width is the formost factor in describing the penetration depth.
They also found that at constant peak power, variations in pulse width
had no effect on penetration depth. The geometry of HAZ and weld
fusion zone are known as important critera for assessing of the Ti6Al4V
weld quality. Akbari et al. [35] presented the temperature field and
dimensions of melt pool in pulsed mode laser welding for Ti6Al4V sheet
through experimental and numerical study. The results showed that the
numerical simulation outputs has had a clear agreement with the re-
sults obtaine from experiments. In this section, some experimental and
numerical researches on different types of laser welding with different
materials were discussed. Investigation of molten pool and HAZ, tem-
perature distribution, various laser parameters measurement to obtain a
suitable welding was studied. In all previous researches, the laser
welding was performed numerically and experimentally for similar or
dissimilar materials with the same thicknesses. But laser welding for
joining the Ti6Al4V alloy with dissimilar thickness has not been per-
formed. Investigation of temperature distribution in different thick-
nesses and thereby the efficiency of the plate thickness related to melt
pool deviation toward different thicknesses is a major aim of this study.
2. Experimental procedure
In this study, laser welding was performed to measure the the ad-
jacent temperature of molten pool of the Ti6Al4V alloys sample with 60
× 15 mm & 1, 1.5 and 3 mm thickness (different thickness). According
to the Fig. 1, two grooves with a depth of 1.1 mm were created on each
workpiece with a 3 cm spacing to mount the thermocouples. A titanium
sheet in motion was then exposed to laser energy, and the asymmetric
Z. Li, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 49 (2020) 438–446

grid system was used for the weld pool and the area was far enough
from this zone to clearly diminish the time of computation.

3.1. Governing equations

In the numerical simulation, governing equations were derived ac-

cording to the following assumptions:

• The laser beam was fixed.

• The system of coordinate was motionless.
• The velocity of workpiece in the x-direction was selected invariant
Fig. 1. A piece of 3 mm thickness titanium sheet with two grooves. F. (v ).
welding

