Numerical simulation of a welding process using a prescribed temperature approach

This paper presents an efficient finite element procedure for the prediction of welding-induced residual stresses and distortions in large structures. It is based on a prescribed temperature approach using some features of an Abaqus extension called Abaqus Welding Interface to significantly improve the computational efficiency and speed up the normally time-consuming and cumbersome welding analysis setup performed by the user. To validate the temperature and residual stress solutions obtained by the presented method, two numerical examples are analyzed. Comparison is made with the experimental measurements and the results obtained by the heat generation rate approach using the element birth and death technique. The first example is a butt-welding of two plates, while the second is a T-joint fillet welding of two plates. The results obtained by the proposed procedure demonstrate a good agreement in comparison with the heat generation rate approach as well as the experimental measurements. Furthermore, the computational efficiency is remarkably improved compared to the heat generation rate approach as the CPU time is reduced up to ~70% in both examples.