Experimental Study and Modeling

of GTA Welding Process

Min Jou
Department of Industrial Education,
National Taiwan Normal University,
162, Section 1, Ho-Ping East Road,
Taipei City 106, Taiwan
e-mail: joum@cc.ntnu.edu.tw
It has been well recognized that the geometry of weld pool plays a fundamental role in
determining the mechanical properties of weld joints. In this research, a series of experi-
ment has been conducted to investigate the interaction and correlation of welding current,
voltage, welding speed, and arc length affecting the formation of weld pool. The effect of
arc length on arc efficiency and heat distribution parameter are also examined and ad-
dressed in this paper. In addition to the experimental study, a three-dimensional finite
element model has been developed to analyze transient heat flow and to predict the
formation of the weld pool. The correlation among the parameters including welding
current, voltage, welding speed, arc length, open-loop response and the characteristic
geometry of weld pool are established. The 3-D FEM can calculate not only the transient
thermal histories but also the sizes of weld pool in single-pass arc welding. In order to
obtain quality welds, this model will determine the effect of arc length on the formation of
weld. Furthermore, the effects of welding parameters on the Gaussian heat source pa-
rameters (arc efficiency and heat distribution parameter) are also studied. The experi-
mental calibration and verification are carried out to verify the numerical model. Experi-
mental data are consistent and in quantitative agreement with values from FEM
simulations. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.1537740兴

Introduction ods contains limitations such as signal disturbances from high

Gas tungsten arc welding 共GTAW兲 is one of the most widely
used joining processes to produce high strength welds 关1–2兴.
Pressure vessels, nuclear power plants, missiles, aircrafts, pipe
lines are some examples where GTAW is used to ensure the qual-
ity of the welds. Hence, the quality standards for GTAW are typi-
cally high. To meet the quality standards, extensive studies have
been done on GTAW process in order to improve and ensure the
weld quality. Since the geometry of weld and thermal character-
istics play critical roles in determining the ultimate strength of
welds, the weld cross section geometry 共i.e., such as weld bead
width, weld depth, weld front width, and weld heat-affected zone兲
must be developed accurately 共Fig. 1兲 to achieve the desired weld
quality.
The key geometric attribute of a major class of welds is the
depth of penetration since it is a direct indicator of weld strength
关3兴. However, direct measurement of this quantity is quite difficult
since the depth is not directly visible. Several investigators 关3– 6兴
utilized reflection ultrasound methods to measure the size of weld
pool, but this technique is inaccurate and inapplicable because of
the problem of diffusion of the signal and the distortion caused by
steep temperature gradients. Other methods have been studied to
detect the pool shape indirectly based on the concept of pool
oscillation 关7–9兴, but it has been proved by Zacksenhouse and
Hardt 关10兴 that it is not practical to detect the pool shape in partial
penetration using the concept of pool oscillation. The surface
waves can only be correlated to bulk fluid oscillation for full
penetration welds. In a report by Xiao and Ouden 关11兴, an effort to
study the pool oscillation on a stationary welding pool was pre-
sented. Both partial and full penetration were studied, but in an
unrealistic situation of a stationary welding pool. Other studies
have been conducted to correlate the depth of penetration to vari-
ables that can be measured during welding. The methods intro-
duced include arc voltage sensing 关12兴, x-ray sensing 关13兴, video
关14兴, acoustic sensing 关15兴, surface radiation techniques 关16兴,
weld pool geometrical appearance 关17兴, and weld depression 关18兴.
Every method offers specific advantages, but each of these meth-
temperatures, contact sensing devices, sensing performance cor-
rupted by workpiece thickness or preheat changes, and gave no
details on the actual pool shape. These drawbacks have limited
their applicability in practical applications. Infrared sensing tech-
niques have been studied as a possible sensor to detect weld pen-
etration 关19–21兴. In order to develop a sensor based on infrared
sensing that can be easily implemented in practical welding appli-
cations, the development of a mathematical relationship among
different welding conditions 共i.e., current, welding speed, material
types, electrode tip angle, etc.兲, measurable signal, and size of
weld pool becomes an important research goal.
The temperature history of the welded components has a sig-
nificant influence on the residual stresses, distortion and hence the
fatigue behavior of the welded structure. A large amount of re-
search has been devoted to the simulation of welding processes in
the past few decades. However, since the welding process causes
complex mechanical, electric and metallurgical changes in weld-
ments, the accurate solution of mathematical model, which is ca-
pable of addressing all the issues including material nonlinearity,
phase transformation, magenodynamic effects, fluid flow in weld
pool, etc., is practically intangible. To resolve the difficulties, nu-
merical methods, particularly the finite difference methods and the
finite element methods, have been widely used in analysis of the
welding process and resultant residual strain and stress fields. A

