Underwater Robotic Welding of Lap Joints with Sandwiched Reactive Multilayers: Thermal, Mechanical and Material Analysis

Underwater welding using reactive materials pre-deposited at the junction surfaces as a self-contained, in-situ ignitable heat source mitigates external power and gas supply requirements. Consequently, lending itself to robotic implementation eliminating the cost along with health and safety hazards of human welder-divers. This project reports on lap joining of aluminum sheets with sandwiched commercial reactive Ni-Al multilayers that are perforated to allow for melt fusion under compression upon ignition, in saline and deionized water as well as air for comparison. Finite-element thermal simulations are employed to study the resulting welding temperature field and melt conditions. Infrared pyrometry and thermocouple measurements during welding were used to validate the computational simulations. The lap joints are subjected to standard shear testing, and comparable compliance, strength and toughness values of the welds are assessed for underwater and dry joints. Scanning electron (SEM) of the weld sections reveal rapidly melting and solidifying microstructures of the parent metal, with minimal melt flow and perfusion of nickel aluminide aggregates from the reacted multilayers, and no signs of cavitation.