Journal of Manufacturing Processes 46 (2019) 317–327

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Journal of Manufacturing Processes

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

Investigation on the mass transfer control, process stability and welding T

quality during underwater pulse current FCAW for Q235
⁎
Ning Guoa,b,c, , Qi Chenga,b, Yunlong Fua,b, Yongpeng Dua,b,d, Xin Zhanga,b, Jicai Fenga,b
a
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding and Joining, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
b
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Special Welding Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology at Weihai, Weihai 264209, China
c
Shandong Institute of Shipbuilding Technology, Weihai 264209, China
d
Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ocean
Environmental Monitoring Techno1ogy, National Engineering and Technological Research Center of Marine Monitoring Equipment, Qingdao 266001, China

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

Keywords: Pulse current technology is employed to adjust the mass transfer and improve the welding quality, and effects of
Underwater welding the pulse frequency (f), load duty cycle (D) and peak current (Ip) on the droplet were analyzed based on Taguchi
Pulse current method during underwater flux-cored arc welding (FCAW). In underwater wet pulse FCAW (FCAW-P), the mass
Mass transfer transfer process is observed and the interaction mechanism of the pulse current on the droplet is investigated
Process stability
using in-situ X-ray imaging method. Within one pulse period, the decreasing repulsive force and the increasing
Microstructure and mechanical properties
gravitational assist the droplets detach from the wire or touch with the welding pool at the end of the peak pulse
duration and reduce the droplet detachment angle, improving the mass transfer stability and thus increasing the
arc stability and ameliorating the bead appearance. The stable mass transfer process and welding arc increase the
effective heat input, and thus decreases the acicular ferrite and increases the pro-eutectoid ferrite in the bead.
The hardness distribution and the tensile strength of the beads deposited in conventional and pulse current
underwater wet FCAW are identical basically, demonstrating the application of pulse current technology does
not deteriorate the mechanical properties.

1. Introduction
With the rapid development of marine engineering in recent years,
underwater wet welding, especially the flux-cored wire arc welding
(FCAW), has been employed widely in the repairment of the marine
structures, including platforms, submarine pipelines and others, based
on its high deposition rate, simple welding process and excellent
adaptability [1–3]. However, the water environment and ambient
pressure lead to unstable burning of the welding arc, high amount of
welding spatters, pool weld formation and low mechanical properties,
as no mechanical barriers are employed between the water and the
welding region in the underwater wet method [4–7]. Consequently, the
arc welding technology has not been used for the cladding and additive
manufacturing in underwater environment directly. For the FCAW,
metal transfer, describing the molten metal from the welding consum-
able to the welding pool, is crucial for the arc stability, welding geo-
metry and welding quality, which is influenced seriously by the sur-
rounding environment and the water pressure for FCAW. Guo et al.
acquired clear imagines during the mass transfer process in the wet
FCAW based on the X-ray photographing and demonstrated the droplets
were repelled violently by the gas flow drag force [8]. Jia et al. in-
vestigated the mass transfer in the underwater FCAW using the visual
sensing method. They concluded that the reaction region of the welding
arc was limited, causing the drifting and deviation behaviors of arc spot
[9]. Feng et al. investigated the dynamic behaviors of bubble evolution
during underwater FCAW, which affected the stability of the welding
process violently [10]. Guo et al. stated that the projected transfer and
spray transfer could not been observed although under high welding
current [11]. Fu et al. stated that the metal transfer process in wet
FCAW was repelled seriously and unstable, giving rise to the poor arc
stability, high spatter amounts and low welding quality [12].
In in-air welding and cladding, many researches have been carried
out to control the mass transfer and thus improve the quality of the
welds or cladding layer. Feng et al. analyzed the mass transfer of CMT
by sensing and image method and demonstrated the CMT method could
achieve no spatter welding at low heat input [13]. Lebedov et al. in-
vestigated the pulse electrode wire feed method for gas metal arc
welding (GMAW) to change the droplet transition process, indicating