Contributed by the Manufacturing Engineering Division for publication in the

JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. Manuscript received
June 2001; revised August 2002. Associate Editor: J. Hu. Fig. 1 Geometry of weld cross section

Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering NOVEMBER 2003, Vol. 125 Õ 801
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 brief literature review reveals that there are primarily two ap-
proaches in the simulation of the welding process. One approach
is to solve the decoupled heat transfer equation and Navier-Stokes
equations so that the temperature distribution and the details of
fluid flow in the weld pool can be obtained. The typical examples
following this approach can be found in Kovacevic et al. 关22兴 and
Cao et al., 关23兴, where the effects of changing welding parameters
on the characteristic geometry of the weld pool is analyzed by
using a three dimensional finite difference method for transient
analysis. More examples can be found, to name a few, in Zacharia
et al., 关24 –25兴 and Kim and Na 关26兴. Another approach for the
simulation of the welding process is to solve the heat transfer
equation directly with the consideration of temperature-dependent
material properties and phase transformation. Due to the simplic-
ity, yet the acceptable accuracy, of this approach, many numerical
models have been developed based on it, especially when the
resultant residual strain and stress is of the particular interest. The
examples can be found in Tekriwal and Mazumder 关27兴, Mahin
et al., 关28兴, Brown and Song 关29兴, Taljat et al., 关30兴 and Bonifaz
关31兴. Typically the heat flux input from the arc is assumed to
follow a Gaussian function or a double ellipsoidal model 关31兴.
This research is focused on the single-pass bead-on-plate GTA
welding. A three-dimensional finite element model for the simu-
lation of transient heat transfer is adopted in our analysis in the
sense that the simple 2-D model captures less information of the
characteristic sizes of the weld pool than 3-D model does. The
accuracy of the 2-D model has also been questioned by Brown
and Song 关29兴 and Bonifaz 关31兴. The aforementioned second ap-
proach is employed in our finite element model, and the effect of
fluid flow in the weld pool is approximated by the temperature-
dependent material properties. The distribution of the moving heat
source generated by the arc is assumed to be a 2-dimensional
Gaussian function. Experimental calibration and verification are
carried out to verify the numerical model. The correlation between
the parameters of the GTA welding process, including welding
speed, welding current and voltage, and the characteristic geom-
etry of the weld pool are established.
It should be pointed out that welding current, welding speed,
and arc length are three major welding parameters which deter-
mine the geometry of the weld pool and the temperature distribu-
tion in the weldment. In principal, the power of the electric arc is
proportional to both the welding current and arc voltage. This
seems to suggest that the depth, length, and width of the weld pool
should all increase when increasing the welding current and/or the
arc voltage. However, the relationship between the weld pool and
the arc length which determines the arc voltage is rather straight-
forward 关17兴. In general, the longer the arc length, the larger the
arc voltage; and a longer arc length results in a larger arc voltage,
thus a larger electric power. However, the density of the arc en-
ergy decrease as the arc length increases. As a result, under some
conditions, the depth and length of the weld pool increases as the
arc length increases; however, if the welding conditions change,
the depth and length of the weld pool may decrease as the arc
length increases. For example, in the study reported in 关17兴, when
the arc length increases from 1 mm to 4 mm, the depth and length
of the weld pool increase; but when the arc length further in-
creases, the depth and length start to decrease. Of course, in ad-
dition to the arc distribution, the arc length also has significant
influence on the arc efficiency. The arc efficiency decreases as the
arc length increases.
Unlike the arc length, the welding current and welding speed
have more definite relationships with the weld geometry and tem-
perature distribution. The depth, length, and width of the weld
pool all increase as the welding current increases and/or the weld-
ing speed decreases. However, in addition to heat input, the weld-
ing current also determines the arc pressure which plays a critical
role in determining the depth of the penetration. Hence, as ob-
served by Kovacevic et al. 关17兴, when the welding speed changes,
the width and length of the weld pool tend to change proportion-
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ally. However, when the welding current changes, the resultant
change is much more pronounced than it is in the width.
Of course, all the aforementioned three major parameters deter-
