Modeling of Welding Joint Using Effective Notch Stress Approach for Misalignment Analysis
This research represents the methodology to develop a weld model to assess the structural integrity of welded joints based on stress analysis by finite element method (FEM) and experimental validation. The stress distribution in the welded joints mainly depends on geometry, loading type and material properties. So, it is a great challenge to develop a weld model to predict the behavior of stress distribution and weld stiffness in the joints. In this study, the effective notch stress approach has been used for weld joint modeling. Parameter tuning has been done for the lowest experimental validation error. The effective notch radius is the only tuning parameter in this weld model. The weld model with effective notch radius in between 0.1 to 0.2 mm has shown a good agreement with the experimental results. Through this study, the weld model based on effect notch stress has been validated experimentally for the first time. The validated weld model was then used for misalignment analysis. Both experimental and FE results confirmed that axial misalignment of 20% of specimen’s thickness would have increased maximum principle stresses more than 25–30%.