⁎
Corresponding author at: No.2 Wenhuaxi Road, Weihai 264209, China.
E-mail address: gn21c@126.com (N. Guo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2019.08.022
Received 9 April 2019; Received in revised form 3 August 2019; Accepted 22 August 2019
1526-6125/ © 2019 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
N. Guo, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 46 (2019) 317–327

the wire acceleration under the constant process parameters could re-
duce the electrode metal losses through adjusting the kinematic con-
ditions of molten metal on the electrode tip [14]. Praveen et al. pro-
posed the globular mode was characterized by big droplets and arc
instability. They also presented the pulse gas metal arc welding
(GMAW-P) could overcome globular mode drawbacks by changing the
droplet transfer mode at lower mean currents [15]. Palani and Murugan
stated that the current pulse parameters of GMAW-P play a great role in
the mass transition process, arc stability, bead appearance and weld
bead geometry [16]. Silva and Scotti investigated the double-pulsed
GMAW and indicated it could keep the porosity minimization capability
[17]. Santos et al. demonstrated that the GMAW-P could achieves
streaming transfer at low arc length so that the high productivity
welding applied for heat sensitive materials was produced [18]. Lu Fig. 1. Current-time diagram during pulsed current underwater wet FCAW.
et al. proposed the double-variable control for GMAW-P to obtain good
bead appearance and stable welding process without complex metal Table 2
transfer control [19]. For underwater FCAW, Guo et al. utilized the Process parameters of Taguchi experiment and comparison experiment.
pulsed wire feed technology to control the metal transition process and
Exp. Pulse frequency(Hz) Load duty cycle Peak current(A)
improve the process stability. They reported that the inertia force in-
creased the droplet transition frequency and decreased the globular 1 20 0.05 250
repelled transfer percentage [20]. 2 20 0.15 300
During the wet FCAW, the unstable metal transfer process causes 3 20 0.25 350
4 50 0.05 300
poor arc stability, uneven welding appearance and low welding quality, 5 50 0.15 350
restricting the development of the underwater arc cladding and ad- 6 50 0.25 250
ditive manufacturing. However, few researches have been conducted to 7 100 0.05 350
control the mass transition process and investigate the effect of mass 8 100 0.15 250
9 100 0.25 300
transition on the weld quality for underwater wet FCAW. In this paper,
10 – 1 200
the pulse current technology was utilized to control the mass transition
and reduce the repulsion on droplets for underwater FCAW. In addition,
the interaction mechanism of the mass transition, controlled by the also performed to analyze the pulse current underwater wet FCAW
pulse current, on the process stability, surface appearance, welding (FCAW-P) comparatively. The specific parameters were shown in
quality of beads deposited by conventional and pulse current under- Table 2, where the Exp. 10 represents the conventional wet FCAW ex-
water wet FCAW were investigated. periment. For the investigation of mass transition process and process
stability during underwater FCAW, the in-situ X-ray imaging system
2. Experiment procedure was utilized and electric signals were measured synchronously, as il-
lustrated in Fig. 2.
Bead welding was carried out on Q235 base metal and the corre- The metallographic samples were cross-sections of the beads and the
sponding chemical composition was listed in Table 1. The flux-cored microstructure was investigated by the optical digital microscope
wire was TiO2-CaF2-CaO-SiO2 slag system, whose diameter is 1.6 mm. (Model DSX 510). On the cross sections of the underwater wet beads,
In this research, the welding speed was 1.5 mm/s and the wire feed the Vickers microhardness was measured through the Model HV-1000 T
speed was 55 mm/s. The welding machine is the NBC-500 that could with 500 g test load, 10 s dwell time and 0.5 mm interval. Small tensile
perform at the constant-current or pulse-current mode. The main specimens were cut from the welds to analyze the tensile strength of the
parameters of pulse underwater wet FCAW are base current (Ib), peak wet FCAW beads, and the position and dimensions were displayed in
current (Ip), peak current duration (Tp), base current duration (Tb), Fig. 3. The tensile experiments were carried out by Instron 5967 type
pulse frequency (f) and load duty cycle (D), as shown in Fig. 1. The 30 kN universal material testing machine at room temperature and the
average current (Ia) was defined by the Ip, Ib, Tp and Tb, and the f and D fracture surfaces were captured by the scanning electron microscope
could be calculated by the Tp and Tb, according to the Eqs. (1)–(3): (SEM).

