Application of 3D Finite Element Modelling to Repair Weld Simulation in Industrial Applications

Author(s):  
George Vinas ◽  
Tamba Dauda ◽  
Nicola Moyes ◽  
Alan Laird

The Finite Element Method (FEM) has been implemented in 3D to predict welding residual stresses in repair welds. The analysis has been used to achieve more accurate residual stress predictions for the weld at the cost of long computation times. The use of this CPU intensive approach has been facilitated by the advent of ever-faster computer processors being made more accessible to the engineering community. The same technique has also been used with coarser meshes involving simplified welding sequences where a number of weld passes are “lumped” together to reduce the simulation time. The authors argue that this latter approach can be very useful in predicting the more global component response — in cases where 2D model symmetries are not applicable — and for rapid identification of problem areas where finer simulations would be prohibitive. The authors show an example of a residual stress prediction for a letterbox repair obtained using the FEM. Good agreement between this prediction and experimental measurements is shown. The FEM simulation technique has been used to predict residual stress formation during the welding process and subsequent service loading of the component. This analysis shows the residual stress field relaxation following “shakedown”. The component under service conditions is subjected to pressure loading and a small amount of bending stress. Based on recent residual stress experimental programmes conducted at Mitsui Babcock Energy Limited (MBEL), the authors provide a brief discussion on the ways in which various experimental techniques have been used to verify welding residual stress predictions from FE. The authors argue that just as there has been an interest in the field to measure residual stresses in the highly stressed regions of a weld, it is equally important to measure stresses in areas of relatively low stress to confirm that stresses do indeed die out away from welds. It is in the latter case where some experimental techniques cannot perform as well as other simple, well proven, strain measurement techniques.

Author(s):  
Wei Jiang ◽  
Kadda Yahiaoui

Piping branch junctions and nozzle attachments to main pressure vessels are common engineering components used in the power, oil and gas, and shipbuilding industries amongst others. These components are usually fabricated by multipass welding. The latter process is known to induce residual stresses at the fabrication stage which can have severe adverse effects on the in-service behavior of such critical components. It is thus desirable if the distributions of residual stresses can be predicted well in advance of welding execution. This paper presents a comprehensive study of three dimensional residual stress distributions in a stainless steel tee branch junction during a multipass welding process. A full 3D thermo-mechanical finite element model has been developed for this purpose. A newly developed meshing technique has been used to model the complex intersection areas of the welded junction with all hexahedral elements. Element removal/reactivate technique has been employed to simulate the deposition of filler material. Material, geometry and boundary nonlinearities associated with welding were all taken into account. The analysis results are presented in the form of stress distributions circumferentially along the weldline on both run and branch pipes as well as at the run and branch cross sections. In general, this computational model is capable of predicting 3D through thickness welding residual stress, which can be valuable for structural integrity assessments of complex welded geometries.


2006 ◽  
Vol 524-525 ◽  
pp. 671-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kartal ◽  
Mark Turski ◽  
Greg Johnson ◽  
Michael E. Fitzpatrick ◽  
S. Gungor ◽  
...  

This paper describes the measurement of longitudinal residual stresses within specially designed 200x180x25mm groove weld specimens. The purpose of these measurements was to compare the residual stress field arising from single and multi-pass weld beads laid down within the constraint of a groove in order to validate finite element simulations of the welding process. Measurements were made over the cross section at the mid-bead length, utilising the relatively new Contour method and neutron diffraction. Results from these measurements indicate a larger peak tensile longitudinal residual stresses within the weld region of the multi-pass weld sample. Good agreement is found between both techniques.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 1195-1212
Author(s):  
B. Lennart Josefson ◽  
R. Bisschop ◽  
M. Messaadi ◽  
J. Hantusch

