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Experimental investigation and finite element simulation of laser beam welding induced residual stresses and distortions in thin sheets of AA 6056-T4

2010; Elsevier BV; Volume: 527; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.msea.2010.01.054

1873-4936

Muhammad Zain-ul-abdein, Daniel Nélias, Jean‐François Jullien, Dominique Deloison,

Non-Destructive Testing Techniques

Laser beam welding has recently found its application in the fabrication of aircraft structures where fuselage panels, made of thin sheets of AA 6056-T4 (an aluminium alloy), are welded with stiffeners of the same material in a T-joint configuration. The present work simulates laser beam welding induced residual stresses and distortions using industrially employed thermal and mechanical boundary conditions. Various measurements performed on small-scale welded test specimens provide a database of experimental results that serves as a benchmark for qualification of the simulation results. The welding simulation is performed with the commercial finite element software Abaqus and a Fortran programme encoding a conical heat source with Gaussian volumetric distribution of flux. A sequentially coupled temperature–displacement analysis is undertaken to simulate the weld pool geometry, transient temperature and displacement fields. The material is assumed to follow an elasto-plastic law with isotropic hardening behaviour (von Mises plasticity model). A comparison between the experimental and simulation results shows a good agreement. Finally, the residual stress and strain states in a T-joint are predicted.