Simulation on pulsed-MIG welding process of Al-Mg-Zn aluminum alloy by FEA based on hybrid heat source model

In this work, based on ABAQUS software, a hybrid heat source model was developed to simulate the multi-pass pulse MIG welding process of a 15 mm-thick Al-Mg-Zn alloy. Compared with double ellipsoid heat source, the coupled heat source could finely realize the weld pool fitting according to morphology of each pass, and apparently reduced the complexity of parameters calibration for heat source. By applying the heat source model and nonlinearly elastic boundary conditions, the calculated weldment morphology and residual distortion had a well agreement with welding experiments.