| 1. |
- De Backer, Jeroen, 1987-
(author)
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Robotic Friction Stir Welding for Flexible Production
- 2012
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a modern welding process that joins materials by frictional heat, generated by a rotating tool. Unlike other welding processes, the material never melts, which is beneficial for the weld properties. FSW is already widely adopted in several industries but the applications are limited to simple geometries like straight lines or circular welds, mostly in aluminium. The welding operation is performed by rigid FSW machines, which deliver excellent welds but puts limitations on the system in terms of flexibility and joint geometries. Therefore, several research groups are working on the implementation of the FSW process on industrial robots. A robot allows welding of three-dimensional geometries and increases the flexibility of the whole system. The high process forces required for FSW, in combination with the limited stiffness of the robot brings some extra complexity to the system. The limitations of the robot system are addressed in this licentiate thesis.One part of the thesis studies the effect of robot deflections on the weld quality. A sensor-based solution is presented that measures the path deviation and compensates this deviation by modifying the robot trajectory. The tool deviation is reduced to an acceptable tolerance and root defects in the weld are hereby eliminated. The sensor-based method provided better process understanding, leading to a new strategy that uses existing force-feedback for path compensations of the tool. This method avoids extra sensors and makes the system less complex. Another part of this work focuses on the extra complexity to maintain a stable welding process on more advanced geometries. A model is presented that allows control of the heat input in the process by control of the downforce. Finally, the robot’s limitations in terms of maximal hardness of the materials to be welded are investigated. Parameter tuning and implementation of preheating are proposed to allow robotic FSW of superalloys.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Fahlström, Karl
(author)
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Laser welding of boron steels for light-weight vehicle applications
- 2015
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Laser beam welding has gained a significant interest during the last two decades. The suitability of the process for high volume production has the possibility to give a strong advantage compared to several other welding methods. However, it is important to have the process in full control since various quality issues may otherwise occur. During laser welding of boron steels quality issues such as imperfections, changes in local and global geometry as well as strength reduction can occur. The aspects that need to be considered are strongly depending on alloy content, process parameters etc. These problems that can occur could be fatal for the construction and the lowest level of occurrence is wanted, independent of industry.The focus of this study has been to investigate the properties of laser welded boron steel. The study includes laser welding of boron alloyed steels with strengths of 1500 MPa and a recently introduced 1900 MPa grade. Focus has been to investigate weldability and the occurrence of cracks, porosity and strength reducing microstructure that can occur during laser welding, as well as distortion studies for tolerances in geometry. The results show that both conventional and 1900 MPa boron alloyed steel are suitable for laser welding.Due to the martensitic structure of welds the material tends to behave brittle. Cracking and porosity do not seem to be an issue limiting the use of these steels. For tolerances in geometry for larger structures tests has been done simulating laser welding of A-pillars and B-pillars. Measurements have been done with Vernier caliper as well as a more advanced optical method capturing the movements during the welding sequence. Results from the tests done on Ushaped beams indicates that depending on the geometry of the structure and heat input distortions can be controlled to give distortions from 1 to 8 mm, at a welding length of 700 mm. This means that important geometry points can be distorted several millimeters if the laser welding process not is controlled.
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| 4. |
- Javidi Shirvan, Alireza, 1978-
(author)
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Modelling of Electric Arc Welding : arc-electrode coupling
- 2013
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Arc welding still requires deeper process understanding and more accurateprediction of the heat transferred to the base metal. This can be provided by CFD modelling.Most works done to model arc discharge using CFD consider the arc corealone. Arc core simulation requires applying extrapolated experimental data asboundary conditions on the electrodes. This limits the applicability. To become independent of experimental input the electrodes need to be included in the arcmodel. The most critical part is then the interface layer between the electrodesand the arc core. This interface is complex and non-uniform, with specific physicalphenomena.The present work reviews the concepts of plasma and arc discharges that areuseful for this problem. The main sub-regions of the model are described, andtheir dominant physical roles are discussed.The coupled arc-electrode model is developed in different steps. First couplingsolid and fluid regions for a simpler problem without complex couplinginterface. This is applied to a laser welding problem using the CFD softwareOpenFOAM. The second step is the modelling of the interface layer betweencathode and arc, or cathode layer. Different modelling approaches available inthe literature are studied to determine their advantages and drawbacks. One ofthem developed by Cayla is used and further improved so as to satisfy the basicprinciples of charge and energy conservation in the different regions of thecathode layer. A numerical procedure is presented. The model, implementedin MATLAB, is tested for different arc core and cathode conditions. The maincharacteristics calculated with the interface layer model are in good agreementwith the reference literature. The future step will be the implementation of theinterface layer model in OpenFOAM.
