Development and use of mathematical tools to model arc welding

For several decades, one of the major demands has been the need to develop welding procedure specifications for a vast range of joint designs and materials required in various industries. In order to address this, many standards have been published with pre-qualified weld procedure specifications, however there still remains a need for welding engineers to develop new procedures. Sometimes these can be modified from previous experiences on similar joints, although this may not be possible for a new welding engineer. Instead, these procedures are often developed through costly trial and error. This presentation will review the development of a wide range of mathematical tools that are available to help guide welding procedure design to determine a suitable window of parameters, ranging from fundamental Rosenthal theory through to high fidelity numerical modeling and mobile apps. The limitations and requirements to using these tools both for education, and in the field will be discussed.