variavel0=<b>Luciano Amaury dos Santos</b> - lucianosantos@iae.cta.br Insituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço - CTA
<b>António Fábio Carvalho da Silva</b> - fabio@emc.ufsc.br Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica - UFSC
<b>Abstract.</b> In this paper an analytical solution for the heat conduction that occurs during the circumferential welding of tubes of thin wall is presented. When the tubes are of small diameter, the heat accumulated during the welding process difficults the obtention of a weldment with adequate uniformity of width and penetration. To enhance the uniformity of the weld bead it is possible to vary the welding current along the process (reducing progressively the heat input to the tubes being joined or using thermal pulsing). In order to optimize this practice, a theoretical model, like the presented in this paper, may be useful. Theoretical models based on analytical solutions generally represent a fast way to calculate the thermal cycle that occurs in a certain position of a tube wall during its weld-ing. The calculation process involved in a weldment geometry prediction based on an analytical solution, however, may be relatively slow, specially when thermal pulsing is considered. For such a kind of predictions, the use of numerical solutions, as it is reported in literature, seems to be more advisable.
<b>Keywords.</b> welding, heat conduction, analytical methods.