Journal of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 223231

Combined effect of ux and welding parameters on chemical composition and mechanical properties of submerged arc weld metal
P. Kanjilal a , T.K. Pal b, , S.K. Majumdar c
b

Mech. Engg. Divn., National Test House, Alipore, Kolkata 700027, India Metallurgical Engg. Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India c SQC & OR Division, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata 700035, India

Received 14 April 2004; received in revised form 6 April 2005; accepted 28 June 2005

Abstract Rotatable designs based on statistical experiments for mixtures have been developed to predict the combined effect of ux mixture and welding parameters on submerged arc weld metal chemical composition and mechanical properties. Bead-on-plate weld deposits on low carbon steel plates were made at different ux composition and welding parameter combinations. The results show that ux mixture related variables based on individual ux ingredients and welding parameters have individual as well as interaction effects on responses, viz. weld metal chemical composition and mechanical properties. In general, two factor interaction effect are higher than the individual effect of mixture related variables. Amongst welding parameters, polarity is found to be important for all responses under study. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Submerged arc welding; Rotatable mixture designs; Mixture related variables; Heat input; Electrochemical reaction; With to area ratio

1. Introduction Increasing requirements for safety in welded structures have led to control its chemical composition in order to obtain consistently better mechanical properties of the weld metal. This can be accomplished by better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that alter the weld compositions. In submerged arc welding (SAW), the mechanisms are primarily affected by three factors: dilution of weld pool by the base plate [14], environmental contamination [58] and the transfer of elements to or from the slag [2,4,9]. Flux and welding parameters are the two main variables in SAW process. Systematic studies have been made on SAW uxes, focussing on the reactions of these uxes with the molten metal during welding [114]. Such information will be helpful for predicting compositional variations in the weld metal and thus establish the type of welding ux required for a given application of the weld. Recent studies involving SAW of carbon and carbonmanganese steels have generated data for both commercial and experimental uxes from which

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 33 414 6317; fax: +91 33 414 6940. E-mail address: t k pal @yahoo.com (T.K. Pal).

composition of weld metal can be predicted for a given ux, wire and base plate. Such data have been used to examine the extent to which levels of elements such as manganese, silicon, etc., can be predicted [3,8,9,15,16]. Furthermore, quantitative model has been developed and experimentally veried to predict weld metal chemistry in terms of ux ingredients at constant heat input using statistical design for mixture [17]. Apart from ux, the effect of welding parameters on weld metal chemistry has also been studied by many workers [15,1722]. Signicant effect of welding parameters such as current, voltage, travel speed, etc., on weld metal chemistry has been noted. However, weld deposit chemistry has been shown to be primarily dependent on ux composition and also on operating parameters [18]. Since the nal composition of the weld metal and hence the mechanical properties of the weld is determined by the ux and operating parameters, it is therefore necessary to understand their combined effect on both the chemistry and mechanical properties of the weld. This paper has attempted to study the combined effect of ux and welding parameters on the weld metal chemistry and mechanical properties using statistical design of experiment for mixtures in particular rotatable mixture design [2328].

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2005.06.083

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2. Experimental procedures
Agglomerated uxes used in the study were prepared by varying the ingredients CaO, MgO, CaF2 and Al2 O3 . The range of each ux ingredients as well as welding parameters used in the present study were determined by trial run in submerged arc welding for defect free quality welds. The design matrix consisting of ux mixture variables and welding parameter were formulated based on the data obtained from trial experiments as given in Appendix A. Bead-on-plate weld deposits were made on 18 mm thick low carbon steel plate using 3.15 mm diameter low carbon ller wire as per programme formulated by statistical mixture design. Quantovac methods were used to determine manganese, silicon, sulphur, phosphorous, nickel and carbon content of base metal and weld metal samples. The oxygen content was measured by Leco interstitial analyzer. The chemical composition of base metal and ller wire are given in Table 1. Mechanical properties of weld metal such as yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), percent elongation, Charpy impact toughness (at 20 C) and hardness were determined by standard methods. The responses in the study, viz. chemical composition and mechanical properties of weld metal samples are given in Table 2. Quantitative metallographic studies were performed to evaluate the microstructural constituents present in each weld metal sample (Table 2). Macrophotographs were taken on the weld metal samples for measurement of parameters such as weld bead width (w), transverse cross sectional area (A) and dilution (d). Optical micrographs were taken for selected weld metal samples. Fractographic analysis were also done on selected weld metal fractured samples using scanning electron microscope.

