• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1049-1078
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• 2021

The review summarizes the published data on the widely applied electron-beam, laser-beam, as well as resistance upset, projection, and spot welding of zirconium alloys for nuclear applications. It provides the results of their analysis to identify common patterns in this area. Great attention has been paid to the quality requirements, the edge preparation, up-to-date equipment, process parameters, as well as post-weld treatment and processing. Also, quality control and weld repair methods have been mentioned. Finally, conclusions have been drawn about a significant gap between the capabilities of advanced welding equipment to control the microstructure and, accordingly, the properties of welded joints of the zirconium alloys and existing algorithms that enable to realize them in the nuclear industry. Considering the ever-increasing demands on the high-burnup accident tolerant nuclear fuel assemblies, great efforts should be focused on the improving the welding procedures by implementing predefined heat input cycles. However, a lot of research is required, since the number of possible combinations of the zirconium alloys, designs and dimensions of the joints dramatically exceeds the quantity of published results on the effect of the welding parameters on the properties of the welds.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.213-213
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• 2000

This study was performed to investigate types and formation mechanism of cracks in two Al alloy welds, A5083 and A7NO1 spot-welded by pulse Nd: YAG laser, using SEM, EPMA and Micro-XRD. In the weld zone, three types of crack were observed: center line crack($C_{C}$), diagonal crack($C_{D}$), and U shape crack($C_{U}$). Also, HAZ crack($C_{H}$), was observed in the HAZ region, furthermore, mixing crack($C_{M}$), consisting of diagonal crack and HAZ crack was observed.White film was formed at the hot crack region in the fractured surface after it was immersed to 10%NaOH water. In the case of A5083 alloy, white films in C crack and $C_D crack region were composed of low melting phases, Fe₂Si$Al_8$ and eutectic phases, Mg₂Al₃ and Mg₂Si. Such films observed near HAZ crack were also consist of eutectic Mg₂Al₃. In the case of A7N01 alloy, eutectic phases of CuAl₂, $Mg_{32}$ (Al,Zn) ₃, MgZn₂, Al₂CuMg and Mg₂Si were observed in the whitely etched films near $C_{C}$ crack and $C_{D}$ crack regions. The formation of liquid films was due to the segregation of Mg, Si, Fe in the case of A5083 alloy and Zn, Mg, Cu, Si in the case of A7N01 aooly, respectively.The $C_{D}$ and $C_{C}$ cracks were regarded as a result of the occurrence of tensile strain during the welding process. The formation of $C_{M}$ crack is likely to be due to the presence of liquid film at the grain boundary near the fusion line in the base metal as well as in the weld fusion zone during solidification. The $C_{U}$ crack is considered a result of the collapsed keyhole through incomplete closure during rapid solidification. (Received October 7, 1999)

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1137-1143
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• 2010

This paper presents a fatigue design method for plug- and ring-type gas-welded joints, which takes into account the effects of welding residual stress. To develop this method, we simulated the gas-welding process by performing nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) To validate the FEA results, numerically calculated residual stresses in the gas welds were then compared with experimental results obtained by the hole-drilling method. To evaluate the fatigue strength of plug- and ring-type gas-welded joints influenced by welding residual stresses, the use of stress amplitude $(\sigma_a)_R$, which includes the welding residual stress in gas welds, is proposed $(\sigma_a)_R$ on the basis of a modified Goodman equation that includes the residual stress effects. Using the stress amplitude $(\sigma_a)_R$ at the hot spot point of gas weld, the relations obtained as the fatigue test results for plug and ring type gas welded joints having various dimensions and shapes were systematically rearranged to obtain the $(\sigma_a)_R-N_f$ relationship. It was found that more systematic and accurate evaluation of the fatigue strength of plug- and ring-type gas-welded joints can be achieved by using $(\sigma_a)_R$.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.122-128
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• 2002

The laser welding in the automotive industries has been used widely for the butt joint of blank sheets rather than the lap joint of automotive body panels. But as a substitute far the spot welding of automotive body panels, the so called three dimensional laser welding will be important far the body panel engineers. Specially the laser welding of body panels with a smooth weld line is applied increasingly, for example, to the side panels. So far, some criteria of the laser weld quality was suggested by in-house regulations or national standards from experiences and/or rule of thumbs. In the manufacturing places, a go or no-go criterion is adopted because of the simplicity or a lack of rational criteria. It is true specially for the selection of the process parameters, which gives the basic causes for the good quality of laser welds. In this study, the effects of joint combination, gap and welding speed on the lap joint $CO_2$ laser welding of two mild steel sheets with different thicknesses are obtained through a $2{\times}3{\times}7$ factorial experiment. The results of the weld quality are statistically analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and compared between two characteristic zones, which are separated by the type of sectional shapes and the level of input energy per volume. The thickness combinations are 0.8mm/1.2mm, 1.2mm/0.8mm of mild steel sheets. The welding speed covers from the deep penetration to the partial penetration. The gap size has three levels of no-gap, 0.16m, and 0.26mm. The bead width, penetration depth and input energy per volume are measured and used as the weld quality criteria.