Effect of Electron Beam Welding Parameters on Temperature and Stress Field of AISI P20 Tool Steel in Vacuum Roll-cladding Process

Abstract

Vacuum roll-cladding (VRC) is an effective method to produce high quality ultra-heavy AISI P20 plate steel. In the process of VRC, reasonable welding process of electron beam welding (EBW) can significantly avoid welding cracks and reduce the cost. In this paper, the electron beam welding process of AISI P20 tool steel was simulated by using a combined heat source model based on finite element method, and the temperature field and stress field under different welding parameters were studied respectively . The results showed that welding parameters have a greater effect on weld penetration than that of weld width, which making the aspect ratio increases with the increase of welding current, and decrease with the increase of welding speed. The weld morphologies were consistent with those of the modeling and the measured thermal heat curves were good agreement with those of simulated, which was verified the feasibility and effectiveness of temperature fields. The results of stress fields under different welding parameters indicat ed that lower welding speed and higher welding current resulting in lower residual stress at welded joint, which means lower risk of cracking after EBW. The results of this study have been successfully applied to industrial production.