International Journal of Steel Structures

September 2011, Vol 11, No 3, 315-324

DOI 10.1007/s13296-011-3006-y

www.springer.com/journal/13296

Experimental and Numerical Investigations on Residual Stresses in

a Multi-pass Butt-welded High Strength SM570-TMCP Steel Plate
Kyong-Ho Chang1, Chin-Hyung Lee2,*, Ki-Tae Park2, and Tae-Hwan Um3
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chung-Ang University, 221, Huksuk-dong, Dongjak-ku, Seoul, 156-756, Korea
2
Structural Engineering & Bridges Research Division, Korea Institute of Construction Technology,
2311, Daehwa-dong, Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 411-712, Korea
3
Department of Civil Engineering, Chung-Ang University, 221, Huksuk-dong, Dongjak-ku, Seoul, 156-756, Korea

Abstract

During fusion welding process, complex thermal stresses are inevitably generated. The presence of residual stresses can be
detrimental to the integrity and the service behavior of the welded part. In this study, both an experiment and a finite element
(FE) method were utilized to investigate residual stress distribution in high strength SM570-TMCP (thermo-mechanical
controlled process) steel weldment, which was constructed using a multi-pass butt welding process. Firstly, experiments which
included a tensile test at elevated temperatures, an observation of the microstructures and a residual stress measurement were
carried out to examine characteristics of residual stresses in the weldment. Secondly, a three-dimensional thermo-mechanical
FE model was developed to simulate the temperature field and the residual stress field incorporating the experimental results.
The thermo-mechanical model used as well as the experimental procedure is described in detail, and the results obtained from
the FE model are compared with the experimental measurements and discussed.

Keywords: residual stresses, high strength SM570-TMCP steel, multi-pass welding, three-dimensional FE model

