Abstract
In order to reduce cost and to fully utilize the excellent corrosion resistance of nickel materials, pure nickel N6 with thickness of 1 mm was selected as the flyer plate, and the medium carbon steel 45# with thickness of 3 mm was used as the base plate for explosive welding tests. The dynamic parameters were calculated through the explosive welding window, and the interface bonding morphology and elements were analyzed by metallographic optical microscope and scanning electron microscope. The mechanical properties of the composite plate were tested through shear tests, and the explosive welding process was simulated by AUTODYN. Results indicate that there is a boundary effect near the explosion point, and the bonding interface along the explosion welding direction changes from the flat state to the stable wavy interface. The thickness of the element diffusion layer near the interface is 20 μm, and the wavy diffusion layer increases the bonding area, which is conducive to the metallurgical bonding. The shear strength of the composite plate reaches 325.5 MPa. Numerical simulation analysis results demonstrate that the simulated interface morphology is consistent with the experiment results. The simulation results show that the velocity and plastic deformation degree of the characteristic points are basically consistent with the experimental results.
Explosive welding is a widely used welding technique for metal composite bonding, which can achieve the preparation of double- or multi-layer metal plates and pipes. Bimetallic composite plates are the commonest products and they can satisfy the customized industrial requirements. Another advantage of explosive welding, as a cutting-edge welding technique, is that it can prepare metal composites whose components have significant differences in physical properties and inferior metallurgical incompatibility. Usually, the metals with low and high prices are combined by explosive welding to obtain excellent physical and chemical properties and to reduce cos
The explosive welding process involves the intersection of multiple disciplines, and complex physical and chemical changes occur in a very short explosion time. Thus, appropriate explosive welding process parameters have been widely researched. Currently, the theoretical research on explosive welding is not yet perfect, and only explosive welding window can provide a reasonable range of process parameter
Pure nickel N6 is a silver white metal with excellent corrosion resistance in heavy non-ferrous metals, especially in caustic environment. It has excellent comprehensive performance in complex environment and is widely used in evaporator, alkali storage tank, heater, and pipeline in the alkali industr
In the process of explosive welding, it is necessary to select the correct process parameters. Explosive welding window can provide a reasonable range to obtain qualified composite plates. As shown in
(1) |

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of explosive welding process
When the substrate is installed parallel to the composite plate, the detonation velocity (Vd) of the explosive sacisfies Vd=Vc.
The most commonly used explosive welding window is composed of Vp and Vc coordinate systems, which are surrounded by four boundary lines: upper limit, flow limit, sound speed limit, and lower limit.
The sound speed limit can limit the energy during the formation of the jet. In order to ensure the jet formation, Walsh et a
(2) |
where C1 and C2 are the sound velocities of the substrate and the composite plate, respectively.
The flow limit is the condition where jet is generated during collision. Only when the collision point movement velocity Vc at the collision point exceeds the minimum value , jet can be generated. Otherwise, the junction zone can only be a straight junction. The value of the flow limit can be calculated by
(3) |
where Re is the Reynolds number; HVb and HVf are the Vickers hardness of the base plate and the flyer plate, respectively; ρb and ρf correspond to the density of the base plate and the flyer plate, respectively.
For dissimilar materials, the collision velocity Vp should be greater than the critical collision velocity for jet generation to ensure the success of explosive welding. The lower limit of the explosive welding window can be calculated by the equivalent normal shock wave mode
(4) |
(5) |
where Pmin is the minimum collision pressure between the flyer plate and the base plate; and are the lower limits of collision velocity for the flyer plate and the base plate, respectively.
The upper limit of explosive welding is the maximum energy limit when the composite plate collides with the substrate. If the collision speed is too high, it is easy to store too much energy in the bonding interface area, leading to non-bonding state of interface and excessive melting. The upper limit of explosive welding can be calculated by
(6) |
where N is the material constant of 0.1; Tm is the melting point; C0 is the sound velocity of the flyer plate; Cp is the specific heat capacity; λ is the thermal conductivity; ρ is the material density; h is the thickness of the flyer plate.
According to Eq.(

Fig.2 Explosion welding window for N6/45# composite plate
The explosive welding window provides the exercisable range of parameters for explosive welding, but not all parameters within this range can achieve the optimal welding effect. Therefore, it is necessary to select the approximate parameters for optimal welding quality.
The optimal collision point movement speed can be determined by the sound speed limit and flow limit, as follows:
(7) |
The optimal collision speed between the base plate and the flyer plate can be determined based on the upper and lower limits in the explosive welding window, as expressed by
(8) |
The distance between the flyer plate and the base plate provides space for the movement of flyer plate during explosive welding. The distance between the flyer plate and base plate can be calculated by
(9) |
where δ is the thickness, H is the distance between the flyer plate and the base plate, and Hf is the thickness of the flyer plate.
According to the abovementioned formulae, the optimal parameters for explosive welding are as follows: the spacing between the flyer plate and the base plate is 2 mm, ANFO explosive density is 850 kg/c
The size of pure nickel N6 and steel 45# was 300 mm×300 mm×1 mm and 300 mm×300 mm×3 mm, respectively. The chemical composition of nickel N6 and steel 45# is shown in
Material | C | Si | Mn | Cu | S | P | Cr | Mo | Ni | Fe |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Steel 45# | 0.43 | 0.25 | 0.55 | 0.02 | 0.024 | 0.013 | 0.05 | 0.09 | 0.02 | Bal. |
Nickel N6 | 0.01 | 0.13 | 0.03 | 0.008 | - | - | - | - | Bal. | 0.05 |
This explosion welding experiment adopted a parallel installation method and an edge center detonation method.
After the explosion, the composite plate was cut along the direction of detonation propagation for shear strength tests, and it was also cut at different positions from the initiation point for metallographic tests. After polishing, the interface bonding morphology of the composite plate was observed by OM (VHX-2000), and the interface element analysis was conducted by SEM equipped with EDS. The size of the tensile shear specimen was determined according to GB/T6396-2008, as shown in

