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Reusable unit process life cycle inventory for manufacturing: gas metal arc welding

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Abstract

The paper develops a unit process life cycle inventory (UPLCI) for gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process. UPLCI is a modeling approach that allows users to estimate the energy and materials flow of a unit process. A UPLCI model can be reused in different manufacturing settings where a wide range of machines and materials are used. GMAW is in the joining category of the taxonomy of manufacturing processes, and this work is part of the effort to build UPLCI models for all common manufacturing processes. Following UPLCI approach, the energy consumption is not limited to the energy needed to initiate and maintain the arc (i.e. active energy). Energy spent during idle and standby are also accounted. An example calculation is provided to demonstrate how the GMAW model can be used. It should be noted that the GMAW model can be linked to UPLCI models of other unit processes. This makes it possible to estimate the materials loss and energy use (thus environmental impacts) of a product made by a sequence of manufacturing processes.

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Abbreviations

LCI:

Life cycle inventory

UPLCI:

Unit process life cycle inventory

GMAW:

Gas metal arc welding

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

Ar:

Argon

A:

Weld cross sectional area

a:

Leg length of weld cross section

cp,electrode :

Specific heat of electrode

cp,sub :

Specific heat of melted substrate

d:

Gap width of square-groove butt weld

delectrode :

Diameter of electrode

E:

Electricity consumption by arc

Ea :

Actual electricity consumption

Ebasic :

Basic energy

Eidle :

Idle energy

Etip :

Tip energy

Etotal :

Total energy

F:

Wire feed speed

f1 :

Arc efficiency

f2 :

Melting efficiency

f3 :

Fraction of total heat in the super-heated molten drop of electrode material out of total energy supplied to the welding pool

∆Hf,electrode :

Latent heat of fusion for electrode

∆Hf,sub :

Latent heat of fusion for melted substrate

I:

Arc current

L:

Length of weld

melectrode :

Mass of electrode consumption

melectrode loss :

Mass of electrode loss

mfume :

Mass of fume

mgas,i :

Mass of shield gas i

msub :

Melted substrate

mweld :

Mass of weld

Pidle :

Idle power

Pbasic :

Basic power

Ptip :

Tip power

Qbm :

Heat generated is lost to the surrounding base metal due to conduction

Qenv :

Heat generated is lost to the environment due to convection and radiation

Qg :

Flow rate

Qheat loss :

Heat loss

Qpool :

Heat needed to create the welding pool

T:

Thickness of the metal

tidle :

Idle time

tbasic :

Basic time

ttip :

Tip time

U:

Arc voltage

Vtravel :

Travel speed

Vi :

Volume of shield gas i

V:

Total volume of shield gas

ρ electrode :

Electrode density

ρ Ar :

Argon density

\({\rho _{{\text{C}}{{\text{O}}_2}}}\) :

CO2 density

ρ i :

Density of shield gas i

\({{{\eta}} _{{\text{electrode}}}}\) :

Electrode efficiency

\({\eta _{{\text{inverter}}}}\) :

Convert electricity consumed by arc to actual energy from power grid

θ i :

Composition of shield gas

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Michael Overcash, Janet Twomey, and Jackie Isaacs for their work on developing the unit process life cycle inventory methodology. We also acknowledge Vance Murray for his contribution to data collection. Thanks also go to John W. Sutherland and Michael Overcash for their feedbacks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Hao Zhang

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Fu Zhao

  3. Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Fu Zhao

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  1. Hao Zhang
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  2. Fu Zhao
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Correspondence to Fu Zhao.

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Zhang, H., Zhao, F. Reusable unit process life cycle inventory for manufacturing: gas metal arc welding. Prod. Eng. Res. Devel. 13, 89–97 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-018-0869-1

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