The prediction of residual stress relaxation is essential to assess the safety of welded components. This paper aims to study the influence of various effective parameters on residual stress relaxation under cyclic loading. In this regard, a 3D finite element modeling is performed to determine the residual stress in welded aluminum plates. The accuracy of this analysis is verified through experiment. To study the plasticity effect on stress relaxation, two plasticity models are implemented: perfect plasticity and combined isotropic-kinematic hardening. Hence, cyclic plasticity characterization of the material is specified by low cycle fatigue tests. It is found that the perfect plasticity leads to greater stress relaxation. In order to propose an accurate model to compute the residual stress relaxation, the Taguchi L18 array with four 3-level factors and one 6-level is employed. Using statistical analysis, the order of factors based on their effect on stress relaxation is determined as mean stress, stress amplitude, initial residual stress, and number of cycles. In addition, the stress relaxation increases with an increase in mean stress and stress amplitude.
