This paper reports the applicability of fuzzy logig (FL) to predict the hardness of melt zone (HMZ) during the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process, which is affected by the combined effect of ZrO₂ nano-particles and welding input parameters. The arc voltage, welding current, welding speed, stick-out, and ZrO₂ nano-particles were used as the input parameters and HMZ as the response to develop FL model. The predicted results from FL were compared with the experimental data. The most important input parameter affecting the HMZs was the addition of ZrO₂ nanoparticle coatings with a thickness of 1 mm, which increased the hardness from 78 to 84 HRB. The correlation factor value obtained was 99.98% between the measured and predicted values of HMZ. The results showed that FL is an accurate and reliable technique for predicting HMZ because of its low error rate. Also, the presence of ZrO₂ nano-particles in the weld pool has increased the penetration up to 2 times.
 

Keywords: Gas metal arc welding, Hardness of melted zone, ZrO2 nano-particles, Fuzzy logic, Weld penetration.

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