parameters on responses of weld metal chemical composition and mechanical properties. i. Among the welding parameters, polarity (P5) is found to be important for all responses, viz. weld metal chemical composition and mechanical properties. ii. Welding current (P1), voltage (P2) and speed (P3) are also important for all response characteristics except weld metal silicon content and percent elongation. iii. In general, two factor interaction effects are found to be higher than the effects of individual mixture related variables (MRV). This implies that binary interaction effect of ux ingredients, interaction between ux ingredient and welding parameters are more important than the individual effect of ux ingredients. 4. Discussion The purpose of this investigation is to identify the relative inuence of ux and welding parameters as well as their interactions on the weld metal chemistry and mechanical properties. 4.1. Weld metal chemical composition The prediction results depicted in Table 3 show that polarity (P5), speed (P3) and uxparameter interactions have profound inuence on the weld metal chemical composition. The nal weld metal chemical composition is a results of combining actions of several mechanisms, viz. slagmetal reaction, electrochemical reaction, weld metal dilution which operate simultaneously within the molten weld pool [6,911,1316]. Variations of weld metal manganese, silicon, nickel and carbon as presented in Fig. 1 appear to show high concentration in the electrode positive (EP) polarity than in the electrode negative (EN) polarity. While sulphur and phosphorous do not appear to vary between the two polarities. The effect of polarity on weld metal chemistry as observed in regression model (Table 3) are expected, considering its role in electrochemical reaction as observed by many investigators [1014]. In EP polarity, gain of manganese and silicon at cathode (weld pool) take place due to electrochemical reduction reaction. Whereas, at anode (ller wire) loss of manganese and silicon take place due to oxidation reaction. The result also points to ultimate gain of manganese and silicon in EP polarity. In EN polarity, although manganese and silicon are deposited on ller wire (cathode) due to electrochemical reduction reaction, the detached droplets react with oxygen as it passes through the ux and results in loss of those elements due to oxidation [11]. Since carbon does not take part in electrochemical reaction [13], the lower carbon content in EN polarity at all heat

3. Results 3.1. Development of prediction equations for responses Using the experimentally obtained data of the responses as given Table 2, the prediction equations were developed for weld metal chemical constituents and mechanical properties by second-order regression model in terms of mixture related variables (MRV), which represented different constituents of ux and welding parameters. In the developed prediction equations, C1C3 are equivalent to mixture related variables (MRVs) such as wi (Appendix B). Similarly, P1P5 are equivalent to welding parameters such as Zj as discussed in Appendix B. The details of the regression model for each responses are given in Table 3. This includes the sum of square due to regression, R2 , R2 (adjusted) for the model, the level of signicance and goodness t. Chi-square goodness of t test was done to verify the normality of assumption for the residual terms obtained for each response. All the models were found to be signicant at 0.01 level of signicance. The predominant effects of mixture related variables (C1C3) and welding parameters (P1P5) and their interactions on each responses alongwith their estimated coefcients including nature (increase or decrease) are identied and listed in Table 3. The following observations are made from the results of predominant effects of mixture related variables and welding
Table 1 Chemical composition of base metal and ller wire Material Base metal Filler wire Carbon (wt%) 0.223 0.102 Manganese (wt%) 0.770 0.556 Silicon (wt%) 0.250 0.054

Sulphur (wt%) 0.032 0.023

Phosphorous (wt%) 0.020 0.012

Nickel (wt%)

