Determination of Equilibrium Wire Feed Speeds for a Stable GMAW Process

In gas metal arc welding (GMAW), for given welding conditions (e.g., current, electrode diameter, electrode material, etc.), the consumable electrode wire must be fed in such a speed that it dynamically balances the electrode melting speed in order to achieve a stable welding. In this article, a comprehensive model for GMAW was developed to study the interplay between the transport phenomena including the electrode melting and plasma arc, and the dynamically equilibrium wire feed speeds (WFSs) under different welding conditions. The predicted WFSs are in excellent agreement with published data that were obtained through the trial-and-error procedure.