Effect of the boundary shape of weld specimen on the stress distribution

용접시편의 테두리 모양이 응력 분포에 미치는 영향

In finite element analysis of mechanical behavior of weld, typical process is first to obtain a finite element model containing residual stress by conducting welding analysis and then to examine the computational specimen for various external loading. The numerical specimen with residual stress has irregular boundary lines since one usually begins the welding analysis from a body having regular straight boundary lines and large thermal contraction takes place during cooling of weld metal. We notice that these numerical weld specimens are different from the real weld specimens as the real specimens are usually cut from a bigger weld part and consequently have straight boundaries neglecting elastic relaxation associated with the cutting. In this paper, an iterative finite element method is described to obtain a weld specimen which is bounded by straight lines. The stress distributions of two types of weld specimen, one with regular and the other with irregular boundaries, are compared to check the effect of the boundary shape. Results show that the stress distribution can be different when large plastic deformation is induced by the application of external loading. In case of elastic small deformation, the difference turns out almost negligible.