Modelling and optimization of process parameters to obtain maximum tensile strength for laser butt welding of 316L austenitic stainless steel sheets

Abstract

The attribute of high power density but low energy-input in Laser welding offers exciting solutions to the commonly encountered disadvantages with conventional joining techniques.In this paper, 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel metal sheets were butt welded using Nd:YAG Laser welding system. Owing to its low cost and specific properties such as excellent toughness, higher creep, stress to rupture at elevated temperatures, 316L A.S.S finds wide range of applications in the industrial arena especially in the automobile and marine sectors. Hence, it becomes imperative to examine its post weld properties after performing laser welding and find optimized values of the parameters. The prominent process parameters like Laser Power, Travel speed and Focal length were analysed and optimised.Design of experiment statistical tool was embraced for the systematic conduct of the tests. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques were employed to identify the significant process parameters affecting the weld. An empherical relationship involving the parameters was developed to predict the ultimate tensile strength. The 3D response surface plot and contour plots were generated for this model to elucidate the interaction effect of Laser parameters (Travel speed and Focal length), (Laser Power and Focal Length) & (Laser Power and Travel Speed) on Ultimate Tensile Strength.The welded specimens cut by electric discharge machining were prepared for tensile testing as per the ASTM standard. The Universal Testing Machine was used to test the welded specimen. Microhardness Testing was also carried out on the base material and the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) using Vickers Hardness Testing machine. The tensile tested specimens were used for metallurgical analysis using Scanning Electron Microscope (S.E.M.). Specimen prepared for metallurgical analysis were sectioned, mounted, ground and polished in accordance with recommended procedures in ASTM practice E 3-11. The metallurgical observations showed the existence of undulating topography of ductile fracture surfaces. The investigations reveals that the actual values of the Ultimate tensile strength of the weld were falling close with the predicted strength obtained through the proposed model. It can be concluded that the proposed model in this work can be utilised to predict tensile strength of the weld with more precision.