Oxygen (ppm) 350 380

Iron (wt%) Rest Rest

P. Kanjilal et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 223231 Table 2 Chemical composition, mechanical properties and microstructural constituents of weld metal samples Sample no. Chemical composition C (wt%) K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 0.080 0.057 0.054 0.120 0.065 0.100 0.059 0.060 0.054 0.090 0.060 0.090 0.050 0.098 0.075 0.052 Mn (wt%) 0.71 0.40 0.35 0.74 0.42 0.82 0.46 0.48 0.40 0.59 0.52 0.54 0.39 0.54 0.46 0.35 Si (wt%) 0.13 0.11 0.11 0.16 0.12 0.15 0.13 0.08 0.12 0.18 0.13 0.24 0.11 0.19 0.17 0.15 S (wt%) 0.026 0.029 0.034 0.028 0.026 0.021 0.035 0.025 0.035 0.023 0.034 0.032 0.041 0.024 0.033 0.033 P (wt%) 0.028 0.018 0.019 0.024 0.019 0.020 0.022 0.026 0.018 0.022 0.020 0.021 0.025 0.018 0.021 0.019 Ni (wt%) 0.75 0.11 0.09 0.22 0.12 0.41 0.11 0.54 0.12 0.48 0.27 0.37 0.13 0.44 0.40 0.10 O (ppm) 330 500 550 340 480 310 480 390 520 380 420 350 500 380 450 580 Mechanical properties YS (MPa) 386.4 334.1 254.5 381.8 302.3 391.7 314.0 314.0 350.0 344.4 254.6 323.8 286.4 339.2 242.3 310.2 UTS (MPa) 489.4 453.4 358.0 493.2 440.7 511.6 403.0 441.3 440.7 451.0 382.6 443.7 421.6 490.6 393.7 426.3 El (%) 26.01 14.90 23.90 23.64 19.85 22.85 13.85 23.37 16.67 17.83 21.10 16.65 19.25 24.10 27.28 15.40 IT (J) Hv (VHN) 24.67 12.67 10.14 20.67 13.67 25.34 14.10 21.34 9.44 23.34 20.01 19.34 14.17 14.67 9.34 12.67 146 163 144 174 146 188 144 144 169 164 134 156 135 175 145 152 Microstructure content (%) GBF PF 27.5 30.2 33.6 25.2 36.7 21.8 32.3 30.5 32.6 24.8 31.3 27.5 29.6 28.6 36.4 36.4 20.6 33.4 35.8 24.8 29.6 23.1 30.5 31.5 33.8 29.2 28.7 31.7 34.5 34.4 32.3 29.5 SPF AF 14.4 17.7 19.7 17.3 21.4 15.8 19.4 15.4 21.6 17.7 15.3 15.8 18.6 15.6 18.8 20.2 30.2 13.5 7.9 27.3 9.6 31.2 14.6 18.5 8.5 23.7 20.2 18.5 14.2 17.5 9.2 11.1 FAS 7.3 5.2 3.0 5.4 2.7 8.1 3.2 4.1 3.5 4.6 4.5 6.5 3.1 3.9 3.3 2.8

225

YS, yield strength; UTS, ultimate tensile strength; %EL, percent elongation; IT, impact toughness; Hv, Vickers hardness; GBF, grain boundary ferrite; PF, polygonal ferrite; SPF, side plate ferrite; AF, acicular ferrite; FAS, ferrite with aligned second phase (upper bainite).

input, as shown in Fig. 1, could be attributed to higher oxygen available at EN polarity leading to loss of carbon by oxidation. Like carbon, nickel also does not take part in electrochemical reaction [13]. In spite of that, the signicant variation of nickel between the two polarities, indicate some operative mechanism other than oxidation as nickel does not normally react with oxygen, particularly in the presence of iron.