Ia = (Ip Tp + Ib Tb) Tp + Tb (1)

3. Results and discussion
f = 1/(Tp + Tb) (2)
3.1. Mass transfer
D = Tp/(Tp + Tb) (3)

Fig. 1 Current-time diagram during pulsed current underwater wet 3.1.1. Fundamental mass transfer type
FCAW For underwater FCAW, the main mass transfer channel is the droplet
In this paper, the average current (Ia) was preset to 200 A, and the transfer process from the wire to the welding pool. Guo et al. demon-
pulsed current was defined by the Ip, f and D. The effect of the Ip, f and D strated in underwater wet FCAW the mass transfer types were the high-
on the mass transition was studied through Taguchi method, and the angle repelled transfer, low-angle repelled transfer, surface tension
conventional wet FCAW experiment in a constant-current mode was transfer and explosive transfer [21]. Attributed to the stable transfer
process, the low-angle repelled transfer and surface tension transfer are
Table 1
helpful to improve the process stability and bead quality in underwater
Composition of Base Metal (wt.%). wet welding.
Through investigating the high-speed photography and the syn-
Base Metal C Mn Si S P
chronous electrical signal during the underwater wet FCAW-P, the mass
Q235 0.14–0.22 0.30–0.65 ≤0.30 ≤0.05 ≤0.045 transition modes were the repelled transfer and surface tension transfer.
Fig. 4 displays the typical mass transition process of the repelled

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Fig. 2. In-situ X-ray imaging and electric signal acquisition system.

Fig. 3. The tensile strength specimens (mm): (a) sampling positions; (b) tensile specimen.

Fig. 4. Mass transition process of the repelled transfer.

transfer, in which the peak current, pulse frequency and load duty cycle
are 350 A, 20 Hz and 0.25 respectively during a pulse period. From
14519.5 ms to 14691.5 ms, the droplet was repelled obviously by the
repulsive forces and began to detach from the electrode tip after four
pulse cycles. The mass transfer type is regarded as the high-angle re-
pelled transfer owing to the larger detachment angle (> 90°). The low-
angle repelled transfer was also displayed in Fig. 4 from 14802.5 ms to
15054.0 ms and the transfer process was approximately the same as the
high-angle repelled transfer except the detachment angle (< 90°). It
should be noted that the droplets were not transferred within one pulse
cycle, distinct from the one drop per pulse (ODPP) mode and the multi
drops per pulse (MDPP) mode in onshore pulse current arc welding, and
the droplet detachments occurred at the terminal peak pulse time.
Fig. 5 displays the mass transition process about the surface tension
transfer in the pulse current underwater wet FCAW. From 15156.0 ms
to 15360.5 ms, the droplet growed up and deviated from the wire axis.

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Fig. 5. Mass transition process of the surface tension transfer.

Fig. 6. Force schematic: (a) repelled transfer; (b) surface tension transfer.

At 15368.5 ms, the droplet touched to the molten pool and the necking
emerged within the liquid bridge while the welding voltage decreased
from 24.1 V to 5.7 V and the welding current soared to 380.5 A higher
than the peak current obviously. At 15373.5 ms, the liquid bridge
breaked and then the droplet transferred. The mass transition process
sustained five pulse cycles until the droplet contacted with the welding
pool during the peak current duration.
As illustrated in Fig. 6, the mass transition process is controlled by
the forces on the droplet including the gravitational (G), surface tension
(Fs), the vaporization force (Fa), plasma drag force (F1), electromagnetic
force (Fe), and gas flow drag force (FL) in the underwater wet FCAW.
Attributed to the rapid cooling by the aqueous environment and the
relative mobility between the bubble and the droplet, the droplet is
repelled violently and the transfer is hindered by the Fe and FL. Con-
sequently, the mass transfer types are the repelled transfer and the
surface tension transfer during the underwater wet FCAW-P rather than
Fig. 7. High-angle repelled transfer percentage and average detachment angle.
the spray transfer, observed in the onshore GMAW-P under similar
process parameters, and the ODPP and MDPP are not achieved. Within
one pulse period, the flux-cored wire melted mainly during the peak
current duration while the electromagnetic force (Fe) decreases

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Fig. 8. Main effects plot by means of the high-angle repelled transfer percentage: (a) pulse frequency; (b) load duty cycle; (c) peak current.

