Numerical simulation of residual stress of butt-welded joint involved in complex column-beam welded structure

The objective of this work is to clarify the effect of the structural restraint and the adjacent welded joints in column-beam welded structure on the final residual stress distribution and its evolution process of the butt-welded joint between the diaphragm and the flange through numerical simulation method. Based on ABAQUS software, a three dimensional thermal-mechanical coupled method was developed to predict the residual stress distribution for multi-pass welded joints. To improve calculation efficiency, an effective computational approach that combines a relatively coarse mesh design and an instantaneous heat source model was proposed to analyze the residual stress distribution for complex welded structures. Firstly, both a fine mesh model with moving heat source and a relatively coarse mesh model with instantaneous heat source were employed to predict the residual stress distribution in the same thick-plate butt-welded joint made of high strength low alloy steel. The computational accuracy of the proposed computational method was verified through comparing the results of the fine mesh model with moving heat source and the corresponding experimental data. Then, the residual stress distributions of the column-beam welded structure, the butt-welded joint under structural restraint condition and free state were calculated using the proposed computational approach. Results suggest that the structural restraint and the adjacent welded joints in the structure have a significant effect on the residual stress distribution.