Effect of jig constraint position and pitch on welding deformation

Quantitative study on jig constraint effect on welding deformation was carried out. Welding deformation in a square plate with bead welding under a non-constraint free condition and a jig constraint condition was investigated by experiment. A 3D thermal elastic-plastic FEM program was employed to simulate the transient temperature and deformation occurred in the welding. It is observed that welding angular distortion has been greatly reduced by the jig constraint, and a good agreement was confirmed between simulation and experiment. Three-direction jig constraint and normal direction jig constraint were defined based on typical constraint types in practical engineering. Two parameters a and b, which represent the pitch between two jigs in the welding direction and the distance from the weld line, respectively, were focused. Effect of jig constraint on longitudinal shrinkage, transverse shrinkage and angular distortion were discussed in details.