Fig.3 Schematic diagram of tensile shear specimen

Fig.4 Interface morphologies of N6/45# composite plate along explosion direction: (a) near the initiation point; (b) bonding interface; (c) far from the initiation point

Fig.5 Characteristic morphologies of vortex zone at bonding interface: (a) whirlpool structure; (b) trunk structure
In addition, a black molten block can be observed at the whirlpool, indicating the similar degrees of plastic deformation for the flyer plate and base plate. The molten block can store a large number of defects generated by explosions, which is conducive to the bonding of atoms between metal
The diffusion of elements at the interface has an important impact on the microstructure and mechanical properties of materials, creating favorable conditions for metallurgical bonding at explosive welding interfaces. EDS line scanning results of the interface are shown in

Fig.6 SEM image (a) and EDS spectra (b) of N6/45# interface
It can be observed that Fe element diffuses from steel 45# plate to nickel N6 plate, whereas Ni element diffuses from nickel N6 plate to steel 45# plate.
In addition, the radii of Fe and Ni atoms are 0.127 and 0.128 nm, respectively, which are almost equal. Therefore, displacement diffusion occurs, resulting in a high degree of plastic deformation at the interface, as indicated by the appearance of plastic deformation band near the interface.
Shear strength is one of the important indicators to judge the welding quality of composite plates prepared by explosive welding. To test the mechanical properties of N6/45# explosive composite plate, room temperature tensile shear tests were conducted.

Fig.7 Shear stress-distance curve of N6/45# composite plate prepared by explosive welding
Due to the short duration of the explosive welding process, the relevant data during the forming process are difficult to extract from the experiment. Therefore, a two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation was conducted through the commercial finite element software AUTODYN. The simulation of the flyer plate and the base plate used SPH method, which not only has high computational accuracy but also reflects the jet phenomeno

Fig.8 2D model of explosive welding for N6/45# composite plate
Material | Length | Height |
---|---|---|
ANFO | 30 | 9 |
Nickel N6 | 30 | 1 |
Steel 45# | 30 | 3 |
Substrate | 30 | 10 |
The explosive welding process is a highly nonlinear dynamic process, and the explosive forming process involves the high strain rates and plastic hardening of materials. Therefore, the Johnson Cook constitutive equatio
(10) |
(11) |
where σ is Von Miss flow stress; εeff represents the equivalent plastic strain; represents the strain rate; Tmelt and Troom are the melting point of the material and room temperature, respectively; A, B, C, n, and m are constants of the material. The parameters of the two materials are shown in
Parameter | Nickel N6 | Steel 45# |
---|---|---|
Density/kg· | 8900 | 7850 |
Poison ratio | 0.3 | 0.3 |
Tmelt/K | 2818 | 2723 |
A/MPa | 163 | 507 |
B/MPa | 648 | 320 |
C | 0.006 | 0.064 |
m | 1.44 | 1.06 |
n | 0.33 | 0.28 |
Troom/K | 298 | 298 |
In this simulation, the Jones Wilkins Lee (JWL) equation of state for explosives was selecte
(12) |
where P is the pressure of the detonation product; V is the relative volume of the detonation product; E0 is the initial specific internal energy; A, B, R1, R2, and ω are the parameters of the explosive. Combined with the theoretical values of the explosive welding window,
E0/GJ | A/GJ | B/GJ | R1 | R2 | ω |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2.69 | 34.6 | 2.23 | 3.91 | 1.62 | 0.23 |
The numerical simulation process is shown in

Fig.9 Simulated explosive welding process: (a) 0 ms; (b) 5.0×1

Fig.10 Simulated interface morphologies of N6/45# composite plate during welding process: (a) unwelded state; (b) straight state; (c) wavy state

Fig.11 Velocity distribution cloud map of N6/45# explosive welding at 8.9×1

Fig.12 Effective plastic strain cloud map of N6/45# explosive welding at 8.9×1
1) Appropriate explosive welding parameters for the N6/45# composite plate are obtained by the explosive welding window: the spacing between two plates is 2 mm, the explosive density is 850 kg/c
2) Boundary effect can be observed near the initiation point. With the explosive welding further proceeding, the bonding interface is gradually transformed from a straight bonding zone to a corrugated bonding zone, and whirlpool structures appear.
3) The shear strength at the interface of N6/45# composite plate after explosive welding reaches 325.5 MPa, indicating that the composite plate has high bonding strength. At the bonding interface, the thickness of the diffusion layer is 20 μm, which is beneficial to the metallurgical bonding at the explosive welding interface.
4) The interface waves obtained by numerical simulation are consistent with the experiment results. The simulation results show that the velocity and plastic deformation of the characteristic points are highly consistent with the experiment results, which also proves that the welding quality of N6/45# composite plate after explosive welding is very high.
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