Prediction of welding buckling distortion in a thin wall aluminum T joint

In this paper, local and global welding buckling distortion of a thin wall aluminum T joint is investigated. A thermo-elastic–viscoplastic model is employed to determine longitudinal residual stresses; analysis of thermal model and elastic–viscoplastic (Anand) model are uncoupled. Molten puddle motion (speed of welding) is modeled by using time dependent birth and death element method. Three dimensional nonlinear-transient heat flow analysis has been used to obtain the temperature distribution, and then by applying thermal results and using three dimensional Anand elastic–viscoplastic model, stress and deformation distributions are obtained during welding and after cooling. Local buckling is investigated by analyzing the history of stress and strain relations. Local buckling is assumed to occur at a point if a small change in the magnitude of stress causes large deformation during of the welding process. By applying residual stresses on a structural model and using eigenvalue methods, global buckling instability of the welded structure is determined.