Fully three-dimensional thermomechanical analysis of steel welding processes

A computational procedure is presented here to analyze the coupled thermomechanical behaviour of steel welding processes, using a fully three-dimensional approach. The main results are the description of temperatures, displacements, strain and stress fields during a time transient elapsed from the beginning of the process. The thermomechanical analysis is carried out during the heating phase, corresponding to the application of a heat source, and the successive cooling phase without action of are welding. In particular, residual stresses are found and these can be used as starting point to analyze the structural element subject to subsequent load histories. © 1995.