Finite Element Simulation of Temperature Field and Residual Stress Induced by Surface Welding Process of Mild Steel

The subject of this study is to investigate the effects of surface welding on welding residual stress, analyzing temperature fields, and distortion in low carbon steel. This work aims to simulate residual stresses that appeared during the surface welding of the carbon steel plates via finite element analysis using the ABAQUS software. This analysis includes a finite element model for the thermal and mechanical welding simulation. It also includes a material deposit, temperature-dependent material properties, metal plasticity, and elasticity. The welding simulation was considered as a coupled temperature-displacement analysis. The element birth and death technique was employed for the simulation of filler metal deposition. The residual stress distribution, distortion magnitude, and temperature changes in the center weld metal were obtained. The results showed that applying boundary conditions of mechanical led to a decrease in the plastic strain. In addition, the residual stresses and the temperature fields are dependent on several factors, which include the different boundary conditions and the pre-heating temperature.