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| 5. |
- Anderberg, Staffan, 1981-
(author)
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A study of process planning for metal cutting
- 2009
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Process planning as a function for competitiveness is often neglected. However, as an intermediary between product development and manufacturing, it holds a key function in transforming product specifications and requirements into a producible process plan. Demands and requirements should be met concurrently as manufacturing costs and lead times are minimised. The focus of this thesis is the act of process planning, where the use of better methodologies, computer-aids and performance measurements are essential parts. Since process planning has the function of transforming demands and requirements, changing customer and regulative requirements are vital to regard. Since environmentally benign products and production increases in importance, the research presented in this thesis includes a CNC machining cost model, which relates machining costs to energy consumption. The presented results in this thesis are based on quantitative and qualitative studies in the metal working industry. This thesis has contributed to an enhanced understanding of process planning to achieve better performance and important areas for improvements. Despite a 50 year history of computerised process planning aids, few of these are used in the industry, where manual process planning activities are more common. Process planning aids should be developed around the process planner so that non-value adding activities, such as information management and documentation are minimised in order to allow more resources for value adding activities, such as decision making. This thesis presents a study of systematic process planning in relation to perceived efficiency. This correlation could however not be verified, which opens up for further studies of other possible explanations for process planning efficiency. Process planning improvements in the industry are difficult to make, since there is little focus on process planning activities and limited knowledge about actual performance hereof. This means that measures taken regarding process planning development are difficult to verify.
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| 6. |
- Curry, Nicholas, 1984-
(author)
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Design of Thermal Barrier Coating Systems
- 2012
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Thermal barrier coatings (TBC’s) are used to provide both thermal insulation and oxidation protection to high temperature components within gas turbines. The development of turbines for power generation and aviation has led to designs where the operation conditions exceed the upper limits of most conventional engineering materials. As a result there has been a drive to improve thermal barrier coatings to allow the turbine to operate hotter for longer.The focus of this study has been the development of a new generation of TBC system for industrial implementation. The goal for these new coatings was to achieve lower conductivity and longer lifetime than those coatings used today. The route taken to achieve these goals has been twofold. Firstly an alternative stabiliser has been chosen for the zirconium oxide system in the form of dysprosia. Secondly, Control of the powder morphology and spray parameters has been used to generate coating microstructures with favourable levels of porosity.Samples have been heavily characterised using the laser flash technique for evaluation of thermal properties. Measurements were performed at room temperature and at intervals up to 1200°C. Samples have also been tested in their as produced state and after heat treatments of up to 200 hours.Lifetime evaluation has been performed using the thermo-cyclic fatigue test to expose coating systems to successive cycles of heating and cooling combined with oxidation of the underlying metallic coating.Microstructures have been prepared and analysed using SEM. An image analysis routine has been used to attempt to quantify changes in microstructure features between coating types or coating exposure times and to relate those changes to changes in thermal propertiesResults show that dysprosia as an alternative dopant gives a reduction in thermal conductivity. While small at room temperature and in the as produced state; the influence becomes more pronounced at high temperatures and with thermal exposure time. Overall, the greatest sustained influence on thermal conductivity has been from creating coatings with high levels of porosity.In relation to lifetime, the target of double the thermo-cyclic fatigue life was achieved using a coating with engineered porosity. Introducing a polymer to the spray powder helps to generate large globular pores within the coating together with a large number of delaminations. Such a structure has shown to be highly resistant to TCF testing.
