Accurate measurement of porosity size and morphology in aluminium alloy laser welds

Conventional two-dimensional optical microscopy is the most common tool for capturing and quantifying keyhole collapse porosity and other defects formed during the laser welding of aluminium alloys. This approach is of limited utility since only a single longitudinal or transverse metallographic cross-section, comprising only a small fraction of the overall weld volume, can be extracted or analysed at a time. X-ray computed tomography tools, on the other hand, enable three-dimensional visualisation and analysis of porosity and defects to be made across the full weld volume. When comparing these two measurement techniques, two-dimensional microscopy tools significantly underestimated the fraction of defects present within the weld at levels between 50% and 80%. Three-dimensional x-ray computed tomography tools also provide a means for accurately characterising the location, size and morphology of irregularly shaped defects. By categorising the defect shapes using a Zingg's shape analysis, in which the distribution of defect morphologies could be quantified as disk, rod and spherical shapes, a transition in defect morphology moving from stationary beam to oscillating beam welds was detected and quantified.