• The thermophysical properties of material are function of tem-

perature.
thermal field was obtained by changing the different laser parameters.
By conducting the metallography tests on welding specimens, the
The governing equations is presented as following [36]:
molten pool size and HAZ were measured.
Mass conservation:
Table 1 illustrates the chemical properties of Ti6Al4V alloy.
The pulsed Nd: YAG laser (model IQL-20) was utilized that has the ∂ (ρu) ∂ (ρv ) ∂ (ρw ) ∂ρ
+ + + =0
750 W maximum averaged power and 1.06 μm wavelength. the laser ∂x ∂y ∂z ∂t (1)
pulse duration has the range from 0.2–25 ms and frequency from 1 to
Equation of X -momentum:
250 Hz with 0 pulse energy up to 40 J. To measure the output average
power, Ophir W-Lp 400 power meter was applied. To prevent of oxi- ∂ (ρuu) ∂ (ρuv ) ∂ (ρuw ) ∂ (ρu) ∂ ∂u ∂ ∂u
+ + + = (μ ) + (μ )
dation the molten pool, Argon gas was applied from a coaxial nozzle. ∂x ∂y ∂z ∂t ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y
The flow rate of shielding gas was 15 (lit/min). The setup schematic ∂ ∂u ∂P μ
configuration is seen in Fig. 2. + (μ ) − − (u − vw )
∂z ∂z ∂x K (2)
In this research, flexible type-K thermocouples with 10 cm length, 1
mm tip diameter, −40 to 1260 °C operating temperature, and ± 1 % Equation of Y -momentum:
accuracy were used to measure the temperature. Since most metals ∂ (ρvu) ∂ (ρvv ) ∂ (ρvw ) ∂ (ρv ) ∂ ∂v ∂ ∂v ∂ ∂v
have a melting point higher than this range, the thermocouple cannot + + + = (μ ) + (μ ) + (μ )
∂x ∂y ∂z ∂t ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y ∂z ∂z
be placed at the welding line as the thermocouple’s tip would melt. For ∂P μ
that reason, to obtain the variations of temperature of the molten pool, − − v
∂y K (3)
the temperature of its vicinity is measured. On the top of the surface,
thermocouples were installed at a 2 mm lateral spacing from the molten Equation of Z -momentum:
pool centerline. Since the two welded pieces had different thicknesses
∂ (ρwu) ∂ (ρwv ) ∂ (ρww ) ∂ (ρw ) ∂ ∂w ∂ ∂w
and thermal fields, for increased precision, two thermocouples were + + + = (μ ) + (μ )
∂x ∂y ∂z ∂t ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y
attached on each metal piece to record the changes in temperature.
Fig. 3 shows the size of workpieces and the positions of the thermo- ∂ ∂w ∂P
+ (μ ) −
couples. ∂z ∂z ∂z
μ
In this research, butt welding was used for welding the metal pieces. − w + ρgβ (T − Tref )
K (4)
After polishing, the pieces were placed on a CNC table capable of mo-
tion in three coordinate axes. The data was grabbed and recorded on PC Energy equation:
using the Advantech USB 4718 data acquisition card. The sampes
∂T ∂T ∂T ∂T ∂ ∂T ∂ ∂T
preparation for metallography ething process was performed applying ρCp ( + (u − vw ) +v +w )= (k ) + (k )
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y
the standard techniques. The Olympus SZ-X16 stereoscopic microscope
was applied to measure the dimensions of the melt pool. Table 2 shows ∂ ∂T
+ (k ) + S
a series of the experiment which was performed in this study. ∂z ∂z
∂ ∂ ∂
− (ρuΔH ) − (ρvΔH ) − (ρwΔH )
∂x ∂y ∂z (5)
3. Numerical simulation
The Eqs. (1)–(5) were used simultaneously for theliquid and solid
The aim numerical modeling in this study is investigation of tem- phases. At the top surface, the boundary conditions are presented in the
perature distribution of the area near the fusion zone and prediction of following:
melt pool dimensions in laser welding of dissimilar thickness materials. For liquid region of the molten pool
Moving the workpiece in x direction will create asymmetric tempera- ∂γ ∂T ∂u ∂γ ∂T ∂v
ture field and the shape of melting pool. So, the a transient three-di- − =μ ; − =μ ; w=0
∂T ∂x ∂z ∂T ∂y ∂z (6)
mensional problem ough to be solved.
The calculation domain were 60(mm) × 15(mm) × 1(mm) , In Eq. (6), the coefficient of surface tension temperature was illustrated
60(mm) × 15(mm) × 1.5(mm) and 60(mm) × 15(mm) × 3(mm) by ∂γ .
∂T
(length × width × thikness ). A non-uniform (finer and courser mesh) For the solid region:

Table 1
Chemical composition of Ti6Al4V alloy.
Ti% Al% V% Cu% Mn% Fe% Cr% Mo% Si% Sn% Zr% Nb%

Base 6.5 4.0 < 0.02 0.02 0.04 < 0.01 < 0.03 0.03 < 0.05 0.02 0.02

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Fig. 2. Setup configuration of the laser welding.

beam intensity as follow [39],

P (x , y, t ) = P0 h (t ) e −[2r 2/ rb2] (11)
where P0 is the intensity of laser beam at the beam center and
r = x 2 + y 2 which is known as the radial distance from the beam
center is presented as,
2Ptot
P0 =
πrb2 (12)
where Ptot is the overall absorbed power, Ptot = ηPincident , Pincident is the
Fig. 3. Schematic model of sample for laser welding.
incident laser beam power, rb is the radius of laser beam, and η is the
mean value of material absorption. h (t ) in the Eq. (11), indicates the
Table 2 temporal intensity changes which takes the values 1 and 0 when the
The process parameters of laser welding. pulse is active or inactive, respectively. The Ti6Al4V Thermophysical
Test No. Welding Laser Pulse Pulse Focal properties of is observed in Table 3.
speed (mm/ Power frequency duration length
sec) (W) (Hz) (ms) (mm) 4. Result and discussion
1 4.3 150 15 6 3
2 2 180 20 6 3 In this section, the temperature field and melt pool area is presented
3 4.3 180 20 6 3 according to the variations of the parameters of laser including focal
4 6.2 180 20 6 3 length, speed of welding and peak power.
5 4.3 180 20 6 2
6 4.3 180 20 6 4
7 4.3 150 15 6 4 4.1. The effect of focal length variation
8 2 180 20 6 2
9 2 180 20 6 4 In the first series of experiments (No. 8, 9), the variation in focal
10 2 240 20 6 4 length is observed in Table 4 while the other parameteres remained
11 4.3 225 15 8 4
12 4.3 240 20 8 4
fixed.
Generally, enhancing the beam spot size via increasing the nozzle
gap from the surface results in decreasing the total energy density of
u = vwelding ; v = 0; w = 0 (7) laser beam. Not only it is expected that the surface temperature reduces
significantly but also the beam penetration in the substances is de-
creased. Fig. 4 showed the temperature variations versus time for the 3
3.2. Initial and boundary conditions and 1.5 mm thicknesses at 2 and 4 mm focal lengths using the

