Development of efficient three-dimensional welding simulation approach for residual stress estimation in different welded joints

Based on the available welding simulation approaches found in the literature, an alternative and simplified welding simulation approach is developed, called rapid dumping. It is a sequential thermomechanical approach, which makes use of the moving heat source in thermal analysis and the block-dumping approach in mechanical analysis for prediction of welding residual stresses in three dimensions. It is first developed for longitudinal stiffener joint and then validated by applying on a butt-welded, T-fillet, and multipass tube-flange joints. The temperature-dependent material properties were obtained using JMat Pro software, a java-based material property simulation software. The material properties were validated with experimentally determined material properties found in the literature. The predicted residual stresses were validated by X-ray diffraction measurements on the longitudinal stiffener fillet-welded joint. Using the rapid-dumping approach, the residual stresses obtained at the weld toe were in qualitatively good agreement with the measured residual stresses. The rapid-dumping approach showed to capture the effects of moving heat source and weld start/stop location. In addition, it has reduced the computational time significantly with a preserved accuracy of the estimated welding residual stresses.