Supercritical melt flow in high-speed laser welding and its interdependence with the geometry of the keyhole and the melt pool

Abstract

The advent of undercuts and humping limits the applicable speed of deep-penetration laser welding. Recent findings additionally show that a significant change of the keyhole’s shape is associated with the occurrence of undercuts. Considering that undercuts and humping are melt flow–induced defects, this leads to the question of how the geometry of the keyhole and the melt pool influence the melt flow and vice versa. In this work, the Froude number was used to characterize the melt flow around a keyhole. X-ray images of the keyhole and cross-sections of the weld were therefore used to determine the geometrical boundaries of the melt flow, to estimate the average melt velocity around the keyhole, and finally determine its Froude number. The flow around a cylindrically shaped keyhole was found to always be subcritical, whereas supercritical melt flow was observed around the elongated keyholes that are formed at higher welding speed. The findings may be interpreted in the sense that the elongation of the keyhole is a consequence of a supercritical stream of the melt flowing underneath and around the keyhole. This perception is consistent with the long-known experience that humping may be avoided by reducing the flow speed of the melt by widening the melt pool surrounding the keyhole (e.g., by means of beam shaping) and suggest a new explanation for the elongation of the keyhole at increased welding speed.