3D FEM of Welding Process Using Element Birth & Element Movement Techniques
3D FEM of Welding Process Using Element Birth & Element Movement Techniques
3D FEM of Welding Process Using Element Birth & Element Movement Techniques
Fanous
Mem. ASME
3-D Finite Element Modeling of
e-mail: fanous@aucegypt.edu
Maher Y. A. Younan
the Welding Process Using
Mem. ASME
Professor of Mechanics and Design,
Element Birth and Element
e-mail: myounan@aucegypt.edu
144 Õ Vol. 125, MAY 2003 Copyright © 2003 by ASME Transactions of the ASME
Downloaded 14 May 2011 to 203.110.246.230. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Fig. 1 The diagram of the welding process of case 1
from the top surface of the body. These subroutines are verified in
‘‘Model 1’’ which simulates the welding process of two plates, Fig. 3 The moving heat source of Model 1
without considering metal deposition, and compares to the results
of Friedman 关7兴. Also, the material properties are entered to the
model for different temperature values as described later in this
The total heat input Q is evaluated according to the type of heat
paper. The verified subroutines of the heat load and heat loss and
source. For example, in electric arc welding
material data are then used to simulate another welding process
that includes the addition of filler material to the base plate. Ini- Q⫽ VI (2)
tially, ‘‘Model 2’’ is developed to simulate the process utilizing
This distribution, according to 关7兴, represents 95% of the total heat
the element birth technique to simulate the metal deposition as has
Q when applied within a circle with radius r b . The distance r in
been used in previous researches. This model shall be used as a
Eq. 共1兲 shown in Fig. 4 is the distance from the center point of the
reference for verification of ‘‘Model 3’’ utilizing the element
heat source to the point for which the heat flux is being calculated
movement technique that is developed in this research.
and is given by
Verification Model „Model 1…. The model simulates basic
arc welding of two coplanar plates along the parting line as illus- r⫽ 冑共 x⫺x h 兲 2 ⫹y 2 (3)
trated in Fig. 1. The model is developed similar to that of 关7兴 so as where
to be able to verify the subroutine of the heat source and heat loss
in comparing the thermal history, and the structural boundary con- x h ⫽ 共 t⫺t 0 兲v (4)
ditions in comparing the residual stresses. The value of t 0 is the time taken for the center point of the heat to
Each plate has a length of 100 mm (x direction兲, width of 50 reach the first node along the welding line that has a value of zero
mm (y direction兲 and height of 2.5 mm. The welding speed is 2 in Model 1. This way, as the time increases, x h increases simulat-
mm/s. The electric input is 24 V and 30 A, and the arc efficiency ing the motion of the circle of the heat load zone as shown in Fig.
is assumed to be 90%. The process is modeled using one plate 3. Therefore, when the value of r is less than or equal to r b , the
upon which symmetry loading and boundary conditions are ap- heat flux is calculated according to 共1兲. Otherwise, the heat load is
plied. Parametric meshing is used in order to easily track the set to zero. r b is set to 5 mm according to 关7兴.
results along a certain predefined path in any direction. The thermal boundary conditions include the radiation and con-
The element used is an 8-noded brick element that can perform vection to the environment from all sides of the welded plate
a coupled displacement-temperature analysis. For thermal symme- except the symmetry surface and the area upon which the heat is
try, the heat flux passing across the surface of symmetry shown in applied. For all sides of the plate that lose heat, the heat lost is
Fig. 2 is assumed to be zero, and, for structural symmetry, the calculated by
translation in the y direction of the same surface is also zero.
Besides, for structural stability of the model, fixture point 1 is q⫽h convection共 T i ⫺T a 兲 ⫹ em bol共 T i4 ⫺T 4a 兲 (5)
constrained in the x and z directions, and fixture point 2 is con- 2
The connection coefficient is 8 W/m °C, which is assumed to be
strained in the z direction. constant as it depends primarily on the ambient temperature, and
The moving heat load is applied as distributed heat flux to the the emissivity is 0.5.