compared to the base current time due to the increase of the welding FCAW-P decrease obviously compared to that in the conventional wet
current according to the minimum voltage principle, causing the FCAW, indicating that the application of the pulse current improves the
gravitational (G) increases and the repulsive force reduces. As the metal transfer process stability effectively. Figs. 8 and 9 show the main
consequence, most of the droplet detachments occur at the terminal of effect plot to investigate the direct effects of factors on the response
the peak current duration for repelled transfer. For surface tension variable. As identified from Fig. 8, with the increase of the Ip and D, the
transfer mode, the short circuit between the droplet and the welding high-angle repelled transfer percentage decreases gradually. While the f
pool occurs mainly in the peak current duration as the droplets grow up changes from 20 Hz to 100 Hz the high-angle repelled transfer per-
at this moment, and meanwhile the surface tension (Fs) and electro- centage raises initially and then reduces, and the maximum value is
magnetic force (Fe) generate within liquid bridge, promoting the mass observed at 50 Hz pulse frequency. Based on the slope in the main ef-
transfer. fects plot, it could be found that the Ip plays the most important role in
the high-angle repelled transfer percentage and the next is the D. As
displayed in Fig. 9, the effect of Ip, f and D on the average detachment
3.1.2. Effects of process parameters on mass transfer
angle is similar to that on the high-angle repelled transfer percentage.
The mass transfer process in underwater FCAW contains different
Figs. 10 and 11 show the main effect plot of the S/N ratio of the high-
transfer types under the same welding parameters. To improve the
angle repelled transfer percentage and the average detachment angle
process stability and the welding quality, the high-angle repelled
and it displays the opposite trend of the main effects curve of means,
transfer percentage and the detachment angle should be controlled in
demonstrating that there are no deviations in the experimental results.
the mass transition process of the underwater FCAW. The effects of the
From the main effect plots of the high-angle repelled transfer percen-
peak current (Ip), pulse frequency (f) and load duty cycle (D) on the
tage and the average detachment angle, the optimal parametric con-
proportion of the high-angle repelled transfer and the detachment angle
dition (i.e. the Ip = 350 A, f = 20 Hz and D = 0.25) for pulse current
within the mass transfer process were analyzed based on Taguchi
underwater wet FCAW was obtained to improve the metal transfer
method, and the optimal parameter setting were evaluated through
stability.
signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio (η, dB) depending on process characteristics
Tables 3 and 4 show the analysis of variance (ANOVA) ratio for the
to be optimized. With the main objective to minimize the high-angle
high-angle repelled transfer percentage and the average detachment
repelled transfer percentage and detachment angles, smaller-the-better
angle, respectively, to determine which process parameters sig-
S/N ratio was used with following equation:
nificantly influences the metal transfer process. ANOVA was carried out
n at 95% confidence interval i.e. 5% significant level. In ANOVA table,
⎡1
η = −101g ⎢
n
∑ yi2 ⎤⎥ while the significance value (P value) is smaller than 0.05, the corre-
⎣ i=1 ⎦ (4) sponding factors are regarded as significant at 95% confidence level. As
displayed in Tables 3 and 4, the P value demonstrates that the Ip, f and
yi is the data under ith trial and n is trial numbers.
D are significant parameters for the high-angle repelled transfer per-
As displayed in Fig. 7, both the high-angle repelled transfer per-
centage and the average detachment angle. The F test could be utilized
centage and the average detachment angle in the underwater wet

