Automated heat source calibration for the numerical simulation of laser beam welded components

The well-known advantages of laser beam welding, like the low overall energy deposition into the welding zone or the high processing speed, have led to increased industrial use of this joining process. In order to simulate the heat input and to draw conclusions for experimental application, numerous tasks have to be performed manually. Moreover, expert knowledge is necessary to build thermal FE models of a welding process and to calibrate a heat source to reconstruct the temperature field. Hence, the automation of conventional steps can contribute to more efficient industrial use of the FE simulation. In order to more easily simulate the welding process, an approach for automating the essential steps is proposed in this paper. Thus, special attention is paid to the use of image processing tools and optimization algorithms. The application of this approach precisely depicts the heat deposition and simultaneously decreases the workload for the user.