top surface of the model, Fig. 3. The region within which the heat Another subroutine called FILM is developed in 关9兴 in conjunc-
is applied has a circular shape assuming the heat source is applied tion with DFLUX to account for the variation of the heat loss
perpendicularly to the plate without any inclination. A user sub- coefficients with time for the top surface. In this code, the location
routine named DFLUX is developed in 关9兴 using the FORTRAN under consideration is checked if it lies within the circle of appli-
language and included in the model to calculate the heat flux at a cation of the load using Eqs. 共3兲 and 共4兲, and, if it is true, there is
certain time and location within the surface of elements upon no heat loss. Otherwise, heat is lost by the same coefficients as the
which the load is applied according to Eq. 共1兲. other sides from the area of the top surface other than that of the
3Q 2
q共 r 兲⫽ e ⫺3(r/r b ) (1)
r 2b
Fig. 2 General boundary conditions Fig. 4 Zones of heat load and heat loss
Downloaded 14 May 2011 to 203.110.246.230. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Fig. 6 General boundary conditions
Downloaded 14 May 2011 to 203.110.246.230. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Fig. 8 „a… The effective area, and „b… thermal conductivity ver-
sus the gap clearance of the gap elements
Downloaded 14 May 2011 to 203.110.246.230. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Fig. 11 Zones of heat load and heat loss
of each element divided by the time of each step. When the nodes Fig. 13 Stress distribution along the midsection
of the weld pool reach the base plate, a coupling equation is
activated between the coincident nodes of both parts to simulate
the fusion process. These coupling equations force the deforma-
tion of the coincident nodes to be equal. Hence, the weld pool and with the base plate. In other words, since the first group of nodes
the base plate act as one body at this point. A user subroutine reaches the base plate in two consecutive steps, the value of t 0
MPC is developed in 关9兴 to activate the coupling between every shall be twice the time taken for each step, which is 2 s for the
group of nodes that come into contact at a specific time according model in hand. Figure 10 shows the motion of the heat load whose
to the welding speed. In this subroutine, the x-coordinate of every center 共the darkest point兲 reaches the first node of the welding at
group of nodes is checked if it is less than the x-coordinate of the time⫽4 s.
center point of the heat source, and, if it is true, the coupling Finally, the thermal heat loss is modeled such that heat is lost
equation is activated. Usually, the fusion at different points be- from all sides of the plate and the weld pool except those surfaces
tween the weld pool and the base plate depends on the peak tem- that are in contact. Just as it is mentioned in the previous case, the
perature and the time during which the coincident points stay in heat from the top surface is modeled using the previously devel-
the liquid state. However, this criterion is not included in the oped FILM subroutine with the value of t 0 identical to that just
research and all coincident points on the contact surfaces are as- calculated for DFLUX. However, since the topmost elements of
sumed to have full fusion because the model is designed to check the weld pool that are yet to be deposited are considered part of
for the residual stresses. the top surface, they must not be considered in the heat loss area.
The heat source has the same concept as that of Model 2 in Therefore, the FILM subroutine is slightly modified so that ele-
which the heat source must stay a while at the start of the welding ments with x-coordinate larger than that of the center point of the
process before it moves along the welding. However, when apply- heat source must have a heat loss coefficient of zero. Figure 11
ing the DFLUX subroutine developed earlier, the value of t 0 will shows the heat load and heat loss regions in Model 3 according to
be different to match the deposition process. It is assumed that the the modifications in the FILM subroutine.
center point of the heat source should be at the first node of the The analysis steps in this case are similar to that of Model 2
welding line just as the first group of nodes comes into contact with two extra steps added to the procedure in order to account for
the depositing groups of nodes, and that the deposition of each
group is done in two steps
Table 1 Material properties versus temperature
Element Element
birth movement
Min. time increment 0.000002872 0.00011
No. of increments 1753 966
No. of iterations 4758 3471
Total analysis time ⬃48 h ⬃24 h
Fig. 12 Temperature history
Downloaded 14 May 2011 to 203.110.246.230. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Fig. 15 Comparison between the element birth and element movement techniques for „a… x „longitudinal stress… and „b…
y „transverse stress… history at the monitoring points, „c… x and „d… y distribution along the midsection, „e… x and „f …
y distribution along the welding line, and „g… and „h… along the fusion line
Material Properties. The material used in Model 1 is Inconel Results and Discussion
Alloy 600 that is used by Friedman 关7兴. The material properties
used with metal deposition in Model 2 and Model 3 were acquired Verification Study. Good agreement appeared between the
from Brown 关11兴 whose properties are shown in Table 1. The thermal and structural results of Model 1 and those of Friedman
latent heat indicated is included by ABAQUS in the specific heat 关7兴. Figure 12 shows the temperature history at 3 monitoring
variation with temperature between the liquidous and solidous points indicated in Fig. 2 along the mid transverse line on the top
levels. and bottom surface. Figure 13 shows the history of the variation
Downloaded 14 May 2011 to 203.110.246.230. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
of the longitudinal stress along the transverse direction (y direc- be very effective. It allowed for early thermal interaction between
tion兲 along the top of the midsection. the weld pool and the base plate reducing the analysis time. Also,
the stress history and the residual stress distribution resulting from
Element Birth Versus Element Movement Technique. The
both techniques compared well, with an acceptable difference
results of the element movement technique 共Model 3兲 had a very
when evaluated versus the computing cost.