The initial condition is given as Table 3

T (x , y, z , 0) = T0 (8) Ti6Al4V thermophysical properties [40–42].
Property Symbol Value
Boundary conditions at the top surface is as follow,
∂T Density ρ 4420 kg m3
z = 0 q − h (T − T∞) − ε (T 4 − T∞4 ) = −k
∂z (9) Specific heat c c = (540 + 0.176T ) J kgC T ≤ Tm

where σ is the constant of Stefan–Boltzmann and is equal to c = 830.4 J kgC T > Tm

5.67 × 108 W m2K 4 , ε is the emissivity coefficient and h is the coefficient of Thermal conductivity k k = (7 + 0.0156T ) W mC T ≤ Tm
convective heat transfer. Frewin and Scott [37] presented the following k = 32.74 W mC T > Tm
correlation for these problems as follow, Latent heat L 418680 J kg

h = 2.4 × 10−3εT1.61 (10) Melt temperature Tm 1650 °C

Boiling temperature Tb 3290 °C
The temperature-dependent emissivity values was derived from the Dynamic viscosity μ 5.2 × 10−3 N . s m2
study of Yang et al. [38]. A Gaussian distribution was considered for

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Table 4
Laser welding parameters in tests 8, 9.
Welding speed (mm/s) Power (W) Focal length (mm) Frequency (Hz) Pulse duration (ms) Test number

2 180 2 20 6 8
2 180 4 20 6 9

Fig. 4. Numerical and experimental results of temperature distribution versus time as a function of focal length (a) F.L = 2 mm, (b) F.L = 4 mm.

Fig. 5. The cross sectional area of the samples at different focal length, (a) F.L = 2 mm, (b) F.L = 4 mm.

Table 5
Comparison the melt pool geometry and the peak temperature for different focal lengths.
Sample Focal length Welding Width (mm) Welding Depth (mm) HAZ Width (t = 1.5 mm) HAZ Width (t = 3 mm) T max T max (t = 3 mm)
(mm) (mm) (mm) (t = 1.5 mm) (ºC) (ºC)

8 2 0.94 1.12 0.58 0.52 187.01 74.38

9 4 0.9 1.02 0.56 0.5 177.77 99.88

Table 6
Laser welding parameters in tests 8, 9.
Welding speed (mm/s) Power (W) Focal length (mm) Frequency (Hz) Pulse duration (ms) Test number

2 180 3 20 6 2
4.3 180 3 20 6 3
6.2 180 3 20 6 4

experimental and numerical results. temperature change in the thinner sheet increases more quickly. In Test
As seen in this figure, when the laser beam moves across the area in 9, the temperature of the 1.5 mm sheet increased from 25 to 177.77 °C,
front of the thermocouple, the temperature of the thinner (1.5 mm) whereas, in the 3 mm sheet, the temperature rose from 25 to 99.88 °C.
sheet is higher than that of the thicker (3 mm) sheet. Also, the rate of The higher temperature indicates that the thinner piece acted as a

