FEM Prediction of Welding Residual Stresses and Temperature Fields in Butt and T-Welded Joints

Residual stresses resulted from localized non-uniform heating and subsequent cooling during welding processes enact an important role in the formation of cracks and welding distortions and have severe effect on performance of welded joints. The present research performs a three dimensional transient thermo Elasto-plastic analysis using finite element technique to simulate welding process. Welding simulation procedure is developed using the parametric design language of commercial code ANSYS for single pass T and butt welded joints. The procedure verified with predicted residual stress field found in literature to confirm the accuracy of the method. The material of the weld metal, HAZ and the base metal are assumed to be the same. With regards to high temperature gradient in weld zone, temperature dependant thermal and mechanical properties have been incorporated in the simulation. Also in this work the technique of element birth and death was employed to simulate moving heat source and the weld filler variation with time. Temperature and residual stress fields were discussed.