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Fig. 9. Main effects plot by means of the detachment angle: (a) pulse frequency; (b) load duty cycle; (c) peak current.
to assess the importance of the process parameter on the mass transition
process. Normally, the process parameter has more effect on the mass
transition process while the F value is larger. The F value of the factors
in Table 4 indicates the Ip is dominant for the proportion of the high-
angle repelled transfer owing to the uppermost value (39.00), and the
load D and f have less influence due to the smaller F value (24.14 and
21.57). As shown in Table 4, the F values of the Ip, D and f are 64.58,
49.33 and 25.33 respectively, and hence the Ip serves a more vital role
in affecting the detachment angle in the mass transition process and the
effect of D on the detachment angle is next only to the Ip.
As mentioned in last section, the molten droplets in underwater wet
FCAW-P detach from the wire tip at the terminal of the peak current
duration, commonly. Within the peak current duration, the higher
welding current compared to base welding current reduces the elec-
tromagnetic force (Fe) which actually serves as the repulsive force,
causing the detachment angle decreases and thus a portion of the high-
angle repelled transfer could be converted to the low-angle repelled
transfer. Also, the rapid growth of droplets in the peak current duration
causes the droplets are prone to contact with the welding pool, de-
creasing the high-angle repelled transfer further. Consequently, the
pulse current technology decreases effectively the percentage of the
high-angle repelled transfer and the average detachment angle in un-
derwater wet FCAW. For pulse current underwater wet FCAW, higher
peak current decreases the electromagnetic force more obviously in
peak current duration, and thus the peak current plays a more im-
portant role in influencing the metal transfer process. The larger D
means longer peak current duration within one pulse current period.
With increasing the load duty cycle from 0.05 to 0.25, the duration of
the small repulsive force increases, beneficial to stabilize the metal
transfer process. Under certain load duty cycle, as the f increases the
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 46 (2019) 317–327
action time of Ip reduces within one pulse period and then the effect of
the pulse current decreases.
3.2. Comparative analysis
For investigating effects of the mass transition process on the pro-
cess stability, welding appearance, microstructure and mechanical
properties under optimal process parameters, obtained through the
Taguchi method, of underwater wet FCAW-P (Exp. 3) and conventional
underwater wet FCAW (Exp. 10) were analyzed comparatively.
3.2.1. Arc stability
Fig. 12 exhibits the arc voltage probability density distribution for
the underwater wet FCAW-P and the conventional underwater wet
FCAW. The typical three hump shape of the arc voltage probability
density curve indicates the short-circuit process and arc interruption are
present in conventional underwater wet FCAW process. In addition, the
areas of the short circuit hump and arc interruption hump mean pro-
portions of the short-circuit and arc breaking time in the whole welding
duration. Compared to the conventional underwater wet FCAW, the arc
interruption hump region of the pulse current underwater wet FCAW
decreases obviously, implying the pulse current technology improve the
arc stability effectively. Moreover, the short-circuit process proportion
increases through investigating the short-circuit hump area. Within the
high-angle repelled transfer process, the arc voltage and the welding
current fluctuate fiercely and the arc interruption even occurs owing to
the severe swing of the droplet and large detachment angle. As shown
in Fig. 7, both the average detachment angle and the high-angle re-
pelled transfer percentage of the underwater wet FCAW-P are smaller
than those of the underwater wet FCAW, decreasing the probability of
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Fig. 10. Main effects plot of S/N ratio of the high-angle repelled transfer percentage: (a) pulse frequency; (b) load duty cycle; (c) peak current.

the arc interruption. The larger short-circuit hump area indicates the boundary in which the pro-eutectoid ferrite (PF and GBF) comes into
increase of the surface tension transfer proportion during the weld being. As shown in the Fig. 14(c) and (d), the block and strip pro-eu-
process, which improve the arc stability further. tectoid ferrites are dispersed on the coarse prior austenite grain
boundary and the typical widmannstatten structure (WS), consisting of
FSP and pearlite (P), is observed in the CGHAZ. Compared to the mi-
3.2.2. Welding morphology and microstructure
crostructure in beads of the underwater wet FCAW, the amount of the
Fig. 13 presents the welding appearance and the corresponding
AF in beads of the underwater FCAW-P decreases while the relative
cross-sectional macrostructure of the beads deposited by the under-
volume fraction of PF increases significantly. In addition, the micro-
water wet FCAW-P and the conventional underwater wet FCAW. From
structure structures in the CGHAZ of the pulse current underwater wet
the cross-sectional observations, no pore and crack defects could be
FCAW bead keep almost unchanged except that the grain size increases.
observed by naked eyes. For the bead of underwater wet FCAW, there
The average grain diameter of CGHAZ in the underwater wet FCAW
are many welding defects such as weld tumours and arc pits, causing
bead is about 76.2 μm, while that of CGHAZ in the underwater wet
the surface appearance is inhomogeneous and the middle part is almost
FCAW-P bead is about 98.4 μm.
broken. The welding appearance of the underwater wet FCAW-P, by
The differences of the cross-section geometry and microstructure
comparison, is continuous and uniform without obvious welding de-
between the conventional and pulse current underwater wet FCAW are
fects. Compared to the underwater wet FCAW, the application of the
attributed to the different heat and mass transfers. Although the
pulse current reduces the proportion of the high-angle repelled transfer
average welding current of the underwater wet FCAW-P is equal to the
and controls detachment angles, decreasing the droplets impacting on
preset welding current of the conventional underwater wet FCAW, the
the base metal but not transferring into welding pool and improving the
instantaneous power and the line energy are different during the actual
arc stability. Accordingly, the weld tumours around weld seam decrease
welding process. In order to investigate the heat transfer process, the
and the adverse effect of arc interruption on the welding formation
effective power and line energy are obtained by the following equations
could be minimized, improving the welding appearance.
according to [22].
As one can see on Table 5, the width (BW) and reinforcement (BR)
of the bead in the underwater wet FCAW-P are slightly lower than those 1 T