One of the probable reason for lower nickel in EN polarity could be due to formation of other oxides such as MnO, SiO2 , FeO, etc., which will try to move towards slag metal interface and impede the transfer of nickel from slag (ux) to metal (weld metal). On the other hand, in EP polarity, weld pool being cathode will take part in reduction reaction and therefore, such hindrance to transfer of nickel by other oxides is

Table 3 Details of prediction equations developed by regression model for weld metal responses S. no. Response characteristics Carbon (wt%) Manganese (wt%) Silicon (wt%) Sulphur (wt%) Phosphorous (wt%) Nickel (wt%) YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) Percent elongation (%) Toughness at 20 C (J) Hardness (VHN) SS R2 Adjusted-R2 Signicant level 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 Remarks Predominant effects of MRV, parameters and their interactions with their estimated coefcients 0.01637 P5 0.09937 P5 0.02 P5 0.00343 P5 0.0015 P3 0.16 P5 23.606 P3 24.263 P5 2.3006 P5 3.24 P5 0.00675 P3 0.05066 C1C2 0.01875 C3 0.00256 P3 0.00125 P5 0.05625 C1P2 21.431 P1 23.388 P3 1.6194 C1 2.265 C1P2 6.5625 P5 0.006125 C1P4 0.04187 P1 0.01375 C1C3 0.00181 C3 0.00112 C1P5 0.0425 P2 19.844 P5 11.088 C1C2 1.5269 C1P3 0.41 C1P3 5.5625 P1 0.004375 C1C2 0.04062 C1P4 0.01125 C2 0.00156 C2 0.00087 C1P3 0.04125 P3 12.556 C1P2 9.225 C2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0.00671 0.30103 0.022875 0.000452 0.000140 0.59365 31630 25337 163.95

0.9969 0.9998 0.9989 0.9996 0.9965 0.9974 0.9992 0.9270 0.0189

0.9908 0.9984 0.9945 0.9979 0.9894 0.9872 0.9940 0.8631 0.5236

Good t Good t Good t Good t Good t Good t Good t

a a

10

445.23

0.9979

0.9921

0.01

Good t

1.5688 C3 2.3125 C1P4

11
a Should

3664.8

0.9994

0.9970

0.01

Good t

11.438 P3

be improved for prediction.

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Fig. 1. Bar chart showing variation of weld metal manganese, silicon, nickel, sulphur, carbon phosphorous and oxygen content in electrode positive (EP) and electrode negative (EN) polarities.

restricted to a low level. Therefore, higher nickel in EP polarity is expected. With increase in welding speed, carbon increases but sulphur, phosphorous and nickel decrease (Table 3). Since carbon, sulphur and phosphorous are present only in the ller wire and base plate, the dilution should play a predominant role here. As the welding speed increases, heat input decreases (where other parameters remain same) and less dilution occurs. Since both carbon, sulphur and phosphorous are more in base plate, less dilution means less amount of those elements in the weld metal. At the same time, with the increasing speed, the element such as carbon will have less time to react with the oxygen and results in lower loss by oxidation. Since sulphur and phosphorous have less afnity towards oxygen, loss due to oxidation is almost negligible. Higher carbon at higher welding speed is therefore mainly attributed to lower loss by oxidation, whereas lower sulphur and phosphorous at higher welding speed is mainly due to lower dilution effect. Furthermore, desulphurising and dephosphorising effect of ux, if any, could be operative along with the dilution. On the other hand, as ux is the only source for nickel, the decrease in nickel at higher speed is expected due to less time available for slagmetal reaction. The prediction results in Table 3 also show that manganese and nickel content in weld metal decrease with increase in

current and voltage, respectively. Since manganese is present in ller wire as well as base plate and also in ux as ferromanganese, both dilution and slagmetal reactions are expected to take major role in weld metal manganese content. In case of nickel, slagmetal reaction will be the major factor as ux is the only source for nickel. Slagmetal reaction has been correlated with weld bead w ratio, where w is the width of the A bead and A is transverse cross-section of the bead. Slagmetal reaction will increase with increase of w ratio as observed by A previous author [15]. Again with increase in current, w ratio A decreases, slagmetal reaction will be lower, e.g. less manganese will transfer from slag to metal. With increase in current, heat input increases and thus dilution increases, leading to higher amount of manganese in weld metal. However, lower amount of manganese with increase in current as shown in Fig. 2a probably points to the predominating role of slagmetal reaction over dilution as manganese should increase with increase in dilution. Reverse phenomenon in EN polarity, i.e. decrease in manganese with increase in w ratio (decrease in current) support such A behavior since electrochemical reaction reverses with change in polarity [10]. Similarly, with increase in voltage, w ratio should increase A [15], and thus the nickel in weld metal should increase. However, opposite effect of voltage in the transfer of nickel (Fig. 2b) again

