Publication

Abstract : To improve penetration capability of Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) process, Flux Bounded TIG (FBTIG) is investigated in aluminum alloy AA 2219 T87. Characterization of this process is essential to predict and control the weld bead quality. For characterization, design of experiments based on central composite rotatable design is employed for the experiments. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is used to develop a mathematical model to correlate the bead geometry with controllable process variables. The model developed is checked for its adequacy by regression by using the F-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). By backward elimination method, reduced model is obtained from the full model. The process parameters are optimized to get desired weld bead geometry. The model is validated by confirmatory tests. The main and interaction effects of the process variables on bead geometry are presented in graphical form. The results are useful to predict the weld bead geometry for different combinations of process variables.