The society of the former doctoral candidates of the IFSW (VEDIS) has awarded this year’s price for the best master thesis to Johannes Michel. The topic of his master's thesis is: Investigation of transverse crack formation during laser beam welding of aluminium alloys.
Transverse cracks in the weld seam are a major problem in the electromobility, for example in the production of battery boxes. They can lead to a leaky seams and, in the worst case, to component failure.
The aim of the work was to determine suitable strategies for avoiding transverse cracks, for which the formation of transverse cracks was analysed both experimentally and theoretically.
Mr. Michel was able to identify significant mechanisms in the formation of transverse cracks. The most important finding was the drop in static pressure at the widest point of the melt pool at high feed rates. To compensate for this pressure drop, a mechanical compressive stress was applied to the specimen during welding. The resulting welds exhibit a significant reduction in transverse cracking and underline the potential of the optimization strategy.