Calculation of residual stress and warping during welding

The heterogeneous nature of welding in which the material is heated up locally and cools down induces internal stresses and leads to component distortion. This has a negative effect on component quality and functionality and can also cause damage, e.g cracks, and/or reduce the service life. Internal stress and distortion are closely related, and many factors lead to their generation. The material properties, clamping conditions as well as welding procedure and parameters all play an important role. Numerical welding simulation can be used to identify the optimal clamping conditions and welding parameters that minimize the distortion and residual stresses.

Dynamic clamping during the welding of components for the reduction of distortions and residual stresses

The main result of the DVS-AiF project “Dynamic clamping” is that by means of dynamically adapted clamping conditions during the welding process and the consecutive cooling phase, a minimization of welding distortions as well as a simultaneous reduction of residual stresses is accomplished. Thus, the normally coupled and interdependent behavior is independently controlled.

Acknowledgement

The research project of the German Welding Society was carried out in the framework of the industrial collective research program (IGF no. 16857 N). It was supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs (BMWi) through the AiF German Federation of Industrial Research Associations based on a decision taken by the German Bundestag.