Modeling of molten drop oscillation in gas shielded metal arc welding

In Gas shielded Metal Arc Welding process, the molten drop at the electrode wire tip is detached and transferred into the weld pool by various driving forces, which have been discussed mainly focusing on gravity force, electro-magnetic force, surface tension force and plasma drag force. In this paper the oscillation phenomena of metal drop and their numerical model are described. The numerical model developed is an axial symmetrical 2D model which enables to calculate and visualize time-change of the drop shape and the flow in the drop using VOF-CSF method. The validity of the model is verified through the comparison between calculations and experiments using water drop. It is shown that the natural frequency of the pendant drop decreases with increase of the drop size. And the numerical simulation predicts that it is possible to detach the molten drop from the electrode wire by exciting the forced oscillation around the natural frequency with pulsed current.