Effect of various weld length ratios on the curvature and distortion of a double-side edge welded fin plate: A study using SYSWELD

In this study, finite element modelling (FEM) of gas metal arc welding on two edges of a fin plate was performed, using SYSWELD software. The fin plate material is SA 387 Gr. 12 Cl 2 and its size is 1200 mm × 50 mm × 6 mm. The weld length, L1 on the first edge of the plate was fixed as 400 mm. The weld length, L2 on the second edge was chosen so as to result in five distinct L2/L1 ratios namely 1.00, 1.25, 1.50, 1.75 and 2.00. FEM of welding on the two edges of the fin, one after the other was performed for each ratio and the results on weld distortion and curvature were studied. It was found that increasing the L2/L1 ratio results in higher offset of weld distortion caused by first weld and for L2/L1 = 1.4, the mid-span distortion becomes near-zero. However, the net curvature of first weld segment (L1) stays constant for all L2/L1 ratios. The FEM results, in respect of temperature, strain and distortion for the case of L2/L1 = 1.50 matched well with the corresponding results obtained experimentally, thereby confirming the accuracy of the FEM procedure.