Influence of deposition sequence on welding residual stress and deformation in an austenitic stainless steel J-groove welded joint

Residual tensile stresses often increase the susceptibility to cold cracking, and also promote brittle fracture, fatigue failure, and stress corrosion cracking in combination with tensile stresses experienced during service. Welding-induced deformation usually degrades the performance of a structure. Thus, the control of welding residual stress and distortion is a crucial task in welding manufacturing. There are too many factors that affect welding residual stresses and distortion. Besides material properties and design-related parameters, the welding procedures such as deposition sequence and assembly sequence also have significant influence on the final residual stress distribution and deformation. In this study, a computational approach based on Quick Welder software was developed to simulate the welding temperature field, residual stress distribution and deformation in multi-pass joints. The main objective was to clarify the influence of deposition sequence on the final residual stress distribution and deformation in an austenitic stainless steel tube–block joint with J-groove. The simulation results indicate that deposition sequence not only significantly affects the distribution of residual stress but also can alter the deformation mode to a certain extent. In addition, it was found that the last weld pass seems to have the largest contribution to the final welding residual stress filed of current tube–block joint.