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| 7. |
- Gupta, Mohit Kumar, 1986-
(author)
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Design of Microstructures in Thermal Barrier Coatings : A Modelling Approach
- 2013
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Plasma sprayed Thermal Barrier Coating systems (TBCs) are commonly used for thermal protection of components in modern gas turbine application such as power generation, marine and aero engines. The material that is most commonly used in these applications is Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) because of this ceramic’s favourable properties, such as low thermal conductivity, phase stability to high temperature, and good erosion resistance. The coating microstructures in YSZ coatings are highly heterogeneous, consisting of defects such as pores and cracks of different sizes which determine the coating’s final thermal and mechanical properties, and the service lives of the coatings. Determination of quantitative microstructure–property correlations is of great interest as experimental procedures are time consuming and expensive.This objective of this thesis work was to investigate the relationships between coating microstructure and thermal-mechanical properties of TBCs, and to utilise these relationships to design an optimised microstructure to be used for next generation TBCs. Simulation technique was used to achieve this goal. Important microstructural parameters influencing the performance of TBCs were identified and coatings with the identified microstructural parameters were designed, modelled and experimentally verified. TBCs comprising of large globular pores with connected cracks inherited within the coating microstructure were shown to have significantly enhanced performance. Low thermal conductivity, low Young‘s modulus and high lifetime were exhibited by these coatings. The modelling approach described in this work can be used as a powerful tool to design new coatings as well as to achieve optimised microstructures.
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| 8. |
- Baghdadchi, Amir, 1994-
(author)
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Laser Welding and Additive Manufacturing of Duplex Stainless Steels : Properties and Microstructure Characterization
- 2022
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Duplex stainless steels (DSS), with a ferritic-austenitic microstructure, are used ina wide range of applications thanks to their high corrosion resistance and excellent mechanical properties. However, efficient and successful production and joining of DSS require precise control of processes and an in-depth understanding o frelations between composition, processing thermal cycles, resulting microstructures and properties. In this study laser welding, laser reheating, and laser additive manufacturing using Laser Metal Deposition with Wire (LMDw) ofDSS and resulting weld and component microstructures and properties are explored.In the first part a lean FDX 27 duplex stainless steel, showing the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) effect, was autogenously laser welded and laser reheated using pure argon or pure nitrogen as shielding gas. The weld metal austenite fraction was 22% for argon-shielding and 39% for nitrogen-shielding in as-welded conditions. Less nitrides were found with nitrogen-shielding compared to argonshielding. Laser reheating did not significantly affect nitride content or austenite fraction for argon-shielding. However, laser reheating of the nitrogen shieldedweld removed nitrides and increased the austenite fraction to 57% illustrating the effectiveness of this approach.Phase fraction analysis is important for DSS since the balance between ferrite and austenite affects properties. For TRIP steels the possibility of austenite tomartensite transformation during sample preparation also has to be considered. Phases in the laser welded and reheated FDX 27 DSS were identified and quantified using light optical microscopy (LOM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. An optimized Beraha color etching procedure was developed for identification of martensite by LOM. A novel step-by-step EBSD methodology was also introduced, which successfully identified and quantified martensite as well as ferrite and austenite. It was found that mechanical polishing produced up to 26% strain-induced martensite, while no martensite was observed after electrolytic polishing.In the second part a systematic four-stage methodology was applied to develop procedures for additive manufacturing of standard 22% Cr duplex stainless steel components using LMDw combined with the hot wire technology. In the four stages, single-bead passes, a single-bead wall, a block, and finally a cylinder with an inner diameter of 160 mm, thickness of 30 mm, and height of 140 mm were produced. The as-deposited microstructure was inhomogeneous and repetitive including highly ferritic regions with nitrides and regions with high fractions ofaustenite. Heat treatment for 1 hour at 1100 ̊C homogenized the microstructure, removed nitrides, and produced an austenite fraction of about 50%. Strength, ductility, and toughness were at a high level for the cylinder, comparable to those of wrought type 2205 steel, both as-deposited and after heat treatment. The highest strength was achieved for the as-deposited condition with a yield strength of 765 MPa and a tensile strength of 865 MPa, while the highest elongation of 35% was found after heat treatment. Epitaxial growth of ferrite during solidification, giving elongated grains along the build direction, resulted in anisotropy of toughness properties. The highest impact toughness energies were measured for specimens with the notch perpendicular to the build direction after heat treatment with close to 300 J at -10oC. It was concluded that implementing a systematic methodology with a stepwise increase in the deposited volume and geometrical complexity can successfully be used when developing additive manufacturing procedures for significantly sized metallic components.This study has illustrated that a laser beam can successfully be used as heat source in processing of duplex stainless steel both for welding and additive manufacturing. However, challenges like nitrogen loss, low austenite fractions and nitride formation have to be handled by precise process control and/or heat treatment.