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orate experiments are necessary to evaluate the effect of each ux ingredient and their interaction with welding parameters. In order to avoid large number of experiments for evaluating the effect of each ux ingredient, a single parameter such as ux mixture related variable (MRV) has been considered. These will give at least the relative effects of weld parameters, ux as a single parameter such as (MRV) and their interactions on weld metal chemical composition. It is evident from the prediction results in Table 3 that MRVparameter interaction such as C1P4 have decreasing effect on weld metal carbon and manganese content. The other interaction C1P3 has decreasing effect and interaction C1P5 has increasing effect on phosphorous content. Finally, interaction C1P2 has increasing effect on weld metal nickel content. Since SAW uxes are generally characterised by their basicity index (BI), the interaction effect between ux (MRV) and welding parameters have been tried to establish in terms of basicity index and predominant welding parameters. The experimental uxes could be divided into two BI groups, viz. (BI = 4.384.41) and (BI = 2.662.70) in both polarity (Fig. 3). The nature of variation of responses such as weld metal carbon, manganese, phosphorous and nickel content at different combinations of basicity index and predominant welding parameters, shown in Fig. 3ah clearly indicate some sort of interaction effects between ux and welding parameters which affect weld metal chemical composition. 4.2. Weld metal mechanical properties The mechanical properties of weld metal are primarily the result of: (i) the weld metal chemical composition, (ii) microstructure and (iii) the cooling rate. The cooling rate experienced by weld metal deposit is controlled by a combination of heat input and heat extraction [29]. Under identical condition of welding, viz. joint design and plate thickness, heat extraction may be assumed to be remain same. Therefore, weld metal chemical composition and heat input controlling microstructure are the governing factors responsible for the mechanical properties of weld metal. The weld metal YS, UTS and impact toughness increases with increase in alloying elements, viz. carbon (upto 0.10 wt%), manganese (upto 1.5 wt%), silicon (upto 0.5 wt%) and nickel (upto 3.5 wt%) by various mechanisms such as (i) solid solution hardening, (ii) grain renement and (iii) renement of microstructure, etc. [3033]. The basic requirements of improved toughness in low alloy steel weld metal is associated with the amount of acicular ferrite in the microstructure [29,32,34]. Weld metal mechanical properties as summarised in Table 3 are primarily dependent on: (i) welding parameters, (ii) mixture related variables (MRV), (iii) interaction effects, viz. (a) interaction between MRVs and (b) interaction between MRV and welding parameters. Amongst welding parameters, as indicated in Table 3, polarity appears to be important for all mechanical properties under studies. Furthermore, mechanical properties of weld metal such as YS, UTS, %EL, Charpy impact toughness and hardness achieved maximum value in EP polarity as shown in Table 1, than

Fig. 2. (a) Variation of weld metal manganese content with weld bead width to area ratio w . (b) Variation of weld metal nickel content with weld bead width A to area ratio
w A

indicates that the transfer is probably hampered by the presence of other oxides such as SiO2 , MnO, FeO, etc., at the slagmetal interface with increase in w ratio. Relatively little and almost A constant nickel with the increase or w ratio in EN polarity A as shown in Fig. 2b, further reveals much more impediment to transfer of nickel from ux to weld metal in EN polarity. 4.1.1. Flux parameter Interaction effect on weld metal chemical composition It is important to mention here that, as a single parameter, the MRV has been represented by variables like C1C3, which are derived from individual ux ingredient. More detail and elab-

