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Quality of the weld joint produced by high-frequency induction (HFI) welding of steel tubes is attributed to a number of process parameters. There are several important process parameters such as the speed of the welding line, the angle of the approaching strip edges, the physical configuration of the induction coil, impeder, formed steel strip and weld rolls with respect to each other, the pressure of the weld rolls and frequency of the high-frequency current in the induction coil. The purpose of this paper is to develop a 3D model of tube welding process that incorporates realistic material properties and movement of the strip.

3D numerical simulation by the finite element method (FEM) can be used to understand the influence of these process parameters. In this study, the authors have developed a quasi-steady model along with the coupling of electromagnetic and thermal model and incorporation of non-linear electromagnetic and thermal material properties.

In this study, 3D FEM model has been established which gives results in accordance with previously published work on induction tube welding. The effect of the Vee-angle and frequency on the temperature profile created in the strip edge during the electromagnetic heating is studied.

The authors are now able to simulate the induction tube welding process at a more reasonable computational cost enabling an analysis of the process.

A 3D model has been developed for induction tube welding. A non-linearly coupled system of Maxwell’s electromagnetic equation and the heat equation is implemented using the fixed point iteration method. The model also takes into account non-linear magnetic and thermal material properties. Adaptive remeshing is implemented to optimise mesh size for the electrical skin depth of induced current in the strip. The model also accounts for the high welding-line speeds which influence the mode of heat transfer in the strip.

We discuss a model that is capable of describing the solid‐solid phase transitions in steel. It consists of a system of ordinary differential equations for the volume fractions of the occuring phases coupled with a nonlinear energy balance equation to take care of the latent heats of the phase changes. This model is applied to simulate surface heat treatments, which play an important role in the manufacturing of steel. Two different technologies are considered: laser and induction hardening. In the latter case the model has to be extended by Maxwell’s equations. Finally, we present numerical simulations of laser and induction hardening applied to the steel 42CrMo4.

We discuss a model that is capable of describing the process of induction hardening of steel: induction heating – heat transfer – solid‐solid phase transitions in steel. It consists of a reduced system of Maxwell’s equations, the heat transfer eqaution and a system of ordinary differential equations for the volume fractions of the occuring phases. The model is applied to simulate surface heat treatments, which play an important role in the manufacturing of steel. The numerical methods are implemented with tools from pdelib, a collection of modular algorithms. We present numerical simulations of surface hardening applied to the steel 42 CrMo 4.