• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.59-72
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• 1994

This paper presents an on-line quality monitoring and control method to obtain a uniform weld quality in gas metal arc welding (GMAW) processes. The geometrical parameters of the weld pool such as the top bead width and the penetration depth plus half back width are utilized to assess the integrity of the weld quality. Since a good quality weld is characterized by a relatively high depth-to-width ratio in its dimensions, the second geometrical parameter is regulated to a desired one. The monitoring variables are the surface temperatures measured at various points on the top surface of the weldment which are strongly related to the formation of the weld pool The relationship between the measured temperatures and the weld pool size is implemented on the multilayer perceptrons which are powerful for realization of complex mapping characteristics through training by samples. For on-line quality monitoring and control, it is prerequisite to estimate the weld pool sizes in the region of transient states. For this purpose, the time history of the surface temperatures is used as the input to the neural estimator. The control purpose is to obtain a uniform weld quality. In this research, the weld pool size is directly regulated to a desired one. The proposed controller is composed of a neural pool size estimator, a neural feedforward controller and a conventional feedback controller. The pool size estimator predicts the weld pool size under growing. The feedforward controller compensates for the nonlinear characteristics of the welding process. A series of simulation studies shows that the proposed control method improves the overall system response in the presence of changes in torch travel speed during GMA welding and guarantees the uniform weld quality.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.125-127
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• 2006

A spacer grid assembly, which is an interconnected array of slotted grid straps and is welded at the intersections to form an egg crate structure, is one of the main structural components of the nuclear fuel assembly for pressurized water reactors(PWRs). The spacer grid assembly is structurally required to have enough buckling strength under various kinds of lateral loads acting on the nuclear fuel assembly so as to keep the nuclear fuel assembly straight. To meet this requirement, it is necessary to weld the welding parts carefully and precisely. In this study, weld qualities such as, weld bead size, penetration, spatter, etc. manufactured by various welders were compared and analyzed. Comparison results show that the weld qualities could be improved by selecting the optimal welding condition and also improving the welding technique.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.343-350
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• 1999

Orthotropic steel bridge decks are potentially liable to cause fatigue cracks due to weld defects, residual stresses, and in-plane or out-of-plane stresses. In particular, the cracks propagated through deckplate in longitudinal rib to deckplate joints occur at weld toe and weld root due to stress concentrations. Numerical parametric studies are performed to show the Influence of the parameters on the stress concentration at the connection between the longitudinal rib and the deckplate. The parameters include root gap, toe angle $\theta$, toe radius $\rho$, and weld penetration. This study provides a fundamental point for the improvement of fatigue resistance and the estimation of the fatigue crack propagation in wekded joint details.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.19-31
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• 1999

This paper introduces the monitoring scheme of laser welding quality using neural network. The developed monitoring scheme detects light signal emitting from plasma formed above the weld pool with optic sensor and DSP-based signal processor, and analyzes to give a guidance about the weld quality. It can automatically detect defects of laser weld and further give an information about what kind of defects it is, specially partial penetration and porosity among the interior defects. Those could be detected only by naked eyes or X-ray after welding, which needs more processes and costs in mass production. The monitoring scheme extracts four feature vectors from signal processing results of optical measuring data. In order to classify pattern for extracted feature vectors and to decide defects, it uses single-layer neural network with perceptron learning. The monitoring result using only the first feature vector shows confidence rate in recognition of 90%($\pm$5) and decides whether normal status or defects status in real time.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.58-63
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• 2010

A laser beam welding and an electric arc welding were combined, and the positive points of each welding method are drawn such as high speed, low thermal load, deep penetration, and high productivity. The fiber laser-MIG conjugated welding. namely the hybrid welding has been studied mainly for the automation industry of a pipeline welding. In this study, the MIG welding was combined with a fiber laser welding to make up the hybrid welding. The weld shapes, microstructures and mechanical properties for weld zones after the hybrid welding or only fiber laser welding were investigated on the 700 MPa grade Ultra Fine Grained(UFG) high strength steel. The amount of acicular ferrite in weld metals and HAZ(heat affected zone) was observed larger after hybrid welding compared with after only laser welding. The Vickers hardness of the top area of the fusion zone after fiber laser welding was higher compared with after hybrid welding.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.158-164
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• 2002

This paper proposes the optimization of ultrasonic signal recognition in ferrite carbon steel weld zone using neural networks. For these purposes, the ultrasonic signals for defects as porosity, incomplete penetration and slag inclusion in the weld zone are acquired in the type of time series data. And then their applications evaluated feature extraction based on the time-frequency-attractor domain(peak to peak, rise time, rise slope, fall time, fall slope, pulse duration, power spectrum, and bandwidth) and attractor characteristics (fractal dimension and attractor quadrant) etc. The proposed neural networks system in this study can enhances performance of ultrasonic signal recognition.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1994.05a
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• pp.222-225
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• 1994

The weldability of aluminum is excel lent but weld metal is subject to include weld defects such as porosities, crack, incomplete penetration and incomplete fusion because of improper welding parameters. Especially, the porosities are main weld defects because the difference of hydrogen solubility change in melt ins and solidification state with temperature changing. Deformation of aluminum is larger than mi Id steel due to higher thermal conductivity. It is reported that porosities in deposited metal affect tensile strength and elongation. Therefore, the effect of groove angle on porosities and mechanical properties of weld metal were researched in this report where Al-5083 plate was used with 5356 filler metal that are excellent anti corrosion and strength.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.109-111
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• 2005

Nuclear fuel assemblies for pressurized water reactors(PWR) are loaded in the reactor core throughout the residence time of three to five years. A spacer grid assembly, which is an interconnected array of slotted grid straps and is welded at the intersections to form an egg crate structure, is one of the main structural components of the nuclear fuel assembly. The spacer grid assembly is structurally required to have enough buckling strength under various kinds of lateral loads acting on the nuclear fuel assembly so as to keep the nuclear fuel assembly straight. To meet this requirement, it is necessary to weld the welding parts carefully and precisely. In this study, laser welding qualities of the spacer grid assembly welded by several welding companies, such as weld strength, weld penetration depth, and weld bead size, are examined and compared.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.13-21
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• 1997

This paper describes the effectiveness of laser pulse shaping in eliminating weld defects such as porosity, cracks and undercuts in pulsed Nd:YAG Laser welding. A large porosity was formed in a keyhole mode of deep penetration weld metal of any stainless steel. Solidification cracks were present in Type 303 with about 0.3%s. The conditions for the formation of porosity were determined in further detail in Type 316. With the objectives of obtaining a fundamental knowledge of formation and prevention of weld defects, the fusion and solidification behavior of a molten puddle was observed during laser spot welding of Type 310S. through high speed video photographing technique. It was deduced that cellular dendrite tips grew rapidly from the bottom to the surface, and consequently residual liquid remained at the grain boundaries in wide regions and enhanced the solidification cracking susceptibility. Several laser pulse shapes were investigated and optimum pulse shapes were proposed for the reduction and prevention of porosity and solidification cracking.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.65-71
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• 2007

Laser weldability of the aluminized steel for the full penetration welding will be described in this paper. We focused on the effect of Al coating conditions on weld strength. For these objectives, aluminized steel sheets that have various thickness and coating weight were prepared for laser welding. And then, tensile-shear and hardness test were carried out. At the same time, Al contents in weld after laser welding were analyzed and their correlations with mechanical properties were investigated. Besides, as removing partially coating layer, weldability has been investigated according to the position of coating layer. As a result of this study, tensile-shear strength was decreased with increasing Al contents in weld, and Al of coating layer caused grain growth.