Comparison of full 3D, shell/3D and inherent deformation numerical methods for prediction of out-of-plane welding-induced distortion

Abstract

In the fusion welding process, localized heating and cooling induce residual stresses and distortion. In the last decades, a number of different numerical simulation methods have been developed to simulate welding-induced distortion. The present study simulated a T-joint welded structure by three different methods of “full 3D,” “inherent deformation” and “shell/3D” using finite element software ANSYS. Then, the results of these three methods were compared in terms of accuracy and analysis time. Also, their results were compared with experimental measurements and a good agreement was observed between them. Generally, inherent deformation method was the fastest method for the calculation of welding-induced distortion. However, it is not incapable of predicting temperature and residual stresses distribution over the whole panel. It is concluded that if the residual stresses distribution is the purpose of simulation, shell/3D method is a more appropriate way of numerical simulation.