1. Introduction member using TMCP steels always involves welding

As the spans of bridges are getting longer and the
stories of buildings are getting higher, there are greater
demands for high performance and high strength steels
(Miki et al., 2002; Bjorhovde, 2004). Among these, high
strength TMCP steel is now spot lighted due to the
excellent mechanical properties (Tamehiro et al., 1985;
Tsay et al., 1999; Lee et al., 2000; Porter et al., 2004;
Shin et al., 2006). TMCP is an acronym for thermo-
mechanical controlled process. Steels made in this way
are characterized by excellent combinations of strength,
toughness and weldability. The lower carbon equivalent
of TMCP steels compared with conventional normalized
grades of equivalent strength means easier welding with
an increased safety against hydrogen cracking, lower
preheat, less need for repair welding, etc.
Like most structural steels, the fabrication of structural
Note.-Discussion open until February 1, 2012. This manuscript for
this paper was submitted for review and possible publication on
December 12, 2010; approved on August 4, 2011.
© KSSC and Springer 2011
*Corresponding author
Tel: +82-31-910-0486; Fax: +82-31-910-0121
E-mail: ifinder@hanmail.net
process such as flux cored arc (FCA) welding. Therefore,
for the application of TMCP steels to steel structures, it is
necessary to elucidate the mechanical characteristics of
the welded joints.
Over the last decade or so, a number of research
activities have been performed for investigating the
mechanical properties of TMCP steel weldments. Tsay et
al. (1999) investigated the microstructures and fatigue
crack growth rates of EH36 TMCP steel weldment. Lee
et al. (2000) performed fatigue crack growth tests to
examine the variation of crack growth resistance in
welded joints of AH36 TMCP steel. Recently, Shin et al.
(2006) carried out an experimental investigation focusing
on an evaluation of the fracture characteristics of API 2W
Gr.50 TMCP steel weldment with respect to crack length
to width ratio, and compared its results with those of the
conventional quenched and tempered (QT) steel
weldment with similar strength grade. However, studies
on the measurement and prediction of residual stresses in
high strength TMCP steel weldments seem to be very
scarce in the open literature.
Welding-induced residual stresses are stresses that
remain in a material as a result of liquid-to-solid phase
transformation associated with the weld solidification and
the subsequent non-uniform cooling of the weld altered
316 Kyong-Ho Chang et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 11(3), 315-324, 2011
by phase transformation in the solid state (Taljat et al.,
1998). While some residual stresses may be beneficial,
most are detrimental to the integrity and the service
behavior of the welded part (Zhang and Dong, 2000).
Particularly, tensile residual stresses near the weld area
have adverse effects. The detrimental effects of welding
residual stresses on structural performance may include:
(1) increasing the susceptibility of the weld to stress
corrosion cracking; (2) reducing the fatigue life; and (3)
promoting brittle fracture. An accurate prediction and an
efficient evaluation of the residual stresses are then
needed.
The formation of residual stresses in welded components
is determined by several factors. The contributing factors
are largely comprised of structural, material and fabrication
parameters. The structural parameters include the
geometrical size and the joint design. The material
parameters reflect the metallurgical condition of the base
metal and the weld metal. Fabrication parameters include
the welding process, conditions, pass sequence and the
degree of restraint. Thus, accurately predicting welding
residual stresses is a very difficult task.
When a numerical model is employed to determine
welding residual stresses, one also needs to account for
the mechanical behavior of the material welded such as
work hardening and annealing of historical plastic strain
(Deng and Murakawa, 2008a) as well as temperature-
dependent thermal physical and mechanical properties.
Finite element (FE) method is highly effective numerical
analysis tool for the prediction of welding residual
stresses. It can be used to simulate welding temperature
field, welding residual stress field and welding deformation.
In the context of carbon steel weldment, especially in
high strength carbon steel weldment, it has been known
that solid-state phase transformation on cooling of
austenite to martensite should be taken into account in the
welding simulation, since the phase transformation
induces important physical and mechanical effects such
as volumetric changes in the material (Lee, 2008). The
volumetric change associated with the metallurgical phase
transformation could significantly affect the residual
stress evolution. However, the occurrence of martensitic
phase transformation in high strength TMCP steel
weldment is unknown.
In this work, both experimental and numerical analyses
were carried out to investigate residual stress distribution
Table 1. Chemical composition and mechanical properties of the base metal
Chemical composition (mass, %)
Material C Si Mn P S
SM570-TMCP 0.156 0.309 1.548 0.11
Mechanical properties
Material Yield stress (MPa)
SM570-TMCP 535
in high-strength SM570-TMCP steel weldment. Firstly,
experiments have been conducted to examine characteristics
of residual stresses in the weldment, which was constructed
using a multi-pass butt welding process. The experiments
included an elevated temperature tensile test in order to
