NeT bead-on-plate round robin: Comparison of residual stress predictions and measurements

The members of the European network NeT have undertaken parallel round robin activities measuring and simulating the residual stresses generated by laying a single Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) weld bead on an AISI Type 316L austenitic stainless steel flat plate. This is a strongly three-dimensional configuration with many of the characteristics of a repair weld. The round robin finite element predictions of weld residual stresses are compared with each other in order to identify the effects on the predicted residual stresses of material hardening model, global heat input, mechanical and thermal boundary conditions, and the handling of high temperature inelastic strains. Comparison with the residual stress measurements then leads to the optimum choices for these variables.