Experimental and numerical analysis of temperature distributions in SA 387 pressure vessel steel during submerged arc welding

Abstract

Abstract The present study aims to explore experimental investigations and numerical simulations for temperature distributions at heat-affected zones within SA 387-Gr.11-Cl.2 steel during the submerged arc welding (SAW) process. Experimental endeavors entailed welding steel plates under controlled conditions, precisely measuring temperatures at key locations by thermocouples. A special program based on 3D Goldak’s double ellipsoidal model was developed in ANSYS Parametric Design Language for moving heat source calculations in the finite-element analysis (FEA). For welding an 8 mm thick plate with one pass, the suitable parameters were found to be 600 A current, 31 V voltage, and 10 mm·s−1 welding speed. The experimental cooling periods were found to be slower than predicted by FEA. When temperature distributions were compared between experimental and FEA results, an average variation of 1.88% at peak temperatures and 11.8% at completion time was observed. The results showed the temperature distribution at various time steps, illustrating the transient nature of the welding process. The results highlight the capacity of the FEA model to predict temperature profiles during SAW accurately, presenting a potent tool for optimizing welding parameters without extensive trial and error.