Analytical Simulation of the Microbubble Collapsing in a Welding Fusion Pool

Abstract

This paper explains the use of remote ultrasound vibration at the optimum position and frequencies to vibrate plates under welding, with the aim of initiating cavitation in the molten pool area. It has been shown in the literature that ultrasound cavitation changes microstructure morphology and refines the grain of the weld. In practice, the plates are excited through narrow-band high-power ultrasound transducers (HPUTs). Therefore, a theoretical investigation is carried out to identify the plate-mode shapes due to the ultrasound vibration aligned with the frequency bandwidth of HPUTs available in the marketplace. The effect of exciting the plate at different locations and frequencies is studied to find the optimum position and frequencies to achieve the maximum pressure at the area of the fusion zone. It was shown that applying the excitation from the side of the plate produces an order of 103 higher vibration displacement amplitude, compared with excitation from the corner. The forced vibration of cavitation and bursting time are studied to identify vibration amplitude and the time required to generate and implode cavities, hence specifying the vibration-assisted welding time. Thus, the proposed computational platform enables efficient multiparametric analysis of cavitation, initiated by remote ultrasound excitation, in the molten pool under welding.