Verification of weld joints

Verification of weld joints with different materials.

In this particular challenge I performed an analysis on the model above with different weld materials for the pupose of differentiation. The connection type for the plates and the ribs were given as frictional with a frictional coefficient of 0.2 whereas the weld joints were bonded. The mesh size for the plates were given as 7 mm and the generated mesh is represented in the picture above. For all the 3 cases these initial conditions were kept constant with a load of 15000 N and only the materials were changed.

CASE 1 : Structural Steel for both the plates and the welds.

Directional Deformation (Y axis) & Equivalent Elastic strain for case 1.

The maximum directional deformation in the Y axis was recorded as 0.3401 mm and the maximum equivalent elastic strain was recorded as 0.001782.

CASE 2 : Aluminium Alloy as the weld material and structural steel for plates.

Directional Deformation (Y axis) & Equivalent Elastic strain for case 2.

The maximum directional deformation in the Y axis was recorded as 0.3541 mm and the maximum equivalent elastic strain was recorded as 0.003404.

CASE 3 : Bronze as the weld material and structural steel for plates.

Directional Deformation (Y axis) & Equivalent Elastic strain for case 3.

The maximum directional deformation in the Y axis was recorded as 0.3865 mm and the maximum equivalent elastic strain was recorded as 0.003290.

Comparison of equivalent stresses at weld joints between the 3 cases.

The equivalent von-mises stresses acting on th weld joints while performing the simulation in all the cases is shown below respectively.

Following are the stresses recorded in all the three cases:

1) Case 1 : Max stress = 303.95 MPa; Min = 1.248 Mpa.

2) Case 2 : Max stress = 251 MPa; Min = 1.36 Mpa.

3) Case 3 : Max stress = 262.83 MPa; Min = 1.39 MPa.

Overall results & Conclusion:

The table below shows the overall results recorded after performing the three case scenarios.

Note : The values in bold represent max whereas the underlined ones show minimum value.

Parameters	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3
Directional Deformation in Y Axis Max (mm)	0.3401	0.3544	0.3865
Equivalent elastic strain Max	0.001782	0.003404	0.003290
Max Equivalent von-Mises stress (MPa)	303.95	251	262.83

From the analysis performed and the results above I can conclude that even though the stresses developed in case 1 was the highest out of the three cases, the strain the deformation in the Y direction experienced was minimum mainly due to the material properties of structural steel. The minimum stress developed was in case 2 as the material used was Aluminium alloy for the weld. The maximum deformation observed was in case 3 as the weld material for brazing was bronze and the rib material was copper which is less strong and heavy as compared to structural steel which was used as the base material.

Case 1 = Max stress; Case 2 = Max strain; Case 3 = Max deformation.