Dynamic correlation between weld pool shape and weld penetration

The weld pool can provide accurate and instantaneous information about the weld penetration. In this paper, a normalized model is proposed to characterize the weld pool. It is shown that the weld penetration is correlated with the proposed three characteristic parameters of the weld pool. Neural networks are used to calculate the weld penetration using the measured parameters of the weld pool. Comparative modeling trials show that the weld penetration can be more accurately calculated if the adjacent weld pools are also used. This implies that the correlation between the weld penetration and weld pool is dynamic. Hence, an on-line non-linear dynamic estimation system can be developed to estimate the weld penetration.