in the conventional underwater wet FCAW, While the bead penetration

P
T
∫0 u (t )*i (t ) dt
(5)
(BP) increases about 14.9%. Fig. 14 displays the microstructures of the
P *η
weld zone and the coarse-grained HAZ (CGHAZ). The microstructures Q=
V (6)
in the weld metal of the conventional and pulse current underwater wet
FCAW exhibit the mixture of the four types of ferrite i.e. polygonal P is the effective power, T is the welding duration, u(t) and i(t) are
ferrite (PF), side plate ferrite (FSP), grain boundary ferrite (GBF), and the instantaneous voltage and the current respectively, Q is line energy,
acicular ferrite (AF), as displayed in the Fig. 14(a) and (b). The AF is V is welding speed, η is effective coefficient.
found within the grains while the FSP is parallel to the austenite grain Attributed to the smaller detachment angle and lower high-angle

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Fig. 11. Main effects plot of S/N ratio of the detachment angle: (a) pulse frequency; (b) load duty cycle; (c) peak current.

Table 3
ANOVA for the high-angle globular repelled transfer percentage.
Source DFa Seq SSb Adj SSc Adj MSd F Pe

f 2 0.010067 0.010067 0.005033 21.57 0.044 Significant

D 2 0.011267 0.011267 0.005633 24.14 0.040 Significant
Ip 2 0.018200 0.018200 0.009100 39.00 0.025 Significant
Error 2 0.000467 0.000467 0.000233
Total 8 0.040000

Table 4
ANOVA for the average detachment angle.
Source DF Seq SS Adj SS Adj MS F P

f 2 202.67 202.67 101.333 25.33 0.038 Significant

D 2 394.67 394.67 197.333 49.33 0.020 Significant
Ip 2 516.67 516.67 258.333 64.58 0.015 Significant
Error 2 8.00 8.00 4.000 Fig. 12. The arc voltage probability N (%).
Total 8 1122.00

transformation of austenite, which was favorable to the diffusion of

repelled transfer percentage, the stable mass transition process de-
creases the duration of the arc interruption during the pulse current
underwater wet FCAW, increasing the effective power and line energy
slightly, as listed in the Table 5. For both the welding through the
constant-current mode and the pulse-current mode, the wire feed speed
were identical, and thus the energy used for melting the wire could be
assumed the same. In addition, Fu et al. demonstrated the lower high-
angle repelled transfer percentage decreases the amounts of the spat-
ters, which increases the energy transferring from the molten droplet to
the welding pool [12]. Higher heat input and lower cooling rate could
provide enough time to experience the high temperature phase
carbon and facilitated the formation of coarse proeutectoid ferrite
[22,23]. Consequently, for the pulse current underwater wet FCAW, the
higher line energy acting on the welding pool during the microstructure
transformation process increases the amount of the PF and decreases
the AF nucleating and growing up at the low transformation tempera-
ture in beads, and causes the grain size increases in the CGHAZ.
Moreover, the higher heat input and larger impact action of the droplets
on the welding pool caused by the smaller detachment angle increase
the welding penetration.
3.2.3. Mechanical properties
Fig. 15 exhibits the Vickers hardness distribution along the vertical

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Fig. 13. Appearance and cross-sections of the beads: (a) the conventional underwater wet FCAW; (b) the underwater wet FCAW-P.