Abstract The aluminothermic welding (ATW) process is the most commonly used welding process for welding rails (track) in the field. The large amount of weld metal added in the ATW process may result in a wide uneven surface zone on the rail head, which may, in rare cases, lead to irregularities in wear and plastic deformation due to high dynamic wheel-rail forces as wheels pass. The present paper studies the introduction of additional forging to the ATW process, intended to reduce the width of the zone affected by the heat input, while not creating a more detrimental residual stress field. Simulations using a novel thermo-mechanical FE model of the ATW process show that addition of a forging pressure leads to a somewhat smaller width of the zone affected by heat. This is also found in a metallurgical examination, showing that this zone (weld metal and heat-affected zone) is fully pearlitic. Only marginal differences are found in the residual stress field when additional forging is applied. In both cases, large tensile residual stresses are found in the rail web at the weld. Additional forging may increase the risk of hot cracking due to an increase in plastic strains within the welded area.


Author(s):  
J. Broussard ◽  
P. Crooker

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) are working cooperatively under a memorandum of understanding to validate welding residual stress predictions in pressurized water reactor primary cooling loop components containing dissimilar metal welds. These stresses are of interest as DM welds in pressurized water reactors are susceptible to primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) and tensile weld residual stresses are one of the primary drivers of this stress corrosion cracking mechanism. The NRC/EPRI weld residual stress (WRS) program currently consists of four phases, with each phase increasing in complexity from lab size specimens to component mock-ups and ex-plant material. This paper describes the Phase 1 program, which comprised an initial period of learning and research for both FEA methods and measurement techniques using simple welded specimens. The Phase 1 specimens include a number of plate and cylinder geometries, each designed to provide a controlled configuration for maximum repeatability of measurements and modeling. A spectrum of surface and through-wall residual stress measurement techniques have been explored using the Phase 1 specimens, including incremental hole drilling, ring-core, and x-ray diffraction for surface stresses and neutron diffraction, deep-hole drilling, and contour method for through-wall stresses. The measured residual stresses are compared to the predicted stress results from a number of researchers employing a variety of modeling techniques. Comparisons between the various measurement techniques and among the modeling results have allowed for greater insight into the impact of various parameters on predicted versus measured residual stress. This paper will also discuss the technical challenges and lessons learned as part of the DM weld materials residual stress measurements.


Author(s):  
Liwu Wei ◽  
Weijing He ◽  
Simon Smith

The level of welding residual stress is an important consideration in the ECA of a structure or component such as a pipeline girth weld. Such a consideration is further complicated by their variation under load and the complexity involved in the proper assessment of fracture mechanics parameters in a welding residual stress field. In this work, 2D axi-symmetric FEA models for simulation of welding residual stresses in pipe girth welds were first developed. The modelling method was validated using experimental measurements from a 19-pass girth weld. The modeling method was used on a 3-pass pipe girth weld to predict the residual stresses and variation under various static and fatigue loadings. The predicted relaxation in welding residual stress is compared to the solutions recommended in the defect assessment procedure BS 7910. Fully circumferential internal cracks of different sizes were introduced into the FE model of the three-pass girth weld. Two methods were used to introduce a crack. In one method the crack was introduced instantaneously and the other method introduced the crack progressively. Physically, the instantaneously introduced crack represents a crack originated from manufacturing or fabrication processes, while the progressively growing crack simulates a fatigue crack induced during service. The J-integral values for the various cracks in the welding residual stress field were assessed and compared. This analysis was conducted for a welding residual stress field as a result of a welding simulation rather than for a residual stress field due to a prescribed temperature distribution as considered by the majority of previous investigations. The validation with the 19-pass welded pipe demonstrated that the welding residual stress in a pipe girth weld can be predicted reasonably well. The relaxation and redistribution of welding residual stresses in the three-pass weld were found to be significantly affected by the magnitude of applied loads and the strain hardening models. The number of cycles in fatigue loading was shown to have little effect on relaxation of residual stresses, but the range and maximum load together governed the relaxation effect. A significant reduction in residual stresses was induced after first cycle but subsequent cycles had no marked effect. The method of introducing a crack in a FE model, progressively or instantaneously, has a significant effect on J-integral, with a lower value of J obtained for a progressively growing crack. The path-dependence of the J-integral in a welding residual stress field is discussed.