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| 9. |
- Broberg, Patrik, 1983-
(author)
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Towards Automation of Non-Destructive Testing of Welds
- 2011
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- All welding processes can give rise to defects that will weaken the joint and can lead to failure of the welded structure. Because of this, non-destructive testing (NDT) of welds have become increasingly important to ensure the structural integrity when the material becomes thinner and stronger and welds become smaller; all to reduce weight in order to save material and reduce emissions due to lighter constructions.Several NDT methods exists for testing welds and they all have their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the types and sizes of defects that are detectable, but also in the ability to automate the method. Several methods were compared using common weld defects to determine which method or methods were best suited for automated NDT of welds. The methods compared were radiography, phased array ultrasound, eddy current, thermography and shearography. Phased array ultrasound was deemed most suitable for detecting the weld defects used in the comparison and for automation and was therefore chosen to be used in the continuation of this work. Thermography was shown to be useful for detecting surface defects; something not easily detected using ultrasound. A combination of these techniques will be able to find most weld defects of interest.Automation of NDT can be split into two separate areas; mechanisation of the testing and automation of the analysis, both presenting their own difficulties. The problem of mechanising the testing has been solved for simple geometries but for more general welds it will require a more advance system using an industrial robot or similar. Automation of the analysis of phased array ultrasound data consists of detection, sizing, positioning and classification of defects. There are several problems to solve before a completely automatic analysis can be made, including positioning of the data, improving signal quality, segmenting the images and classifying the defects. As a step on the way towards positioning of the data, and thereby easing the analysis, the phase of the signal was studied. It was shown that the phase can be used for finding corners in the image and will also improve the ability to position the corner as compared to using the amplitude of the signal. Further work will have to be done to improve the signal in order to reliably analyse the data automatically.
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| 10. |
- Edstorp, Marcus, 1980-
(author)
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Weld Pool Simulations
- 2008
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This investigation is devoted to the study of welding and its effect on the workpiece, focusing on the thermo and fluid dynamical phenomena occuring during a autogenous or nonautogenous arc fusion welding process. Its aim is to simulate the behaviour of the weld pool and analyze the consequence of the solid-liquid phase change, thus obtaining a methodology for predicting the appearance of weld defects related to solidification and cooling. In order to accomplish this, we solve equations governing a number of continuum mechanical and electromagnetical quantities, as well as consider the motion of the freely moving boundary of the weld pool. Since the state of these quantities is strongly influenced by phenomena such as arc and droplet impingement, non-isothermal phase change, surface tension, Marangoni forces and Lorentz forces, much effort is necessarily devoted to the modelling of the corresponding fluxes and sources, as well as to the implementation of computationally efficient techniques for simulating the geometrical deformation of the workpiece, which in our setting is entirely determined by the motion of the weld pool surface.Common to all arc fusion welding processes is the employment of a welding arc. Many techniques rely on the arc to clean and shield the workpiece during the process, however in this study we consider it to be its main purpose to cause the local increase of thermal energy that is required for the establishment of the weld pool, and also to exert the mechanical forces that provoke the subsequent fluid flow which enhances heat transfer and facilitates weld penetration. The physics of the welding arc itself is quite intricate, and although the modelling of the arc is not the prime objective of this research project, we conclude that arc forces act on the pool surface, and that the investigation of the arc behaviour is important insofar that it provides input to the pool model and thus enables a more accurate prediction of the quality of the weldment that is created once the pool has solidified
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