directly obtain the mechanical properties of the base
material welded at high temperatures above the room
temperature which are the required input to the FE
simulation of welding, an observation of the microstructures
to investigate the occurrence of solid-state phase
transformation during welding, and a measurement of
residual stresses in the weldment. Secondly, a three-
dimensional thermo-mechanical FE model was developed
to simulate the temperature field and the residual stress
field incorporating the experimental results. In the FE
model, temperature-dependent material properties, work
hardening behavior and annealing of historical plastic
strain were taken into account. The validity of the FE
model has been confirmed by the experimental
measurements, and the results obtained from the FE
model are discussed in detail.
2. Experimental Procedure
2.1. Elevated temperature tensile test
The base material used in this study is high strength
SM570-TMCP steel plate with 20 mm thickness, which
has been recently developed and applied to steel structures
due to its excellent nature in Korea. Table 1 shows the
chemical composition and mechanical properties of the
base metal. The elevated temperature tensile test was
carried out to obtain the mechanical properties of the
material at high temperatures above the room temperature,
which are the required input to the FE simulation of
welding. The dimensions of the tensile test specimen
were determined in accordance with Korean standards
(KS D 0026, 2002) as shown in Fig. 1. There are spirals
at both ends of each specimen to enable fixing to the
loading shafts located at the top and bottom ends of a
furnace. These spirals are designed so that they do not
affect the specimen fracture that occurs in the middle of
the specimen.
An universal testing machine equipped with a specially
made electrical furnace heated by thermal rays was used
for the elevated temperature tensile test (see Fig. 2). Tests
were carried out in the elevated temperature range of 20
Cr Ni Cu V Mo Al
0.04 0.02 0.013 0.07 0.08 0.012 0.026
Ultimate strength (MPa) Elongation (%)
649 27
 Residual Stresses in a Multi-pass Butt-welded High Strength SM570-TMCP Steel Plate
Figure 1. Configuration of the tensile test specimen.
Figure 2. Test rig.
to 800oC at intervals of 100oC with a strain rate of 1 mm/
min, and the temperature was controlled to be within
±2oC. In this study, thermal expansion was allowed by
maintaining zero tension load during the heating process.
Each specimen was held for approximately 20 min at the
testing temperature before testing began to make sure the
temperatures evenly distributed throughout the specimens.
Figure 3(a) shows an example of the engineering stress-
strain curve measured at the elevated temperature of 600
o
C. In the test, three specimens were tested at each
temperature, and the average value of the test results is
obtained and plotted as a function of temperature. The
variations of yield stress (YS) and ultimate tensile stress
(UTS) with testing temperatures are shown in Fig. 3(b). It
turns out that both YS and UTS decrease at 100oC and
then increase with increasing temperature up to 400oC
due to the dynamic strain aging (Suleyman and Mustafa,
2006), after which they decrease rapidly for all conditions.
2.2. Metallographic observations
Metallographic observations were performed to
investigate the microstructures in high strength SM570-
TMCP steel weldment. As mentioned earlier, solid-state
phase transformation on cooling of austenite to martensite
should be taken into consideration to accurately predict
welding residual stresses. Moreover, it has been reported
that the conventional high strength QT steel of similar
strength grade experiences martensitic phase transformation
in the welding process (Chang and Lee, 2007). Therefore,
it is crucial to examine the microstructures of the weld
and the HAZ (heat affected zone) to clarify whether the
material points undergo the metallurgical phase transformation
or not.
317
Figure 3. Test results: (a) Engineering stress-strain curve
measured at 600ºC, and (b) YS and UTS at elevated
temperatures.
Double ‘V’ butt joint configuration, as shown in Fig. 4
was prepared for joining the plates. The joint was welded
with four passes by FCA welding procedure using
SUPERCORED 81 electrode of 1.2 mm in diameter as a
filler material. The plate was not clamped during welding,
and the welding sequence is illustrated in Fig. 4.
Chemical composition and mechanical properties of the
weld metal are presented in Table 2. The welding
conditions and process parameters used in the fabrication
of the joint are listed in Table 3. During the welding,
preheating was not applied, and the inter-pass temperature
was controlled to be under 240oC.
After completion of welding, microstructures were
analyzed using a OLYMPUS PME3 optical microscope.
Samples used for microstructural analysis were cut from
the base metal, the HAZ and the weld. They were finally
polished with 1µm diamond paste on a cloth polishing
wheel, and etched with Nital’s etchant for about 20~30 s.
Results are shown in Fig. 5. Figures 5(a), 5(b) and 5(c)
represent microstructures of the base metal, the HAZ and
the weld, respectively. From the results, it can be observed
that the base metal shows a bainitic microstructure, and
the HAZ exhibits a dual phase structure (bainite-plus-
ferrite). Moreover, the HAZ has a grain refinement
attributed to the recrystallization of the microstructure
due to welding. On the other hand, the weld represents an
318 Kyong-Ho Chang et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 11(3), 315-324, 2011