Author(s):  
Shivdayal Patel ◽  
B. P. Patel ◽  
Suhail Ahmad

Welding is one of the most used joining methods in the ship industry. However, residual stresses are induced in the welded joints due to the rapid heating and cooling leading to inhomogenously distributed dimensional changes and non-uniform plastic and thermal strains. A number of factors, such as welding speed, boundary conditions, weld geometry, weld thickness, welding current/voltage, number of weld passes, pre-/post-heating etc, influence the residual stress distribution. The main aim of this work is to estimate the residual stresses in welded joints through finite element analysis and to investigate the effects of boundary conditions, welding speed and plate thickness on through the thickness/surface distributions of residual stresses. The welding process is simulated using 3D Finite element model in ABAQUS FE software in two steps: 1. Transient thermal analysis and 2. Quasi-static thermo-elasto-plastic analysis. The normal residual stresses along and across the weld in the weld tow region are found to be significant with nonlinear distribution. The residual stresses increase with the increase in the thickness of the plates being welded. The nature of the normal residual stress along the weld is found to be tensile-compressive-tensile and the nature of normal residual stress across the weld is found to be tensile along the thickness direction.


Author(s):  
Hyun-Jae Lee ◽  
Jae-Yoon Jeong ◽  
Yun-Jae Kim ◽  
Poh-Sang Lam

This paper provides engineering J estimation equations for Spent Fuel Canisters (SFCs) under combined mechanical and welding residual stress (WRS) fields. The basic form of estimation equations is reference stress-based ones as in R6. Interaction between mechanical (primary) and residual (secondary) stresses is treated using the V-factor. Based on systematic finite element (FE) analysis and J results, the V-factors for the combined mechanical and welding residual stresses are reported.


Author(s):  
Xian-Kui Zhu

Residual stresses exist in welded structures due to thermal stresses. Without temperature change, large plastic deformation can result in “cold” residual stresses in a wrinkle or dent in a metallic pipe. For a crack in residual stress field, residual stresses might have strong effect on fracture parameter, the J-integral. In order to ensure its path-independence, different correction methods have been developed in consideration of residual stress effect. Recently, the finite element commercial software ABAQUS adopted one of the correction methods, and is able to calculate the residual stress corrected J-integral. A brief review is first given to the J-integral definition, the conditions of path-independence or path-dependence, and the modifications to consider the residual stress effect. A modified single edge-notched bend (SENB) specimen is then used, and a numerical procedure is developed for ABAQUS to evaluate the path-independence of the residual stress corrected J-integral. Detailed elastic-plastic finite element analyses are performed for the SENB specimen in three-point bending. The residual stress field, crack-tip stress field, and J-integral with and without consideration of residual stresses are discussed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 184-185 ◽  
pp. 649-652
Author(s):  
Gui Fang Guo ◽  
Shi Qiong Zhou ◽  
Liang Wang ◽  
Li Hao ◽  
Ze Guo Liu

The effects of electron beam welding on the residual stresses of welded joints of pure aluminum plate 99.60 are studied by through-hole-drilling and blind-hole-drilling method. Meanwhile, based on the thermal elastic-plastic theory, and making use of ANSYS finite element procedure, a three - dimensional finite element model using mobile heat source of temperature and stresses field of electron beam welding in pure aluminum is established. The welding process is simulated by means of the ANSYS software. The results show that the main residual stress is the longitudinal residual stress, the value of the longitudinal residual stress is much larger than the transverse residual stress. But the residual stress in the thickness is rather small. And in the weld center, the maximum value of residual stresses is lower than its yield strength. The simulation results about the welded residual stresses are almost identical with the experimental results by measuring. So the research result is important to science research and engineering application.


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