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Z. Li, et al.
Fig. 6. Experimental results of temperature versus time as a function of welding speed (a) t = 1 mm, (b) t = 1.5 mm.
Fig. 7. Weld bead surface appearance of Test 2.
smaller heat sink and retained the heat input in the workpiece for a
longer duration. As a result, conduction heat transfer to the vicinity of
welding area was smaller and a higher temperature was occured. In
other words, the cooling rate of the thinner piece was lower than the
thicker piece. This is evident in the comparison between temperature
variations of the thin piece at the two focal lengths of 2 and 4 mm
(Fig. 4a and b) where an increase in the focal length and lower heat
absorption led to a drop in the maximum temperature of the thicker
piece, whereas for the thinner piece this parameter did not show a
significant change. Also, the the numerical simulation results were
match with the experiments. Fig. 5 demonstrated the images of molten
pool at 2 mm and 4 mm focal lengths.
As seen in Fig. 5, the molten pool has deviated towards the thinner
sheet indicating a higher volume of molten metal in the thinner sheet.
The heat-affected zone is also larger in the sheet with less thickness. The
reason is that the thicker sheet serves as a larger heat sink compared to
the thinner sheet, thereby providing a higher cooling rate. Based on the
above explanations, the temperature distribution in the 3 mm sheet
occurs at a lower rate and the molten pool becomes smaller. In Table 5,
Table 7
Comparison the geometry of the molten pool and peak temperature for various welding speeds.
Sample Welding speed Welding Width Welding Depth (mm)
(mm) (mm)
2 2 1.51 Full penetration
3 4.3 1.26 Full penetration
4 6.2 0.93 0.89
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 49 (2020) 438–446
the sizes of the molten pool and HAZ are presented.
According to the molten pool comparison presented in Table 5,
when the focal length decreases, the laser is irradiated from a shorter
distance, and the temperature of the metal further increases, subse-
quently increasing the temperature and dimensions of the HAZ and
molten pool.
4.2. The effect of welding speed
As seen in Table 6, in the second series of the experiments (2, 3, 4
test No), the welding speed was changed while another parameters
remained constant. The thickness of samples in these tests are 1 and 1.5
milimeteres. By comparing the results, it can be noted that by in-
creasing the speed of welding, the measured temperature by thermo-
couples was clearly decreased.
According to the Fig. 6, enhancing the welding speed from 2 to 6.2
mm/s, caused to sharply reducing the temperature adjacent area of the
melt pool from 280.17 °C to 98.24 °C and from 224.32 °C to 68.57 °C for
samples with 1 and 1.5 mm thickness, respectively.
When the laser motion speed is increased, the laser beam is pro-
jected onto the piece for a shorter duration, resulting in a decreased
temperature of the molten pool and its vicinity. This also has a re-
markable effect on the microstructure, quality of weld, and size of the
molten pool. generally, the molt pool size grows as the temperature
increases. By comparing Fig. 6 (a) and (b), it is found that for a constant
laser speed, the thinner piece experiences a higher temperature. It
shows that the thicker piece serves as a larger heat sink and the heat
input to the piece remains in it for a shorter duration, resulting in a
higher conductive heat transfer to the vicinity of the welding position
and a lower temperature. In other words, the cooling rate of the thicker
piece was higher than, the thinner piece.
Fig. 7 shows the top view of the welded surface in Test 3. It shows
that the molten pool has inclined towards the thinner piece with re-
lative to the contact point of the 1 mm and 1.5 mm pieces. Table 7
compares the sizes of the molten pools and the maximum temperature
in Test 2, 3 and 4.
Fig. 8a presents the changes of the melt pool with varing the
HAZ Width (t = 1 mm) HAZ Width (t = 1.5 mm) T max T max (t = 1.5 mm)
(mm) (mm) (t = 1 mm) (ºC) (ºC)
0.86 0.79 280.17 224.32
0.74 0.7 147.18 93.91
0.59 0.48 98.24 68.57
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Fig. 8. Results of numerical and experimental data (a) width as a function of speed of welding, (b) maximum temperature as a function of speed of welding and (c)
maximum temperature as a function of width of melt pool.

Table 8
Laser welding parameters in tests 9, 10.
Welding speed (mm/s) Power (W) Focal length (mm) Frequency (Hz) Pulse duration (ms) Test number

2 180 4 20 6 9
2 240 4 20 6 10

Fig. 9. numerical simulation and experimental results of the temperature distribution versus time as a function of power (a) P = 180 W, (b) P = 240 W.

