Residual stress analysis in weldments

Residual stresses caused by welding may be of the order of the yield strength. This study aims at estimating these residual stresses through a blend of experimental and theoretical approaches. The factors which affect residual stress build up are many, so it is difficult to completely model thermal-elasto-plastic deformation due to welding. To simplify the analysis rotational symmetry in the case of pipes and plane strain assumption in the case of thick weldments are made. These assumptions need not be always true. In the present approach three-dimensional nature of the problem is preserved. It is validated using some standard test problems. The developed method is applied to some practical cases and the results are presented