Rotating arc borizontal narrow gap welding of quenched ＆ tempered （Q＆T） steel was innovatively performed for solving the bottleneck that the molten pool sagged due to the gravity. The shapely multilayer single pass horizontal joint could be obtairzed by using the rotating are welding process. The cold crack was not observed in the joint without controlling the heat input and selecting the consumables intentionally. Microstructure of the joint could be divided into three zones： base metal zone （BMZ） , heat-affected zone （ HAZ） and weld zone （WZ）. Because of the characteristic of the rotating arc horizontal welding process, the defects in the joints were slag inclztsion formed at the interlayer of lower side wall. Tbe tensile strength and hardness of HAZ and WZ were larger than those of BMZ. The impact toughness in WZ, HAZ and BM at 0 % is equal to 11.5, 212 and 236 J, respectively.
A modified mathematical model of heat source for rotating arc welding （RAW） process was developed for investigating the heat and temperature distribution. The characteristics of temperature field based on the complex welding motion trajectory were studied. In this work, a transient three-dimensional （ 3D ） model was established and computed by a finite element analysis computer program MARC as well as its subroutine. In RA＇W process, the temperature changes in the style of stepladder. Moreover in the high temperature zone, there are multiple peak temperature points. These characteristics of temperature distribution are induced by the arc rotating which leads the repetitive heating or fasing during the welding process. In contrast with non-rotating arc （NRAW） process, the width of temperature distribution enlarges, and the peak temperature of weld pool decreases. Good agreement is shown between the computed results and experimental results of thermal cycle in RAW process.