close match with those of the element birth 共Model 2兲. Figure 14
shows a comparison of the temperature history at the monitoring
point near the fusion surface shown in Fig. 6. The slight reduction Nomenclature
in the peak temperature predicted using the element movement is q(r) ⫽ heat flux at distance r from center of heat source
due to the gradual flow of heat from the weld pool to the base. (W/m2 )
Besides, due to the difference in the node arrangement between Q ⫽ total heat input rate 共W兲
the two techniques in having two separate bodies in Model 3 r b ⫽ radius at which total heat input is 95% of actual
instead of one in Model 2, there is a difference in the arrangement value 共m兲
of the integration points representing similar nodes. This caused a h convection ⫽ convection coefficient (W/m2 °C)
difference in the temperature of the monitoring points due to the em ⫽ emissivity
high temperature gradient. In addition, it can be observed that the bol ⫽ Stefan-Boltzman constant (5.669⫻10⫺8 W/m2 K)
temperature of the monitoring point at the top is lower than that at
T i ⫽ expected temperature for current increment 共K兲
the bottom since the distance of the former from the welding line
T a ⫽ ambient temperature 共K兲
is larger than that of latter.
t i ⫽ time of step i (s)
Table 2 shows a comparison between the two techniques in the
v ⫽ welding speed 共m/s兲
analysis steps and timing. This illustrates the huge reduction in the
time spent to perform the simulation using the element movement
technique. References
Figure 15 illustrates a detailed comparison of the longitudinal 关1兴 Nguyen, N. T., Ohta, A., Matsuoka, K., Suzuki, N., and Maeda, Y., 1999,
( x ) and transverse ( y ) stresses between the two models. A very ‘‘Analytical Solutions for Transient Temperature of Semi-Infinite Body Sub-
close match in the history of the stress components at the moni- jected to 3-D Moving Heat Sources,’’ Weld. J. 共Miami兲, Aug., pp. 265–274.
关2兴 Goldak, J., 1990, ‘‘Keynote Address: Modeling Thermal Stresses and Distor-
toring point 共Fig. 6兲 is shown in Fig. 15(a) and (b). The mid tions in Welds,’’ Recent trends in welding science and technology, ASM Inter-
section 共Fig. 6兲 was selected for monitoring since it gives an over- national.
view of the behavior of the whole welded structure. A very close 关3兴 Ueda, Y., and Yuan, M. G., 1993, ‘‘Prediction of Residual Stresses in Butt
match can be observed between the two techniques in the distri- Welded Plates Using Inherent Strains,’’ ASME J. Eng. Mater. Technol., 115,
Oct., pp. 417– 423; 116, July 1994, pp. 285.
bution of the residual stresses along the mid section’s top and 关4兴 Mochizuki, H., and Hattori, H., 1999, ‘‘Residual Stress Analysis by Simplified
bottom paths as illustrated in Fig. 15(c) and (d). Finally, the Inherent at Welded Pipe Junctures in a Pressure Vessel,’’ ASME J. Pressure
welding line, being the hottest part, and the fusion line, where a Vessel Technol., 121, Nov., pp. 353–357.
great variation in the residual stress distribution is expected to 关5兴 Dong, P., 2001, ‘‘Residual Stress Analyses Multi-Pass Birth Weld: 3-D Special
Shell versus Axisymmetric Models,’’ ASME J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 123,
occur, were also selected for monitoring. The variation of the May, pp. 207–213.
residual stresses along these paths of Model 2 compared well with 关6兴 Hibbit, Hugh D., and Marcal, Pedro V., 1973, ‘‘A Numerical, Thermo-
those of Model 3 as shown in Fig. 15(e) – (h). Mechanical Model for the Welding and Subsequent Loading of a Fabricated
Structure,’’ Comput. Struct., 3, pp. 1145–1174.
关7兴 Friedman, E., 1975, ‘‘Thermomechanical Analysis of the Welding Process Us-
Conclusion ing the Finite Element Method,’’ ASME J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 97, Aug.,
In the verification model, the results of the 3-D model simulat- pp. 206 –213.
关8兴 Wilkening, W. W., and Snow, J. L., 1993, ‘‘Analysis of Welding-Induced Re-
ing the welding process compared well with that of 关7兴. The sub- sidual Stresses With The Adina System,’’ Comput. Struct., 47共4/5兲, pp. 767–
routines in that model can be used confidently to simulate most of 786.
the moving heat source used in the welding processes. It can be 关9兴 Fanous, I. F. Z., ‘‘3D Modeling of the Welding Process Using Finite Ele-
further developed to simulate inclined heat sources to cover a ments,’’ M.Sc. thesis, The American University in Cairo, February 2002.
关10兴 Hibbitt, Karlsson, and Sorensen, ‘‘ABAQUS/Standard User’s Manual,’’ 6.2,
wider range of applications. 2001.
In comparing the element movement technique versus the ele- 关11兴 Brown, S., and Song, H., 1992, ‘‘Finite Element Simulation of Welding Large
ment birth technique, it can be observed that the former showed to Structures,’’ ASME J. Eng. Ind., 114, Nov., pp. 441– 451.
Downloaded 14 May 2011 to 203.110.246.230. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm