Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols.

813-814 (2015) pp 456-461 Submitted: 2015-04-23

© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Revised: 2015-06-22
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.813-814.456 Accepted: 2015-07-13
Online: 2015-11-27

Optimization of GMAW parameters to improve the mechanical

properties
S.Saravanan1, a*, P.Pitchipoo2, b
1&2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.S.R. Engineering College, Sivakasi
*a
saravanan4670@gmail.com, bdrpitchipoo@gmail.com

Keywords: GMAW; Optimization; Taguchi method; Grey Relational Analysis; Mechanical

properties

Abstract - In this paper, multi objective optimization of Gas Metal Arc Welding GMAW)
parameters are carried out to yield good mechanical strength in welded joints. Most of the failures
are occurred on the welded elements due to the setting of improper welding parameters. The
strength of welded joints in GMAW depends on several input process parameters such as welding
current, welding voltage, gas flow rate, torch angle, welding speed, wire size and electrode feed
rate. Wrong selection of these process parameters will lead to bad quality welds. So there is a need
to control the process parameters to obtain good quality welded joints. For getting the better values
of these parameters, it needs to conduct experiments by varying the input process parameters that
are affecting the strength of the welded joints. In this work nine experimental runs based on an L9
orthogonal array of Taguchi method are performed to optimize the strength of the welded joint. To
achieve this Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) is used. In this work Aluminum6063 material is used
as base material.

Introduction
Welding is a fabrication process that joins metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence.
This is often done by melting the work pieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten
material (the weld pool) that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes used in
conjunction with heat, or by itself, to produce the weld. Many different energy sources can be used
for welding, including a gas flame, an electric arc, a laser, an electron beam, friction,
and ultrasound. GMAW process is a type of arc welding in which the metal electrode is melted,
then dripping and solidifying to form welds on the material to be jointed. GMAW is applicable to
thicker plate materials such as stainless steel, aluminum, and aluminum alloy. GMAW is the most
common industrial welding process, preferred for its versatility, speed and the relative ease of
adapting the process to robotic automation. Design of Experiment (DOE) and statistical techniques
are widely used for the optimization of process parameters. In the present study the welding process
parameters of GMAW can be optimized to maximize the yield strength of the work piece also
reducing the number of experiments without affecting the results.
Ajit Hooda et al [1] increased the yield strength of welded materials by optimizing the
parameters such as welding voltage, current, wire speed and gas flow rate. Response Surface
Methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the GMAW process parameters to attain the
maximum yield strength of the joint. Shih Jing-Shiang et al [2] optimized the pulsed GMAW
process parameters used for aluminum alloy plate to improve the mechanical properties. Taguchi
method was employed to optimize the GMAW parameter by considering welding current, welding
speed and work piece gap as parameters. Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Parvez [3] investigated the
friction welding parameters to attain maximum tensile strength in HSLA steel. The parameters such
as welding speed, voltage and gas flow rate were optimized. The experimental test method and the
ANOVA table were used to predict the weld bead geometry such as penetration, width & height of
the welded material. Manikya Kanti and Srinivasa Rao [4] studied the optimization of the
parameters such as welding current, welding speed, arc voltage and wire feed using back
propagation neural network. By the comparison of developed model and experimental results the

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 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 813-814 457

optimized values were obtained. Lin [5] addressed an approach based on the Taguchi method with
grey relational analysis for optimizing turning operations with multiple performance characteristics.
Using these characteristics, the cutting parameters, including cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of
cut were optimized in the study. Meshra and Pohokar [6] optimized the GMAW Process parameters
by grey-based Taguchi method. The welding process parameters considered were voltage, wire feed
rate, welding speed, nozzle to plate distance and gas flow rate. Analysis of variance was performed
to find out the effect of individual process parameter on the quality parameters. Experiments with
the optimized parameter settings which were obtained from the analysis, were given to validate the
results. Siva et al [7] achieved the higher interfacial adhesion by optimized the treatment
parameters, such as bath temperature, agent concentration, and treatment time using Taguchi based
grey relational techniques. The results of several literatures [8-12] have revealed that welding
parameters such as welding voltage, welding current, gas flow rate, wire feed rate, wire size and
welding speed significantly affect the mechanical properties of welded joints.

Experimental Setup
Aluminum 6063 is the work material and the chemical composition is shown in Table 1.

Table 1, Chemical composition (wt. %) of base metal of aluminum 6063.

Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Cr Zn Ti other Al
0.2 0.35 0.1 0.1 0.9 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.15 reminder
Method. GMAW is a welding process (Fig. 1) in which an electric arc forms between a
consumable wire electrode and the work piece metal, which heats the work piece metal, causing
them to melt, and join. Along with the wire electrode, a shielding gas feeds through the welding
gun, which shields the process from contaminants in the air. The process can be semi-automatic or
automatic. In this work GMAW method is chosen. Because GMAW is used for most common
industrial welding process, MIG welding is operated in semiautomatic, machine, and automatic
modes. It is utilized particularly in high production welding operations. All commercially important
metals such as carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and copper can be welded with this process
in all positions.

Fig. 1 GMAW setup

Selection of the GMAW Parameters. The selected GMAW parameters and their ranges are
shown in Table 2.
458 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 2, Selection of the GMAW parameters and their level

Symbol Parameters Unit Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
A Welding current Amps 250 275 300
B Welding voltage Volt 25 27.5 30
C Gas flow rate Lit/min 24 27 30
D Welding speed Mm/min 350 375 400
Methodology
In this work, Taguchi method with grey relational analysis is proposed to determine the optimal
welding parameters by doing experiments based on L9 orthogonal array.

Taguchi method. Taguchi method uses the S/N ratio to analyze the experimental results,
because this ratio represents both the average (mean) and the variation (scatter) of the results. This
method stresses the importance of studying the response variation using the S/N ratio, resulting in
minimization of quality characteristic variation due to uncontrollable parameters. S/N ratios are
calculated based on the smaller the better [Eqn. (1)] and the larger the better concepts [Eqn. (2)],
depending on the quality parameters.

= −10 log ∑ y (1)

= −10 log ∑ (2)

where i = experiment number, n = number of experiments, and = value of parameter for the ith
experiment.
Taguchi suggests the concepts of orthogonal array to design the experiments. Selection of an
appropriate orthogonal array for experiments depends on the number of factors and the number of
levels. In this paper, four parameters (P) and three levels (L) are considered for conducting the
experiment. L9 orthogonal array (Table 3) is chosen in this work.

Table 3, L9 Orthogonal array

Experiment A B
1 1
2 1
3 1
4 2
5 2
6 2
7 3
8 3
9 3
C D
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
1 2 3
2 3 1
3 1 2
1 3 2
2 1 3
3 2 1

Grey Relational Analysis (GRA)

Grey relational analysis is working based on the grey system theory. The major advantage of the
grey theory is that it is suitable to handle both incomplete information and unclear problems. It is
used as an analysis tool when there is not enough data [7]. It was recognized that the GRA is largely
applied in the area work selection, prediction analysis, and performance evaluation etc. GRA uses
information from the grey system to dynamically compare each factor quantitatively. GRA is a
method to analyze the relational grade for discrete sequences. This is unlike the traditional statistics
analysis handling the relation between variables. The statistical analysis works with plenty of data
and the data distribution must be typical. However, GRA requires less data and can analyze many
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 813-814 459

factors that can overcome the disadvantages of statistics methods. GRA is used to maximize the
mechanical strength.
The steps below were followed while applying GRA.
Step 1: Data Pre-processing
Step 2: Calculation of the grey relational coefficient
Step 3: Calculation of the grey relational grade
Step 5: Select the optimal levels of process parameters

Data Pre-processing. In the study, a linear data preprocessing method for the tensile strength is
the higher the-better and is expressed as

x k = (3)
Hardness value find out by Rockwell Hardness Number (RHN). The RHN is having inverse
relationship with the hardness of materials. (i.e. if RHN is low then the material has more harness).
Hence the hardness data is preprocessed using the lower-the-better [Eqn. (4)] concept.
= (4)

where x k is the value after the grey relational generation, min y k is the smallest value of
y k for the kth response, and max y k is the largest value of y k for the kth response.

Calculation of grey relational co-efficient. The definition of the grey relational grade in the
grey relational analysis is to show the relational degree between the nine sequences [x k and
x k , i = 1, 2, . . . , 9; k = 1, 2, . . . , 9]. The grey relational coefficient ξ k can be calculated by
using [Eqn. (5)].
∆ ∆
=∆ (5)
∆

where∆ = ‖x k − x k ‖ = difference of the absolute value between x k and x k ; ζ =

distinguishing coefficient (0~1); ∆ = ∀j ∈ i∀k x k − x k = smallest value of ∆ ;
∆ = ∀j ∈ i∀k x k − x k = largest value of ∆ and x k is an ideal sequence.

Calculation of grey relational grade. After averaging the grey relational coefficients, the grey
relational grade can be obtained as
= ∑ (6)
where n = number of process responses.
From the grey relational grade the optimal parameters combination is selected. The higher value
of the grey relational grade means that the corresponding welding parameter is optimal.

Results and Discussion

Using the L9 orthogonal array the GMAW was performed and the tensile strength and Hardness
were determined. To test the tensile strength universal testing machine (60T capacity) is used. The
hardness test is conducted in the lever type Rockwell hardness testing machine (Capacity=150 kg.)
The obtained results are shown in Table 4.
From the experimental results of ultimate tensile strength and hardness of the welded material,
signal to noise ratio is calculated and is shown in Table 5. After calculating the signal to noise ratio
the data pre-processing [Eqn. (3, 4)], grey relational co-efficient [Eqn. (5)] and grey relational grade
[Eqn. (6)] are calculated and shown in Table 5.
460 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 4, Experimental results

