REU: Measurement and Control of Dynamic Weld Pool Surface in Gas Metal Arc Welding

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

The research team has successfully invented and instrumented a novel method to measure the weld pool surface in gas metal arc welding (GMAW). A laser pattern is projected onto the weld pool and its reflection from the specular weld pool surface is imaged. Optical processes were modeled to understand parameters that determine the quality of the imaging. Algorithms were proposed to successfully extract the reflection pattern and compute the weld pool surface from the reflection pattern. The next step is to measure the weld pool surface in real-time. To this end, two fundamental issues need to be resolved. The first issue is the ability to analyze the fluctuation of the weld pool surface. Highly fluctuating weld pool surface adversely affects the quality of the reflection images, reducing the accuracy of the surface measurement. A fluctuation model is needed to predict the dynamic development of the pool surface to help determine appropriate instants for image acquisition. The second issue is to assure that only quality images will be further processed and used because images with higher quality require less computation time to process and lead to more accurate results. An effective evaluation method is thus needed to determine the image quality without complex computation. In this REU supplement, an undergraduate student from under-represented groups will work with the PI to help resolve these two fundamental issues.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date10/1/079/30/11

Funding

  • National Science Foundation

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