Sensitivity analysis of the thermomechanical response of welded joints

A computational procedure is presented for evaluating the sensitivity coefficients of the thermomechanical response of welded structures. Uncoupled thermomechanical analysis, with transient thermal analysis and quasi-static mechanical analysis, is performed. A rate independent, small deformation thermo-elasto-plastic material model with temperature-dependent material properties is adopted in the study. The temperature field is assumed to be independent of the stresses and strains. The heat transfer equations emanating from a finite element semi-discretization are integrated using an implicit backward difference scheme to generate the time history of the temperatures. The mechanical response during welding is then calculated by solving a generalized plane strain problem. First- and second-order sensitivity coefficients of the thermal and mechanical response quantities (derivatives with respect to various thermomechanical parameters) are evaluated using a direct differentiation approach in conjunction with an automatic differentiation software facility. Numerical results are presented for a double fillet conventional welding of a stiffener and a base plate made of stainless steel AL-6XN material. Time histories of the response and sensitivity coefficients, and their spatial distributions at selected times are presented.