Residual Stress and Distortion Analysis for TMCP Steel Grade EH36 Butt Welding Parts in GTAW-SMAW Hybrid Welding Process using Finite Element Method
Received: 25 July 2024 | Revised: 6 December 2024, 10 December 2024, and 13 December 2024 | Accepted: 18 December 2024 | Online: 2 February 2025
Corresponding author: Natchanun Angsuseranee
Abstract
The present work evaluates residual stress and distortion in Thermo-Mechanical Control Process (TMCP) grade EH-36 steel plates subjected to hybrid Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) and Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) processes Specimens measuring 650 × 170 mm with a thickness of 12 mm were utilized. Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis was employed to model residual stress and distortion, a critical step in optimizing the manufacturing process of mechanical structures and parts in shipbuilding. The FE model was developed using ANSYS software incorporating a heat source model with a user-defined subroutine to represent an ellipsoidal moving weld torch with front and rear power density distribution. Heat losses due to radiation and convection were accounted for, while mechanical boundary conditions were applied to restrict rotation and displacement but allow material deformation. Thermal analysis demonstrated close agreement between experimental thermocouple data and numerical simulations, with a temperature deviation of only 5%. Residual stress analysis using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) revealed that ultrasonic stress relief reduced the maximum residual stress from an average of 193.4 MPa to 39.1 MPa Distortion analysis showed that the maximum FEM deformation was 0.2873 mm, with a 12% deviation from coordinate measuring machine (CMM) results, while the minimum FEM deformation was 0.031922 mm, differing by 3%. The larger deviation occurred in areas with peak distortion, attributed to variations in mechanical restraint positioning, which significantly influence material deformation during cooling.
Keywords:
residual stress, distortion, EH36 steel, GTAW-SMAW, hybrid welding, FEMDownloads
References
K.-K. Um, S.-H. Kim, K.-B. Kang, Y.-H. Park, and O. Kwon, "High Performance Steel Plates For Shipbuilding Applications," presented at the The Eighteenth International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Jul. 2008.
F. Caiazzo et al., "Laser Beam Welding of a Ti–6Al–4V Support Flange for Buy-to-Fly Reduction," Metals, vol. 7, no. 5, May 2017, Art. no. 183. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/met7050183
V. M. J. Varghese, M. R. Suresh, and D. S. Kumar, "Recent developments in modeling of heat transfer during TIG welding—a review," The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 749–754, Feb. 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-012-4048-9
V. Msomi and S. Mabuwa, "Analyzing the Influence of Microstructure on the Mechanical Properties of TIG Welded Joints processed by Friction Stir considering the sampling Orientation," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 12470–12475, Feb. 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.6459
I. P. Wardani, V. A. Setyowati, S. Suheni, and I. P. Samudra, "The Effect of Welding Current on AISI 1045 Strength and Corrosion Rate," Journal of Applied Sciences, Management and Engineering Technology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 40–45, Nov. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31284/j.jasmet.2020.v1i2.1159
A. Jayant and M. S. Dhillon, "Use of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to select welding process in high pressure vessel manufacturing environment," International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 586–595, 2015.
D. Deng, H. Murakawa, and W. Liang, "Prediction of welding distortion in a curved plate structure by means of elastic finite element method," Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 203, no. 1, pp. 252–266, Jul. 2008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.10.009
Y. H. P. Manurung et al., "Welding distortion analysis of multipass joint combination with different sequences using 3D FEM and experiment," International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, vol. 111–112, pp. 89–98, Nov. 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpvp.2013.05.002
H. W. Ahmad, J. H. Hwang, J. H. Lee, and D. H. Bae, "Welding Residual Stress Analysis and Fatigue Strength Assessment of Multi-Pass Dissimilar Material Welded Joint between Alloy 617 and 12Cr Steel," Metals, vol. 8, no. 1, Jan. 2018, Art. no. 21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/met8010021
O. Obeid, G. Alfano, H. Bahai, and H. Jouhara, "Numerical simulation of thermal and residual stress fields induced by lined pipe welding," Thermal Science and Engineering Progress, vol. 5, pp. 1–14, Mar. 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsep.2017.10.005
Y. Rong, G. Zhang, and Y. Huang, "Study of Welding Distortion and Residual Stress Considering Nonlinear Yield Stress Curves and Multi-constraint Equations," Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 4484–4494, Oct. 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-016-2259-1
X. Yang et al., "Welding Temperature Distribution and Residual Stresses in Thick Welded Plates of SA738Gr.B Through Experimental Measurements and Finite Element Analysis," Materials, vol. 12, no. 15, Jan. 2019, Art. no. 2436. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12152436
A. S. Ahmad, Y. Wu, H. Gong, and L. Nie, "Finite Element Prediction of Residual Stress and Deformation Induced by Double-Pass TIG Welding of Al 2219 Plate," Materials, vol. 12, no. 14, Jan. 2019, Art. no. 2251. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12142251
P. Poolperm, W. Nakkiew, and N. Naksuk, "Finite element analysis of the effect of porosity on residual stress in 2024 aluminium alloy GTAW," Materials Research Express, vol. 7, no. 5, Feb. 2020, Art. no. 056518. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab906a
M. Ghafouri, J. Ahn, J. Mourujärvi, T. Björk, and J. Larkiola, "Finite element simulation of welding distortions in ultra-high strength steel S960 MC including comprehensive thermal and solid-state phase transformation models," Engineering Structures, vol. 219, Sep. 2020, Art. no. 110804. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2020.110804
V. García-García, I. Mejía, F. Reyes-Calderón, J. A. Benito, and J. M. Cabrera, "FE thermo-mechanical simulation of welding residual stresses and distortion in Ti-containing TWIP steel through GTAW process," Journal of Manufacturing Processes, vol. 59, pp. 801–815, Nov. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2020.09.042
S. D. Banik, S. Kumar, P. K. Singh, S. Bhattacharya, and M. M. Mahapatra, "Distortion and residual stresses in thick plate weld joint of austenitic stainless steel: Experiments and analysis," Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 289, Mar. 2021, Art. no. 116944. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2020.116944
R. Sepe, V. Giannella, A. Greco, and A. De Luca, "FEM Simulation and Experimental Tests on the SMAW Welding of a Dissimilar T-Joint," Metals, vol. 11, no. 7, Jul. 2021, Art. no. 1016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/met11071016
H. Vemanaboina, E. Gundabattini, K. Kumar, P. Ferro, and B. Sridhar Babu, "Thermal and Residual Stress Distributions in Inconel 625 Butt-Welded Plates: Simulation and Experimental Validation," Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 2021, no. 1, 2021, Art. no. 3948129. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3948129
P. P. Thakur and A. N. Chapgaon, "Effect of GTAW-SMAW hybrid welding process parameters on hardness of weld," Gas, vol. 100, no. 110, 2017, Art. no. 120.
"China AWS A5.18 ER70S-6 Carbon Steel Welding Wire Filler Metals for Gas Shielded Arc Welding, Solid Wires Manufacturer and Supplier | Tianyu," TYUE.
"Electric welding wire KOBE LB-52U." ARC Welding Service CO.,LTD.
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Natchanun Angsuseranee, Sumeth Nuchim, Phacha Bunyawanichakul, Visanu Boonmag

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.