Identification of temperature distribution during the welding process

In many technological processes, such as sliding friction, machining or welding, the contact surface of the interacting bodies is subjected to intensive heating, and the resulting temperature changes affect mechanical, thermal and other processes. Therefore, it is important to analyze the temperature distribution including the contact surface. Due to technical limitations, it is often impossible to place the temperature sensor element directly at the point of contact. This is the case in welding, where contact temperatures can destroy the temperature sensor. In such situations, inverse heat conduction problems are often convenient for determining the contact temperature distribution and heat fluxes using temperature sensors installed at a safe distance from the contact. In this paper, the proposed inverse method enables identification of temperature distributions even for multilayer elements, taking into account thermal contact conductance and variable material properties. The proposed identification method is verified against the results available in the literature and from the direct method. The developed algorithm can be applied to optimize the process of welding and to ensure the weld quality and structural integrity.