Study of the Effect of Boundary Conditions on Residual Stresses in Welding Using Element Birth and Element Movement Techniques

The structure in which the welding process is performed highly affects the residual stresses generated in the welding. This effect is simulated by choosing the appropriate boundary conditions in modeling the welding process. The major parameters of the boundary conditions are the method by which the base metal is being fixed and the amount of heat being applied through the torch. Other parameters may include the coefficients of thermal heat loss from the plate which may simulate the media in which the welding is taking place. In modeling the welding process, two-dimensional forms of approximation were developed in analyzing most of the models of such problem. Three-dimensional models analyzing the welding process were developed in limited applications due to its high computation time and cost. With the development of new finite element tools, namely the element movement technique developed by the authors, full three-dimensional analysis of the welding process is becoming in hand. In the present work, three different boundary conditions shall be modeled comparing their effect on the welding. These boundary conditions shall be applied to two models of the welding process: one using the element birth technique and the other using the element movement technique showing the similarity in their responses verifying the effectiveness of the latter being accomplished in a shorter time.