Temperature Profile and its Effect on Hardness Numbers of a Mild Steel Butt Weld

Abstract

Fusion welding of steel joints is common through history of industrial applications. Among those, Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) and Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) are most common. Fusion welding process comprises of rapid heating and cooling cycles. Each cycle produces a non-uniform and transient temperature distribution and causes rapid thermal expansion followed by thermal contraction. Thus plastic deformation and thermal residual stresses can be induced in a welded joint when it cools down gradually to room temperature. In this study, temperature profiles of a hand-weld mild steel butt weld are analyzed by means of the finite element method (FEM) through ANSYS Mechanical APDL The moving heat source is simulated using the Gaussian distribution heat source model. A parametric study was then performed to evaluate the importance of certain key process parameters that affect the quality of a weldment. The effects of temperature profile on hardness numbers inside and away from the heat affected zone (HAZ) are discussed. It was found that the residual stress results obtained from the simulation agree with the distribution of hardness numbers tested on the weldment sample.