Development of Application Customization Toolkit (ACT) for 3D Thermal Elastic-Plastic Welding Analysis.

Area of Science:

• Computational mechanics
• Materials science
• Mechanical engineering

Background:

• Welding processes induce complex thermal and structural stresses.
• Accurate prediction of residual stress and deformation is crucial for structural integrity.
• Existing welding analysis methods can be computationally intensive and less accessible.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an accessible 3D thermal elastic-plastic welding analysis toolkit in ANSYS.
• To validate the toolkit's accuracy through comparisons with established welding scenarios.
• To assess the impact of welding-induced residual stress and deformation on ultimate compressive strength.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 3D thermal elastic-plastic welding analysis toolkit (Application Customization Toolkit - ACT) in ANSYS.
• Decoupled analysis approach separating thermal and structural computations.
• Validation against T-joint fillet welding and butt welding benchmarks.
• Integration of welding analysis results as initial imperfections for subsequent compression analysis.

Main Results:

• The developed toolkit provides accessible and accurate 3D welding analysis.
• Validated results show good agreement with previous studies for T-joint and butt welds.
• Residual stress and deformation significantly influence the ultimate compressive strength.
• The decoupled method effectively captures the coupled thermal-structural phenomena in welding.

Conclusions:

• The ANSYS ACT enhances the accessibility of complex welding simulations.
• The decoupled thermal-structural analysis approach is reliable for predicting welding-induced stresses and deformations.
• Incorporating welding imperfections provides a more realistic evaluation of structural performance under compressive loads.
• This methodology aids in optimizing welded structures and preventing premature failure.