A. D. Zervaki, G. N. Haidemenopoulos, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

Summary: The softening observed in the HAZ of the Al alloy 6061-T6 during laser welding, has been successfully modeled by employing the methodology of computational thermodynamics and kinetics. The volume fraction and average precipitate size were calculated for the weld thermal cycles (determined by FEM) and correlated to the hardness measured.