Investigation of Single Pass Welding of Thick AH36 Steel Plates in a Square Groove Butt Joint Configuration During AC-GMAW

Abstract

This study was performed to investigate the AC-GMAW process for joining of 6 mm to 8 mm thick AH36 steel plates in a single pass welding using a square groove butt joint configuration. A broad range of experiments was conducted at different welding speeds and joint gaps. Initially, a suitable setting of welding speed and the joint gap was determined based on the results of penetration depth and the gap bridging ability of the welded joints. Then, the quality of the selected welded joints was examined by hardness and tensile testing. Microstructure and fractured sur�face analysis were carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to examine the surface morphology. Based on the experimental findings, recommendations were made for selecting suitable input welding parameters for the welding of plates up to 8 mm using the AC-GMAW process.