Table 5 line from the upper surface to the base metal on the cross-section of the
Bead geometry parameters. constant-current and the pulse-current underwater wet FCAW. For the
BW (mm) BP (mm) BR (mm) P (w) Q (J/mm)
underwater FCAW, the average hardness of the weld zone is about
169.7 HV, higher than the base metal hardness (158.4 HV), while the
Underwater wet FCAW 13.75 1.88 4.44 5320.54 2837.62 highest hardness value is observed at CGHAZ near the fusion zone. The
Underwater wet FCAW- 13.26 2.16 4.38 5493.82 2930.04 composition of outer metal of flux-cored wire is identical to that of base
P
metal, and no C, Mn and Cr are added in the flux-cored wire, causing
the carbon equivalent of the weld metal is low. Consequently, the mi-
crostructure in the welding zone is ferrite and no martensite is

Fig. 14. Microstructures of the weld zone and the CGHAZ: (a) weld zone in the cunderwater wet FCAW bead; (b) weld zone in the underwater wet FCAW-P bead; (c)
CGHAZ in the underwater wet FCAW bead; (d) CGHAZ in the underwater wet FCAW-P bead.

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N. Guo, et al.
Fig. 15. The hardness distribution data.
observed, causing the hardness variation between welding zone and
base metal is not much pronounced. For comparison, the hardness
distribution trend of the underwater wet FCAW-P essentially agrees
with that of the conventional underwater wet welding. Consequently,
the slight differences in the ratio of the microstructure and the grain
size in the CGHAZ do not lead to obvious hardness variation. As dis-
played in Fig. 16(a), the average ultimate tensile strengths of the weld
metal deposited by the underwater wet FCAW-P and the conventional
underwater wet FCAW are about 487 MPa and 494 MPa, which are
basically identical. The fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens from
the weld metal are displayed in Fig. 16. Equiaxed dimples distributed
on the two fracture surfaces uniformly, exhibiting ductile fracture
characteristics. It could be concluded that the application of the pulse
current improves the arc stability and the welding appearance through
Fig. 16. Tensile strength and SEM images of the tensile fracture surfaces: (a) tensile strength; (b) fracture surface of the underwater wet FCAW; (c) fracture surface of
the underwater wet FCAW-P bead.
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controlling the metal transfer process and does not deteriorate the
mechanical properties.
4. Conclusions
(1) During the underwater wet FCAW-P, the mass transition types are
the high-angle repelled transfer, the low-angle repelled transfer and
the surface tension transfer. The transferring of droplets usually
occur at the end of the peak pulse duration due to the decrease of
the repulsive force and the increase of the gravitational.
(2) In the underwater wet FCAW-P, the high-angle repelled transfer
percentage and the average detachment angle of the metal transfer
process are controlled effectively. Based on the analysis through
Taguchi method, it could be concluded that the peak current (Ip)
serves a more vital role in the detachment angle and metal transfer
mode and the next is the load duty cycle (D) and the pulse fre-
quency (f).
(3) Under the optimized process parameters, the arc burns stably and
the welding appearance is uniform without welding defects in the
underwater wet FCAW-P, benefitting from the lower high-angle
repelled transfer percentage and smaller detachment angle.
(4) The stable mass transition process decreases the duration of arc
interruptions in the underwater wet FCAW-P and thus increases the
effective power and the heat input slightly, causing the amount of
the AF decreases while that of the PF increases in beads, and the
grain size increases in the CGHAZ.
(5) The hardness distribution of the bead and the tensile strength of the
weld metal in underwater wet FCAW-P essentially agrees with those
in the conventional wet FCAW. The uniform equiaxed dimples
distribute on fracture surfaces, indicating the tensile specimens
fractured in the ductile mode. The pulse current technology im-
proves the process stability and the bead appearance through
N. Guo, et al.
controlling the metal transfer process and does not deteriorate the
mechanical properties in the underwater wet welding.
Declaration of Competing Interest
All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the financial support for this study from
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.
HIT.NSRIF.201602, HIT.NSRIF.201704, HIT. MKSTISP.201617), the
Shandong Provincial Key Research and Development Plan (Grant No.
2017CXGC0922, 2018GGX103003) and Natural Science Foundation of
Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2017QEE005, ZR2017PEE010).
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