UNDERLIGNING THERMOCAPILLARY EFFECTS BY ELECTRON BEAM MELTING OF THIN SPECIMENS

Extensive investigations on cast to cast variations observed in steels have underlined the role of thermocapillary or surface tension driven fluid flow in welding operations. The behavior of weld pool under the electric arc is however affected by possible arc modifications linked to microchemistry variations in materials & this limits to some extent the real contribution from surface tension effects. Thus, electron beam welding with high vacuum was used to investigate thermo-capillary effects on thin austenitic stainless steels & nickel based alloys. The weld pool was monitored by video observations to estimate the importance of fluid flow during the melting & solidification phase. The results underline the importance of fluid flow on [mal solidification.