Verification of Weld Joints
Objective: To run a simulation of welding joint using different weld materials and identify the directional deformations and equivalent strain. And also the highest equivalent stress in the weld joint.
Pre-processing: select the materials data from the engineering materials library.
Materials used are stainless steel, aluminum alloy(high strength, wrought), bronze and copper. All the properties are listed below.
Properties of stainless steel
Properties of bronze
Properties of aluminum alloy
Import the cad model and open in space claim to check. In the mechanical model cell, assign the material to weld joint, rib, and plates.
For case 1: Assign stainless steel to all the component.
For case 2: Assign aluminum alloy to weld joint and stainless steel to the plates
For case 3: Assign copper(wrought) to ribs and plates. Assign bronze cast to the weld joint.
Contacts: Set bonded contact between the weld and parts. Frictional contact of coefficient 0.2 between the parts.
Meshing: A mesh size of 5mm is used for meshing and a body sizing of 7mm to big and small Plate. All the nodes and elements were kept below limits of academics version.
Analysis setting: Only one step is used to solve this problem with large deflection “on”.
Fixed support was set up in the big plate holes and a load of 15000N was given in the - y-direction.
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Post-processing:
Case 1: Stainless steel
Max(MPa) Min(MPa) Yield strength(MPa)
- Equivalent stress (all) : 341.92 0.17006 207
Max(mm/mm) Min(mm/mm)
- Equivalent strain (Rib) : 9.1797e-4 4.3286e-6
Max(MPa) Min(MPa) Yield strength(MPa)
- Equivalent stress (weld joint): 303.97 1.8972 207
Max(mm) Min(mm)
- Directional deformations: 0.34822 -3.2097e-2
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Case 2: Aluminum alloy
Max(MPa) Min(MPa) Yield strength(MPa)
- Equivalent stress (all) : 346.86 0.16955 363
Max(mm/mm) Min(mm/mm)
- Equivalent strain (Rib): 8.9324e-4 4.1184e-6
Max(MPa) Min(MPa) Yield strength(MPa)
- Equivalent stress (weld joint): 251.61 2.3934 363
Max(mm) Min(mm)
- Directional deformations: 0.36329 -3.1746 e-2
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Case 3: Bronze
Max(MPa) Min(MPa) Yield strength(MPa)
- Equivalent stress (all) : 350.93 0.14213 144
Max(mm/mm) Min(mm/mm)
- Equivalent strain (Rib): 1.1932e-3 5.0686e-6
Max(MPa) Min(MPa) Yield strength(MPa)
- Equivalent stress (weld joint): 259.68 1.7526 144
Max(mm) Min(mm)
- Directional deformations: 0.39101 -2.7914e-2
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Ultimate strength
stainless steel: 586MPa
aluminum: 449MPa
bronze: 267 MPa
Comparison chart for the given materials:
Weld joint stress:
Stress (whole body):
Deformations :
From the above data, it can be seen that the aluminum weld joint is more safer compared to the other two weld joint materials. As in both the cases, except aluminum, materials have reached plastics deformation thereby, reducing their life cycle.