NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF STRESS-STRAIN DISTRIBUTIONS FOR WELD METAL SOLIDIFICATION CRACKING IN STAINLESS STEEL

This paper analyzed the characteristics of welding solidification crack of stainless steels,and clearly re- vealed the the of the deformation in the molten - the pool and the solidification shrinkage on the stress - strain fields in the trail of molten - weld pool.Moreover, rheologic properties of the alloys in solid - liquid zone were also obtained by measuring the hading and unloading deform curves of the steels.As a result, a numerical model for simulation of stress - strain distributions of welding solidifi- cation crack was developed. On the basis of the model,the thesis simulated the driving force of solidifi- cation crack of stainless steels, that is, stress - strain fields in the trail of molten-weld pool with fi- nite element method.

Stress/strain distributions for weld metal solidification crack instain less steels

This paper has simulated the driving force of solidification crack of stainless steels, that is, stress/strain field in the trail of molten pool. Firstly, the effect of the deformation in the molten pool was eliminated after the element rebirth method was adopted. Secondly, the influence of solidification shrinkage was taken into account by increasing thermal expansion coefficients of the steels at elevated temperatures. Finally, the stress/strain distributions of different conditions have been computed and analyzed. Furthermore, the driving force curves of the solidification crack of the steels have been obtained by converting strain time curves into strain temperature curves, which founds a basis for predicting welding solidification crack.

Development of the model for simulating weld metal solidification cracking in stainless steel

According to the characteristics of welding process, this paper divided the welding joint of a weldment into three zones: the liquid zone in the molten pool, the solid liquid co existing zone and the solid zone. In order to develop the stress/strain numerical model, the mechanical behaviors of the three zones were analyzed in detail. Moreover, Based on the solid fractions during solidification process and loading unloading deforming curves of stainless steel SUS310, this paper also studied the effects of deformation of molten pool, the rheologic properties and solidification shrinkage on stress/strain evaluating processes. Finally, the influence of the deformation in the molten pool was eliminated by element rebirth method. Furthermore, the algorithm of the thermal stress/strain for the solid metal formulated on the basis of the incremental thermo elastoplastic constitutive theory. As a result, a numerical simulation model of stress/strain distributions for welding solidification crack was developed.

The effect of solidification behaviour of austenitic stainless steel on the solidification cracking susceptibility

On the basis of quantitative evaluation of susceptibility to solidification cracking with Trans-Varestraint-Test, the microstructures of two stainless steels of 316L and alloy 800H with different Creq/Nieq ratios during solidification process were analyzed with several methods. It is concluded that the susceptibility to solidification cracking of 316L-stainless steel is much lower than that of alloy 800H due to different solidification behaviors of the weld metal of the two materials. The weld metal of alloy 800H solidifies in the form of primary austenite whose boundaries are straight and smooth and easily wetted by low melting-point liquid phases, which increases the susceptibility to solidification cracking; while the 316L weld metal solidifies into primary austenite/ferrite. Owing to a series of dynamic microstructure changes during solidification such as peritectic reactions, migration of austenitic boundaries and nailing of δ-ferrite to the boundaries, the grains become finer, the orientations of columnar grains get disordered and the boundaries are curved and complex. Also high temperature δ-ferrite exists, segregation of impurities at boundaries decreases and the boundaries are hard to be wetted by liquid films, which reduces the cracking susceptibility.

Three Dimensional Numerical Simulation for the Driving Force of Weld Solidification Cracking

The double ellipsoidal model of heat source is used to analyze the thermal distributions with a three dimensional finite element method (FEM). In the mechanical model, solidification effects are treated by a dynamic element rebirth scheme. The driving force is obtained in the cracking susceptible temperature range. Moreover, this paper presents the effect of solidification shrinkage, external restraint, weld start locations and material properties on the driving force. The comparison between the simulated driving force and the experimental measurements of the material resistance predicts the susceptibility of weld metal solidification cracking.

A Computer Aided System for Simulating Weld Metal Solidification Crack

A computer-aided system for simulating weld solidification crack has been developed by which a welding engineer can carry out the welding solidification crack simulation on the basis of a commercial finite element analysis software package. its main functions include calculating the heat generations of the moving arc. mesh generation, calculating stress-strain distributions with element rebirth technique.