mine the weld pool and temperature distribution in an interactive
and complicated manner. For example, when the welding current
increases, the width of the weld pool increases. However, for the
same increase in the welding current, the resultant increase in the
width of the weld pool depends on the welding speed. If the
welding speed is high, the resultant increase in the width could be
small. However, when the welding speed is low, the resultant
increase in the width could be large. An empirical model which
predicts the weld geometry based on the welding parameters de-
picts the complexity of such interaction of the welding parameters
in determining the weld geometry was given by Zhang et al. 关32兴.
As can be seen, the welding parameters exhibit strong coupling
and interaction in determining the geometry of the weld pool and
thus the temperature distribution in the weldment in a complicated
way. Unfortunately, despite the importance of these coupling and
interactions in quality control, existing studies in this area are
mostly experimentation-oriented. Theoretical analysis is strongly
needed. Hence, the coupling and interactions of the welding pa-
rameters will be an important focus of the numerical analysis in
this study.
Experiments
A Hobart TIGWAVE™ 350 AC/DC welding system 共Fig. 2兲
was employed for the gas tungsten arc welding in this study. The
water-cooled torch was manipulated by a X-Y positional table.
The electrode was made of EWTh-2 with 3.2 mm diameter and
120 共degrees兲 included tip angle. The electrode extension from the
nozzle 共with a diameter of 11 mm兲 was 3 mm. The shielding gas
with a flow rate of 10 liters/min was industrial pure argon
共99.99%兲. Test coupons with dimensions of 130⫻130 mm were
made of SUS304 共Type 304兲 austenitic stainless steel plates 6 mm
and 4 mm in thickness. Prior to welding, the coupons were sanded
with #200 sand paper and cleaned with acetone. Butt welds then
carried out down the center of the plate. The samples were
mounted on the flat surface of the platform. During welding, the
coupons were free of restraint. The joint setup was autogenous
bead-on-plate welding. Welding parameters influence the quality
of welded joints. Therefore, the determination of these parameters
is an important step in this study. The criteria for selecting the
optimum welding parameters include the external appearance of
the weld, fusion geometry and penetration. To study the effects of
welding parameters on the weld geometry, the tested coupons
were sectioned perpendicular to the welding direction for metal-
lographic examinations. The sectioned samples were mounted,
sanded using sand papers, and polished using Al2 O3 共0.05 micron兲
colloidal solution. Samples were cleaned before being etched with
Fig. 2 Experimental system
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 3 Effect of welding current and speed on GTA weld pen-
etration „workpiece thicknessÄ6 mm…
Fig. 4 Effect of welding current on open-loop response „arc
lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ6 mm…
a solution with 10 g CuSO4⫹50 mlHCl⫹50 ml water. Samples
were observed under an Olympus BX60M microscope to deter-
mine the weld profile.
In order to verify and calibrate the 3-D FEM model, experi-
ments were performed to investigate the interaction and correla-
tion of process variables and variations affecting the formation of
weld pool for GTA welding. The experimental results as shown in
Fig. 3, indicate that: 共1兲 increasing the welding current increases
the weld penetration; 共2兲 increasing the welding speed decreases
the weld penetration. The open-loop response is the key parameter
Fig. 5 Effect of welding speed on open-loop response „arc
lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ6 mm…
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Fig. 6 Correlation of welding current, speed, and open-loop
response „arc lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ6 mm…
Fig. 7 Welding on varying workpiece thickness
for development of a control system. Therefore, experiments were
conducted to realize how the open-loop response will be affected
by the controllable variables which are the welding current and
welding speed. Figure 4 shows that increasing the input current
magnitude speeds up open-loop response. Increasing welding
speed will slow down open-loop response as shown in Fig. 5.
Figure 6 indicates that welding speed has more effect on open-
loop response than welding current.
Welding process anomalies occurs quite frequently during
welding sheet metal parts. The most significant effect of process
anomalies is that which results from a variation in the arc length.
The condition arises when the metal parts are not flat, when con-
tours do not match dies/fixtures or one another precisely, when
ripples or wrinkles are present, or when the tip of tungsten elec-
trode melts due to high temperature. In order to study the effect of
Fig. 8 Effect of arc length on GTA weld penetration under con-
stant welding speed
NOVEMBER 2003, Vol. 125 Õ 803

