ABSTRACT
The heat flux in a welding arc is distributed as per a Gaussian model, i.e., the heat flux varies in an exponential manner from the centre of the arc to the outer periphery. A moving arc occupies different positions at different time intervals. In a finite element mesh, the arc may be moving across a particular element for some time before moving over to the next set of elements. In a transient thermal analysis, the portion of the heat which is assigned to the element by the moving arc must be evaluated for different time steps. This computation is performed using Simpson’s numerical integration procedure. The detailed calculations have been presented for different cases. The analysis may be either cross sectional type or in-plane type, and the calculations have been presented for both cases.
