Determination of welding deformation in fillet-welded joint by means of numerical simulation and comparison with experimental measurements

Fillet weld is the most common weld type used in the fabrication of structural members in shipbuilding, automobile and other industries. Fillet-welded joints usually suffer from various welding deformation patterns, such as longitudinal shrinkage, transverse shrinkage, angular distortion and longitudinal bending. Welding deformation has negative effects on fabrication accuracy, external appearance and various strengths of the welded structures. In this study, experiments are performed to investigate the characteristics of welding deformation in the fillet-welded joint. In order to precisely predict welding deformation by numerical method, a 3-D thermal elastic plastic finite element computational procedure is developed. The simulated results are in a good agreement with the experimental measurements. The influence on welding deformation of the flange thickness is investigated by experiment and numerical simulation. In addition, the generation mechanism of angular distortion is clarified through numerical simulation.