Fig. 9 Effect of arc length on GTA weld penetration under con-
stant welding current
Fig. 10 Effect of arc length on weld surface width under con-
stant welding speed
Fig. 11 Effect of arc length on weld surface width under con-
stant welding speed
variation of arc length on the formation of weld pool, welding on
stepped down plates was performed 共i.e., arc length increases
from 2 mm to 4 mm兲 as shown in Fig. 7. Experimental data
indicates that increasing the arc length decreases weld penetration
under constant welding speed as shown in Fig. 8. Figure 9 shows
that increasing the arc length decreases weld penetration under
constant welding current. All these indicate that longer arc lengths
tend to lower the arc efficiency and arc density.
The arc length effects on the weld surface width is also exam-
ined. The results presented in Figs. 10 and 11 show that the sur-
face width slightly increases with increasing arc length. The
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longer arc length results in greater expansion of the arc. There-
fore, the surface width increases with increased arc length. How-
ever, the surface width decreases with increased arc length when
welding at lower current. The reason is that higher heat input 共i.e.,
higher welding current兲 provides sufficient heat for melting, and a
wider arc distribution 共i.e., longer arc length兲 will result in a wider
surface width. A very broad arc distribution 共i.e., longer arc
length兲 at low heat input 共i.e., lower welding current兲 will not
produce melting, thus results in decreasing surface width of weld.
Modeling of Process Dynamics
The objectives for modeling of process dynamics were: 共1兲 to
develop a 3-D FEM to calculate not only the transient thermal
histories but also the sizes of weld pool in single-pass arc weld-
ing; 共2兲 to determine the effect of arc length on the formation of
weld; 共3兲 to obtain the effect of welding parameters on the arc
efficiency and heat distribution parameter; and 共4兲 to identify the
correlation among controllable variables 共i.e., welding current and
speed兲, arc efficiency and heat distribution parameter.
The weldment is made of SUS304 stainless steel. Temperature-
dependent material properties are used in this study, which bring
nonlinearity into the calculation. To account for the heat transfer
due to the fluid flow in weld pool, the thermal conductivity is
assumed to be enhanced linearly from 1 to 6 with temperature
change from the solidus temperature 共1673 K兲 to 3100 K 关24兴.
The liquid/solid phase transformation is approximated by taking
into account the latent heat of fusion over the melting range 共be-
tween 1673 K and 1723 K兲. The thermal properties used in our
calculation are summarized in Table 1. The thickness of the weld-
ment under investigation is 4 mm and 6 mm. The length of the FE
model is selected to be 36 mm and the width is 20 mm. The
symmetry condition along the arc path is assumed in the model. A
fine mesh with 0.333 mm characteristic grid spacing is applied to
the weld pool region, while a coarse mesh is used elsewhere in
order to reduce the computation costs. The finite element mesh for
the simulation model is depicted in Fig. 12.
The overall input of heat flux is calculated as:
Q 0 ⫽ ␩ EI (1)
Table 1 Thermal properties for SUS304 stainless steel
Thermal conductivity 共W/m-K兲
Solid (T⭐1673 K) 8.116⫹1.618⫻10⫺2 T
Liquid 共K兲 ⫺171.1⫹0.1233T
Density 共kg/m3兲
Solid 共⬍⫽1673 K兲 8000
Liquid 共⬎1673 K兲 7200
Specific heat 共J/kg-K兲
Solid (T⭐1673 K) 465.4⫹0.1336T
Liquid (T⬎1723 K) 788
Change linearly between
1673 K and 1723 K
Latent heat of fusion 共J/kg兲 2.5⫻105
Convection coefficient 共W/m2-K兲
Natural convection 10
Forced convection 40
Surface emissivity 0.7
Ambient temperature 共K兲 300
Fig. 12 FE mesh of the model
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 13 Gaussian distributed heat source

Where ␩ is arc efficiency, which accounts for the radiation and

other losses from the arc to the environment, E is voltage and I is
electric current. The radial heat flux distribution on the top surface
of the weldment is approximated to be a Gaussian function in the
form of 共as shown in Fig. 13兲;

q⫽
Q0
2 ␲ r 20
exp 冉 冊
⫺r 2
2r 20
(2)

where r is the radial distance with respect to the axis of the elec-
trode; r 0 is the distribution parameter defined as the radial dis-
tance within which 95% of energy is transferred.
Convection and radiation boundary conditions are applied to
the weldment to model the heat loss from the weldment surfaces.
Particularly, a forced convection boundary condition is assumed
on the entire top surface right below the arc. The natural convec-
tion boundary conditions are assumed on all the other surfaces.
All the convection boundary conditions are modeled using New-
ton’s law of cooling.
q conv⫽h 共 T⫺T ⬁ 兲 (3)
where h is the convection coefficient which is assumed to be
constant through the welding process; T is the local temperature
and T ⬁ is the ambient temperature. The radiation boundary con-
dition is applied over the top surface following to the gray body
radiation law.
q evap⫽␧ ␴ 共 T 4 ⫺T ⬁4 兲 (4)
where ␧ is the surface emittance and ␴ is Stephen-Boltzman con-
stant. The evaporation of the welding pool is assumed to be neg-
ligible in this study.
Fig. 14 Temperature distributions at 9th second. „red areas
Simulation Results and Experimental Verification stand for the weld pools… „ E Ä12.2 V, I Ä90 A, ␩ Ä0.50, r 0
Figure 14 shows the transient temperature distribution of the Ä1.05 with speed 125, 150, 175 mmÕmin respectively…
weld created from the developed 3D FEM model under different
welding conditions. The numerical simulations are carried out for
two different workpiece thickness 共i.e., 4 mm and 6 mm兲 with
arc 共i.e., ␩ * E* I). Again, the depth of weld pools is more sensitive
various welding speeds. The weld penetration and surface width
to the changing of the arc efficiency than the top-surface width
of different workpiece thickness can be predicted through the de- and length. The shape of the top surface of weld pools changes
veloped FEM model under various welding conditions as shown slightly with the arc efficiency, while the shape in the depth is
in Figs. 15–18. significantly affected. As for the effects of heat source parameter
The heat distribution parameter r 0 has significant influences on on the cooling rate, smaller r 0 and efficiency will lead to a faster
both the shape and the size of weld pools. The numerical simula- cooling process.
tion reveals that the depth of weld pools is more sensitive to the The dependence of the heat distribution parameter, r 0 , and arc
changing of r 0 than the top-surface width and length. With the efficiency on welding speed is shown in Fig. 19 and Fig. 20. The
increase of r 0 , the top surface of weld pools tends to evolve from process exhibits a nearly constant value of heat distribution pa-
an approximately round shape to a tear-drop shape. The curvature rameter with the exception of the higher current where a decrease
of the weld pool boundary in the depth decreases slightly faster at is noted as the welding speed increases. The small distribution
the front end than at the rear end when r 0 increases. The arc parameter, which means the heat source is more concentrated on
efficiency also has significant influences on the size of weld pools the surface under the torch, does not mean that a small pool size
since it directly relates to the amount of the net heat input from will be obtained. The depth of weld pool is very sensitive to the

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 Fig. 18 Effect of welding speed on the depth of weld pool „arc
lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ6 mm…
Fig. 15 Effect of welding speed on the surface width of weld
pool „arc lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ4 mm…

distribution parameter while relatively the surface width is not.

Figure 20 shows a nearly constant level of arc efficiency with the
exception of the lower current where a decrease is noted.
Figures 21 and 22 show that the distribution parameter, r 0 ,
increases rapidly with increasing arc length and increasing cur-
rent. As the arc length is increased, the number of electron-ion
collisions increases and the arc spreads from the sharply-tipped
cathode to the flat anode. The increased electron-ion scattering of
a longer arc results in greater expansion of the arc. However,

Fig. 19 Effect of welding speed on the heat distribution pa-

rameter „arc lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ4 mm…

Fig. 16 Effect of welding speed on the depth of weld pool „arc

lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ4 mm…
Fig. 20 Effect of welding speed on arc efficiency „arc length
Ä2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ4 mm…

Fig. 17 Effect of welding speed on the surface width of weld Fig. 21 Correlation among heat distribution parameter, cur-
pool „arc lengthÄ2 mm, workpiece thicknessÄ6 mm… rent and arc length under 100 mmÕmin welding speed

