Numerical and experimental investigation on weld formation during laser+MIG hybrid fillet welding of aluminum alloy in horizontal position

A three-dimensional transient model is proposed to investigate the weld formation during laser + metal inert gas (MIG) hybrid welding of aluminum alloy for horizontal fillet joint, which considers the coupling of keyhole, droplet, and liquid metal pool as well as the influence of joint geometry feature and welding position. An asymmetrical double-elliptic heat source is utilized to model the arc heat input and a conic heat source with increased peak heat density is used to describe the laser energy. The coordinate rotation is used to take into account the inclination of heat source and the related forces. According to the experimental and simulated results, weld formation mechanism of horizontal fillet joint is studied. At a lower laser power, the fluid flow pattern in hybrid welding is similar to that in MIG welding and a strong downward flow caused by both gravity and arc pressure occurs at the liquid metal zone of the vertical plate, leading to the accumulation of molten metal at the horizontal plate and the resultant weld asymmetry. At high laser power, a clockwise vortex appears above the keyhole. In this case, the sagging of liquid metal near weld pool surface due to effect of gravity is an important factor responsible for the asymmetry of fillet weld. Besides, with increasing laser power, the tendency of weld pool free surface sagging is enhanced to some extent and weld bead surface becomes concave.