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Fig. 3. Example of mixture related variables (MRV) and welding parameter interaction on weld metal (a) carbon, (b) manganese, (c) phosphorous and (d) nickel content at both electrode positive (EP) and electrode negative (EN) polarities.

in EN polarity. The probable reason is that elements, viz. carbon, manganese, silicon and nickel are higher as well as oxygen content is lower in EP polarity than in EN polarity (Fig. 1; Table 1). Such increase in carbon, manganese, etc., and lower oxygen content are favourable for the formation of microstructure such as acicular ferrite which ultimately improve the mechanical properties [4,30]. For example, sample K10 (having ux BI 4.40 and heat input 1.512 KJ/mm) in EP polarity contains more acicular ferrite (22%) than sample K5 (having same BI (4.40) and almost same heat input 1.728 KJ/mm) in EN polarity, e.g. 8% acicular

ferrite as shown in Fig. 4a and b, respectively, and thus improved the mechanical properties (Table 2). Another important observation emerges from the result (Table 3) is that welding parameters exert predominant effect in case of weld metal YS and hardness as compared to MRV. On the other hand, MRV predominates over parameters for weld metal impact toughness. However, UTS is controlled equally by both welding parameters and MRV. The probable reason for increase YS and hardness with speed (P3) as given in Table 3, may be due to increase in carbon

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Fig. 4. Optical micrographs at different polarities and same level of heat input (a) structure is ner for sample K10 with higher acicular ferrite content and (b) structure is coarser for sample K5 with lesser acicular ferrite content.

and decrease in sulphur and phosphorous content of the weld metal with increase in speed (P3) given in Table 3. Similarly, the decrease of YS and hardness with welding current could be due to decrease in manganese content in weld metal with increase in welding current (Table 3). However, in addition to process parameters (P3, P5, P1), the interaction effect C1P2 and C1P4 (Table 3) also appears to have signicant effect on weld metal YS and hardness, respectively. Since interaction effect C1P4 decreases weld metal carbon and manganese content (Table 3) it is expected that hardness of weld metal will decrease. Similarly, YS will increase as nickel content of weld metal increases by interaction effect C1P2 (Table 3). The increase of UTS with welding speed (Table 3) could be due to increase in carbon content and decrease in sulphur and phosphorous content with increase in welding speed (Table 3). Similarly, the increase of Charpy impact toughness with interaction effect C1P2 could be due to increase of weld metal nickel content by interaction effect C1P2 as given in Table 3. Furthermore, it is observed from Table 3 that MRV as well as interaction between MRVs have predominant effect on UTS and Charpy impact toughness. Sample K6, inspite of similar welding current, voltage, speed and polarity possess highest UTS (511 MPa) and impact toughness (25.35 J) over sample K4 (UTS 493 MPa, impact toughness 20.67 J). The improvement in UTS and toughness is attributed due to higher amount of aci-

Fig. 5. SEM fractographs of samples at same polarity (EP) and heat input (1.344 kJ/mm). (a) Sample K4 showing smaller ductile zone surrounded by brittle zone (cleavage), some transgrannular cracks are also seen. (b) Sample K6 showing more ductile zone (microvoid coalescence) interspersed with brittle zone (cleavage).

cular ferrite and ferrite with aligned second phase as well as lower amount of grain boundary ferrite and side plate ferrite in sample K6 than in sample K4 (Table 1). Such variation in microstructural constituents between sample K6 and sample K4 is mainly derived from the weld metal chemical composition (Table 1) and not be the cooling rate as the welding parameters for both the samples are same. Furthermore, sample K4 showing cleavage fracture appearance (Fig. 5a) clearly indicates more brittleness than sample K6 showing dimple fracture appearance (Fig. 5b). Therefore, it can be concluded that MRV as well as interaction between MRVs play an important role on UTS and toughness through weld metal composition and microstructure. 5. Conclusion The combined effect of ux and welding parameters on weld metal chemical composition and mechanical properties in SAW process were examined using rotatable design model in statistical experiments with mixture.

