Effect of material and welding parameters on characteristics of T-shape weld of steel plates using experimental data and numerical model

In this paper, experimental data have been used to develop a semi empirical relationship for double-ellipsoidal heat source to model the welding process of a T-shape fillet weld of carbon steel AISI 1020 and stainless steel 304. This model is used in a finite element based computer code to simulate the three dimensional welding process and obtain the temperature profile around the weldment. Experimental data in the form of temperature for certain points have been recorded during the welding process using a computerized data processing system which has been designed for this purpose. Also, the thickness of the weldment layers has been compared by observing their hardness and crystallography. By comparing experimental data with numerical result, the coefficient of the model has been determined using “model updating” process. The effects of material properties and welding parameters have been studied to insure the generality of the model. This model can be used to evaluate the quality of the welding and thickness of the heat affected zone as well as the risks during the welding process such as burn-through and hot cracking. The main advantage of this model is that the number of coefficients is reduced to only one parameter and the rest have been related to the physical and geometrical characteristics of the weld. Results of the numerical simulation obtained using this model show that the major factors which affect the temperature distribution around the weldment are material conductivity, plate thickness, input heating and welding speed.