Analysis of Arc Welded Thin-Walled Cylinders to Investigate the Effects of Welding Process Parameters on Residual Stresses

The research work presents a computational methodology based on three-dimensional finite element model to simulate the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) of thin-walled cylinders. The aim was to study the effects of two basic welding parameters (welding speed and welding current) on weld induced residual stresses. The complex phenomenon of arc welding was numerically solved by sequentially coupled transient, non-linear thermo-mechanical analysis. The accuracy of the numerical model was validated through experiments for temperature distribution and residual stresses. The results reveals that the present simulation strategy can be used as a proper tool to get the optimized welding process parameters and minimize the in service failures of thinwalled structures due to residual stresses.