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Accordingly, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1. Among the welding parameters, polarity has a profound inuence on weld metal chemical composition. 2. Welding speed inuences weld metal carbon content through oxidation reaction; whereas weld metal sulphur and phosphorous content are affected by dilution of weld deposit. 3. Welding current inuences weld metal manganese content through slagmetal reaction. 4. Transfer of nickel from ux to weld, is found to be impeded by oxides formed during slagmetal reaction. 5. Weld metal yield strength and hardness are mainly determined by welding parameters; whereas the impact toughness is determined by ux mixtures variables. Appendix A. Design setting in terms of ux (X) system and corresponding setting in terms of the independent variables (w, P) system w = mixture related variables (MRV) and P = welding parameters

that vi = xi x0i (2) h with centre at v1 = 0 and 1 i q, 2hi = range of symmetric interval of interest for constituent i. In matrix rotation, v becomes v = H 1 (x x0 ) (3)

where v = (v1 , v2 , . . ., vq ) , x0 = x01 , x02 , . . ., x0q , H = diagonal (h1 , h2 , . . ., hq ) To write the linear model in terms of nal variable w, let us dene vT = (w, 0) (4)

where w = N (q 1) matrix of rank (q 1), O = (N 1) vector of zeroes, T = (q q) orthogonal matrix such that T = (T1 , T2 ), where T1 is qx (q 1) matrix and T2 is (q 1) matrix with vT1 = w, vT2 = 0,
P2 Voltage (V) 28 28 32 32 32 32 32 32 28 28 28 28 28 28 32 32 P3 Speed (cm/min) 25 50 25 50 50 50 25 25 50 50 25 25 25 50 25 50 P4 electrode extreme 20 25 25 25 20 20 20 25 20 25 25 25 20 20 20 25

(5)

(6)
P5 polarity 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Sample no. K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16

X1 CaO 0.331 0.235 0.295 0.301 0.331 0.199 0.205 0.235 0.265 0.295 0.301 0.169 0.199 0.205 0.265 0.169

X2 MgO 0.276 0.373 0.194 0.210 0.276 0.290 0.306 0.373 0.127 0.194 0.210 0.224 0.290 0.306 0.127 0.224

X3 CaF2 0.239 0.239 0.358 0.192 0.239 0.358 0.192 0.239 0.311 0.358 0.192 0.311 0.358 0.192 0.311 0.311

X4 Al2 O3 0.179 0.179 0.179 0.321 0.179 0.179 0.321 0.179 0.321 0.179 0.321 0.321 0.179 0.321 0.321 0.321

w1 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577

w2 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577

w3 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577 0.577

P1 Current (A) 350 350 350 350 450 350 350 450 350 450 450 350 450 450 450 450

where = 0.577 such that the design matrix in wi is |Design Matrix|. The specied value of corresponds to minimum variance design.

Thus x = [w, o] T H = wT1 H. (7)

Appendix B. Statistical design for ux mixture variable alongwith welding (process) parameter In the present study, a rotatable mixture design [2326] was preferred for experimentation because prediction error remains same at all points equidistant from the design centre. In this response surface design, q linearly dependent ux ingredients xi , i = 1, 2, . . ., q with
q

In the experiment, only two level factorial arrangement was considered for the process variables z (welding parameters) to keep the methodology as simple as possible [27,28]. A second-order model involving MRVs (w) and process variable (z) may be written as
q1 n q1 n

Y (w, z) = 0 +
i=1 q1

i wi +
j=1

j zj +
i=1 j=1 n

ij wi zj

xi < k < 1
i=1

(1)

+
i<1 j

i1 wi w1 + j=1
j<k k

jk zj zk +

(8)

are transformed nally to (q 1) linearly independent mixture related variables (MRVs), w (=w1 , w2 , . . ., wq1 ) through transformation to some intermediate variables v (v1 , v2 , . . ., vq ) such

i and j are the estimated coefcients of MRVs and parameters, respectively. i1 and jk are the coefcients of interactions

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among MRVs and welding parameters, respectively. ij is the coefcient of interactions between MRV and welding parameter. References
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