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 Fig. 24 Correlation among arc efficiency, current and arc
Fig. 22 Correlation among heat distribution parameter, cur- length under 150 mmÕmin welding speed
rent and arc length under 150 mmÕmin welding speed
Table 3 Arc efficiency for 4 mm workpiece thickness, arc
Table 2 Heat distribution parameter for 4 mm workpiece thick- lengthÄ2 mm
ness, arc lengthÄ2 mm
E⫽12.2 V E⫽13.1 V E⫽14.7 V
E⫽12.2 V E⫽13.1 V E⫽14.7 V Welding I⫽90 A I⫽110 A I⫽150 A
Welding I⫽90 A I⫽110 A I⫽150 A Speed
Speed 共mm/min兲 ␩ ␩ ␩
共mm/min兲 r 0 共mm兲 r 0 共mm兲 r 0 共mm兲
90 0.55 0.56 0.65
90 1.3 2.4 6.3 105 0.545 0.56 0.65
105 1.2 2.1 5.3 125 0.53 0.56 0.65
125 1.05 1.9 4.5 150 0.50 0.56 0.65
150 1.0 1.75 3.9 175 0.47 0.56 0.65
175 0.95 1.7 3.5 210 0.41 0.53 0.65
210 0.9 1.65 3.2

arc length increases. A table of the heat distribution parameter for

a set of specific welding parameters is shown in Table 2.
The arc length effect on arc efficiency is also examined. The
results presented in Figs. 23 and 24 show that the arc efficiency
decreases with increasing arc length. This indicates longer arc
length will make the arc efficiency lower due to the greater radia-
tion. Of course, such results are consistent with the experimental
results as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, where the weld penetration
decreases as the arc length increases. A table of the arc efficiency
for a set of specific welding parameters is shown in Table 3.

Fig. 23 Correlation among arc efficiency, current and arc
length under 100 mmÕmin welding speed
distribution parameter slightly decreases with increasing arc
length at lower welding current. It is suspected that the current has
its maximum density in the neighborhood of the tip of the tung-
sten electrode. After the electrons are emitted from the tungsten
electrode, they quickly spread radially, thus gaining radial mo-
mentum, when they travel toward the workpiece. The radial mo-
mentum imposes an equivalent divergent force on the current.
However, such radial momentum associated with the emittance of
the electrons decays as the electrons travel toward the workpiece.
The component of the divergent force corresponding to the radial
momentum thus decays as the electrons travel toward the work-
piece. Hence, it appears that the arc distribution may first increase
and then decrease after reaching its maximum if the arc length is
long enough. When the current is small, the initial current density
is also small. The initial radial momentum due to the radial
spreading is thus also small. Hence, the maximum divergent and
maximum distribution can be reached shortly after the electrons
are emitted from the tungsten electrode. As a result, if the welding
current is small, the distribution parameters may decrease as the
Conclusion
Production of quality welds requires knowledge on the role of
each major welding parameter in determining the weld quality and
geometry, on their interconnection and dependence, and on the
way in which they are coupled in determining the weld quality
and geometry. In this study, a numerical model has been devel-
oped for single-pass GTA weld. A series of experiments have been
conducted to verify the computational results. Computational and
experimental results on stainless steel plates 共SUS 304兲 showed:
• The heat distribution as specified by the distribution param-
eter r 0 has significant influence on both the shape and the size of
weld pools. As r 0 increases, the depth of the weld pool decreases
but the top-surface width increases. Also, as r 0 increases, the top
surface of the weld pool tends to evolve from an approximately
round shape to a tear-drop shape. The curvature of the bottom
boundary of the weld pool decreases at both the front and rear
end, but with the decrease at the front end being slightly faster.
• The arc efficiency has noticeable influence on the size of the
weld pool. It appears that the depth of the weld pool is more
sensitive to the change in the arc efficiency than the top-surface
width and length are.
• The distribution and arc efficiency both have an influence on
the cooling rate. Smaller r 0 and arc efficiency normally lead to a
faster cooling process.
• The heat distribution and arc efficiency both depend on the
welding speed. When the current is low, the heat distribution is
nearly independent of the welding speed. However, if the welding

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 current is high, the distribution parameter r 0 decreases as the
welding speed increases. In general, the arc efficiency decreases
as the welding speed increases, but the decrease rate is welding
current dependent and is intensified by the amperage of the cur-
rent.
• The distribution parameter r 0 normally increases rapidly with
increasing arc length and increasing current. However, it slightly
decreases with increasing arc length at lower welding current.
• The arc efficiency decreases with increasing arc length. That
is, a longer arc length makes the arc efficiency lower.
Acknowledgments
The author gratefully acknowledges support for this study from
the National Science Council of Taiwan. The author would also
like to thank National Center for High-performance Computing of
Taiwan for furnishing computational systems which made this in-
vestigation possible.
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