Abstract:In order to maintain the structural consistency during the welding of precipitation hardened copper- chromium-zirconium (PH-CuCrZr) alloy components, electron beam welding (EBW) process was employed. Experimental study and numerical modeling of EBW process during welding of PH-CuCrZr alloy components were carried out. A 3D finite element model was developed to predict the output responses (bead penetration and bead width) as a function of EBW input parameters (beam current, acceleration voltage and weld speed). A combined circular and conical source with Gaussian heat distribution was used to model the deep penetration characteristic of the EBW process. Numerical modeling was carried out by developing user defined function in Ansys software. Numerical predictions were compared with the experimental results which had a good agreement with each other. The developed model can be used for parametric study in wide range of problems involving complex geometries which are to be welded using EBW process. The present work illustrates that the input current with a contribution of 44.56% and 81.13% is the most significant input parameter for the bead penetration and bead width, respectively.

Key words: electron beam welding; bead width; bead penetration; modeling; copper-chromium-zirconium alloy