Experimental Data
Welding Welding Gas flow rate Welding Speed
Experiment UTS Hardness
current [amps] voltage [v] [lit/min] [mm/min]
[Mpa] [RHN]
1 250 25 24 350 147 150.4
2 250 27.5 27 375 155 143.2
3 250 30 30 400 83 143.8
4 275 25 27 400 150 151.6
5 275 27.5 30 350 101 162.4
6 275 30 24 375 150 134.2
7 300 25 30 375 136 139.8
8 300 27.5 24 400 71 115.4
9 300 30 27 350 156 157.6

Table 5, GRA computation and order

Grey relational co-
S/N ratio Data preprocessing Grey
Experiment efficient
relational order
no: UTS Hardness UTS Hardness UTS Hardness
grade
[Mpa] [RHN] [Mpa] [RHN] [Mpa] [RHN]
1 43.342 43.544 0.9232 0.2248 0.8660 0.3920 0.6290 6
2 43.803 43.118 0.9906 0.3683 0.9816 0.4420 0.7118 2
3 38.381 43.155 0.1981 0.3559 0.3840 0.4370 0.4105 8
4 43.525 43.613 0.9500 0.2015 0.9091 0.3850 0.6470 5
5 40.081 44.211 0.4466 0.0000 0.4746 0.3333 0.4039 9
6 43.522 42.555 0.9496 0.5581 0.9083 0.5308 0.7195 1
7 42.674 42.910 0.8285 0.4384 0.7414 0.4710 0.6062 7
8 37.025 41.244 0.0000 1.0000 0.3333 1.0000 0.6665 4
9 43.867 43.951 1.0000 0.0876 1.0000 0.3540 0.6770 3

From the grey relational grade 6th experimental setup gives the better mechanical strength and
the optimum parameters. At optimum condition is 250 amp, welding voltage is 27.5 v, gas flow rate
is 27 lit/min and welding speed is 375 mm/min. From the result, it is understood that GRA based
Taguchi gives better result for multi objective optimization problems while Taguchi method is
suitable for single objective optimization problem [1-3].

Conclusion
In this paper Taguchi method and grey relational analysis are used to optimize the welding
strength with the multiple performance characteristics. Grey relational analysis is used to convert
the optimization of multiple performance characteristics into optimization of a single performance
characteristic. The ultimate tensile strength and hardness of the welded material were obtained from
L9 orthogonal array proposed by Taguchi. By use of GRA optimization technique the optimal
parameter combination is meeting at experiment 6 and its parameter values are 250 Amp welding
current, 27.5 Volt welding voltage, 27 lit/min gas flow rate and 375 mm/min welding speed for
GMAW.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 813-814 461

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Advances in Mechanical Engineering
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.813-814

Optimization of GMAW Parameters to Improve the Mechanical Properties

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.813-814.456

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10.1016/j.matdes.2011.09.008
[2] Shih Jing-Shiang, Tzeng Yih-Fong, Yang Jin-Bin, Principal component analysis for multiple quality
characteristics optimization of metal inert gas welding aluminum foam plate, Mat. Des. 32, (2011) 1253-
1261.
10.1016/j.matdes.2010.10.001
[3] Mohd. Shoeb, Mohd. Parvez, Effect of MIG welding input process parameters on weld bead geometry on
Hsla steel, Int. J. Engg. Sci. Technol. 5, (2013) 200-212.
10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.686.320
[4] Manikya Kanti, Srinivasa Rao, Prediction of bead geometry in pulsed GMA welding using back
propagation neural network, Mat. Proces. Technol. 200, (2008) 300-305.
10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.09.034
[5] Lin, Use of the Taguchi method and grey relational analysis to optimize turning operations with multiple
performance characteristics, Mat. Manuf. Proces. 19 (2004) 209-220.
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[6] Meshra S.R., Pohokar N. S, Optimization of process parameters of gas metal arc welding to improve
quality of weld bead geometry, Int. J. Engg. Busines. Ent. Appln. 5 (2013) 46-52.
10.5897/jmer2013.0271
[7] Irullappasamy Siva, Jebas Thangaih Winowlin Jappes, Pandian Pitchipoo, Sandro Campos Amico,
Erumaipatty Rajagounder Nagarajan and Nainar Azhagesan, Grey optimization of process parameters of
surface modification of coconut sheath reinforced polymer composites, J. Poly. Engg. 33 (2013).
10.1515/polyeng-2012-0151
[8] Alexandre Saldanha do Naseimento and Diandro Bailoni Fernandes, Methodology for determination of
parameters for welding MIG with variable polarity, J. Weld. Int. 23(2009)473-480.
10.1080/09507110802543435
[9] Jair Carlos Dutra, Regis Henrique Goncalves e Silva, Melting and welding power characteristics of MIG-
CMT versus conventional MIG for aluminium 5183, J. Weld. Int. 29, (2015) 181-186.
10.1080/09507116.2014.932974
[10] Borrego, Costa, Jesus, Loureiro, Ferreira, Fatigue life improvement by friction stir processing of 5083
Aluminium alloy MIG butt welds. J. Theo. App. Frac. Mech. 70 (2014) 68-74.
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and process parameters on metal, Mat. Des. 27 (2006) 381-390.
10.1016/j.matdes.2004.11.010
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