Finite Element Based Prediction of Transient Temperature Distribution, Heat Affected Zone and Residual Stresses in AISI 304 Stainless Steel Weldment

The welded joint is susceptible to failure due to the presence of entrapped residual stresses. Welded joint is subjected to high intensity of concentrated heat moving at defined speed along a path. The material is subject to transient temperature variations. The transient temperature variations give rise to uneven heating and subsequent cooling. The material experiences an uneven tensile and compressive residual stresses under these changing temperature conditions. The situation becomes trivial under multi-pass welding. In the present work finite element method is employed to calculate the temperature distribution, heat affected zone and resulting residual stresses during MMAW welding. Element birth and death technique is apply to simulate the flux deposition. The results on temperature distribution are in reasonably good validated with the experimental results. It is observed that there is relative increase in the magnitude of residual stresses with the similar relative increase in temperature.