Abstract
Welding is an important and widely used process in the manufacturing and maintenance of various works involving metals and alloys. While welding has broad applications, the welding fume generated during the process has impacts on workers’ health, which needs to be addressed. One of the major steps that can be undertaken to take care of this issue is the use of ventilation, which requires knowledge of characteristics and dispersion of the welding fume in the workers’ breathing zone. It is difficult to assess welding fume dispersion from manual measurement due to numerous welding processes and sufficient data requirement. Numerical prediction of welding fume is dubious due to several errors. This paper considers the use of numerically predicted CO2 concentrations to indirectly predict welding fume distribution in workshops. This is based on the assumption that if the particles are sufficiently small size, they follow the diffusion pattern of gases. Experiments are carried out in a room with an opening and a welding fume generation system for measurement of CO2 and fume diffusion. The results show high possibility of predicting welding fume concentration based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulated CO2 concentration with a correlation coefficient of 0.74.
Highlights
Welding technology is a necessary process in the construction and maintenance of industries, large structures, vehicles, ships, offshore structures, and a number of practices involving metal works [1,2].Nowadays, some of the welding is operated with the help of machines and robots but most is still carried on manually for precision and quality of work
Appearance of CO2 is an exception to those factors because it is generally used as a shielding gas in many welding processes [4]
The purpose of this study is to simulate the diffusion of CO2 and find some analogy to support utility of indirect prediction of welding fume concentration
Summary
Welding technology is a necessary process in the construction and maintenance of industries, large structures, vehicles, ships, offshore structures, and a number of practices involving metal works [1,2]. Gomes et al did assessments of airborne ultrafine particles generated from tungsten inert gas, metal active gas, and friction stir welding, and found that all these processes emitted significant concentrations of ultrafine particles which were deposited in the lungs of exposed workers [8,9] Inhalation of these fumes and gases have a great effect on lung function and causes acute as well as chronic diseases like lung cancer, infection, metal fume fever, etc. The purpose of this study is to simulate the diffusion of CO2 and find some analogy to support utility of indirect prediction of welding fume concentration This conjecture is based on the theory that if the particles are in range of sub micrometer level, their motion properties follow the diffusion rules of gases i.e., Brownian diffusion for movement in the air [21,22]. If a satisfactory correlation between these two components is achieved, it provides an opportunity to formulate a basis for further studies related to this aspect
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