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Z. Li, et al.
Table 9
Comparison the geometry of the molten pool and peak temperature for various focal lengths.
Sample Power (W) Welding Width (mm) Welding Depth (mm) HAZ Width (t = 1.5 mm)
(mm)
9 180 0.9 1.02 0.56
10 240 1.73 1.41 0.92
welding speed achieved by performing tests 2, 3 and 4. The variation of
speed of welding was between 2 and 6.2 mm/s. Looking at the results,
by enhancing the laser speed of welding, the molten pool width was
decreased. In other words, welding speed and welding width have an
inverse effect on each other. Fig. 8b shows the relation between the
welding speed and experimental and numerical maximum temperature
around the molten pool (2 mm far from the molten pool center). It can
be concluded that the temperature was diminished by enhancing the
welding speed. Fig. 8c illustrates variation of the peak temperature with
a molten pool width. This figure was obtained from the results of Fig. 8a
and b. The results indicated that a smaller width is related to smaller
temperature. This trend can be reasonable and numerical results are
completely match with experimental findings.
4.3. Effect of power
As shown in Table 8, in the third series of the experiments (910 test
No), the power was changed while another parameters remained con-
stant for samples with 1.5 and 3 milimeteres thickness. Commonly,
enhancing the electrical current causes to the increasing the peak
power. By rising the electrical current, the laserpower was increased
from 180 W to 240 W. Usually, increasing the laser peak power has a
direct effect on the penetration depth in laser welding and the amount
of heat input to the work piece.
The most important effect of increasing peak power is increasing the
pulse energy. In Fig. 9, the comparison of the temperature near the
molten pool in experiments No. 9 and 10 indicates a significantly en-
hance in temperature with rising the power.
Table 9 compares the sizes of the molten pool and the maximum
temperature in Tests 9 and 10. As seen in Fig. 9 and Table 9, it is
concluded that as the laser power rises, the maximum temperatures
experienced by 1.5 mm and 3 mm thickness pieces also increase. Fur-
ther, at both 180 W and 240 W powers, the thinner sheet experiences
higher temperatures compared to the thicker sheet. Similarly, the width
and depth of the molten pool grew significantly by increasing the power
of laser. This is normal due to the higher heat absorbed by the work-
piece at higher powers.
5. Conclusions
In this study, pulsed laser welding experiment were conducted on
Ti6Al4V alloy plate with 60 × 15 mm area and 1, 1.5 and 3 mm dif-
ferent thicknesses. To predict the temperature, HAZ and molten pool
dimensions through the laser welding. The key results are as follow,
• According to the temperature measured by thermocouples, the
thinner plate showed the higher temperature gradient and the melt
pool has been deviated from the center of the butt joint toward the
thinner plate due to lower rate of cooling.
• The results showed that the thinner plate determines the sets of
parameters selection in order to achieve appropriate both penetra-
tion depth and width of the melt pool.
• Changing the pulsed laser process parameters has a considerable
effect on the temperature and dimensions of the molten pool.
According to selecting appropriate process parameters composed of
laser power, pulse frequency, pulse duration and peak power, ac-
ceptable quality of weld bead will be produced.
445
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 49 (2020) 438–446
HAZ Width (t = 3 mm) T max (t = 1.5 mm) T max (t = 3 mm) (ºC)
(mm) (ºC)
0.5 177.77 99.88
0.73 325.51 264.47
• The sheet thickness has had the highest impact on the weld devia-
tion because of creating different cooling rate. Lower cooling rate
induced by thineer plate created higher temperature gradient on
thinner plate and thereby the laser beam absorbtion remarkably
increased and the melt pool deviated toward the thinner plate.
• By decreasing the the laser power, the melt volume and the tem-
perature of the molten pool boosted remarkably compared to
changing the other parammeters.
• The numerical simulations temperature gradients were adequately
match with the empirical findings.
• Enhancing the welding speed from 2 to 6.2 mm/s, sharply reduced
the temperature of the adjacent area of the melt pool from 280 °C to
98 °C for and 1 mm thickness. A reduction from 224 °C to 68 C was
observed for 1.5 mm thickness.
• Although the depth of melt pool was identical for both thicknesses
(1and 1.5 mm), the width of the melt pool for 1 mm thickness was
almost towice bigger than 1.5 mm thickness because of inclination
the melt pool toward the thiner sheet.
Funding
No funding was received for this work.
Declaration of Competing Interest
We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest
associated with this publication and there has been no significant fi-
nancial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.
Acknowledgements
This research is partially supported by NSFC (51979261), State Key
Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Simulation and Safety-Tianjin
University (No. HESS-1901) and Australia ARC DECRA (No.
DE190100931)
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