Figure 4. Specimen geometry and dimensions.

Table 2. Chemical composition and mechanical properties

of the weld metal
Chemical composition (mass, %)
Weld metal C Si Mn P S
SUPERCORED 81 0.03 0.35 1.12 0.013 0.017
Mechanical properties
Yield Ultimate
Elongation
Weld metal stress strength
(%)
(MPa) (MPa)
SUPERCORED 81 548 617 27

Table 3. Welding conditions and process parameters

Current Voltage Velocity
PASS
(A) (V) (mm/s)
1 250 30 3.1
2 260 35 2.1
Turn Over Figure 5. Light optical microstructure: (a) base metal, (b)
3 250 30 3.5 HAZ and (c) weld.
4 260 30 2.4
directions, respectively. Figure 6 shows the positions of
arborescent pearlitic microstructure having an acicular the measurement points. The strain gauges were located
ferrite (AF) in patches. Therefore, it can be inferred that on the top surface of the weld piece perpendicular to the
high strength SM570-TMCP steel hardly undergoes weld line and half way through the weld length. Then, the
martensitic transformation in the weld and the HAZ periphery of the attached strain gauges is cut into small
during the welding process; hence the residual stress hexahedron with about 10 mm sides, and about 3 mm
relaxation due to the phase transformation (Lee, 2008) thickness. Residual stresses in the small pieces are
does not occur there. released by cutting the specimen, and longitudinal
released strain εx and transverse released strain εy are
2.3. Residual stress measurements measured. Longitudinal residual stress σx and transverse
Residual stress measurements were carried out on the residual stress σy can be obtained from the following
two axis strain gauge with the layering technique by saw equations using the measured strains.
cutting. Measuring stresses by strain gauges using the
layering technique can obtain the residual stresses on the E
σx = –----------2-(εx + vεy) (1)
surface of the structure to be evaluated (Mochizuki et al., 1–v
2000; Lu, 1996). The detailed procedure for measuring
the residual stresses on the surface of the specimen is as E
σy = –----------2-(εy + vεx) (2)
follows. First, two-axis strain gauges with 1 mm length 1–v
were attached on the specimen with the two-axis
corresponding to the longitudinal and the transverse where V is Young’s modulus and v is Poisson’s ratio.
 Residual Stresses in a Multi-pass Butt-welded High Strength SM570-TMCP Steel Plate
Figure 6. Measurement locations of the strain gauges.
3. FE analysis
In this section, a thermal elastic-plastic FE method is
employed to calculate welding residual stresses in medium
thick-walled high strength SM570-TMCP steel weldment.
The thermo-mechanical behavior of the weldment during
welding was simulated using an uncoupled three-
dimensional thermo-mechanical FE formulation based on
the FE-code (Lee and Chang, 2007). The formulation can
be divided into two solution steps: thermal and mechanical
analyses. A thermal analysis is first carried out to solve
for the transient temperature history associated with the
sequential addition of each welding pass. The thermal
analysis is based on the heat conduction formulation with
the moving heat source. The temperature solutions
obtained from the thermal analysis are then used as the
thermal loading for the structural analysis. For both the
thermal and mechanical analyses, temperature-dependent
thermo-physical and mechanical properties of the
materials were incorporated. Figures 7 and 8 show the
physical and mechanical properties at high temperatures
above the room temperature of the base metal and weld
metal, respectively. The temperature-dependent thermal
physical constants of the base metal and the weld metal
were assumed to be the same. Temperature dependency
of yield and tensile strengths of the base metal was based
on the elevated temperature tensile test results, and both
strengths were reduced to 5.0 MPa at the melting
temperature to simulate low strength at the high
temperatures. Other properties were assumed to be the
same as the conventional QT steel of equivalent strength
(Lee and Chang, 2007). For the weld metal, only the yield
and tensile strengths were considered to be different from
those of the base metal, other properties were almost the
same as the base metal. Thus, its deterioration of
mechanical properties with increasing temperature was
assumed to be Fig. 8 due to the lack of material
information especially at high temperatures above the
room temperature. The material property variation in the
HAZ was neglected due to the lack of experimental data.
During welding process, because the weld metal and
319
Figure 7. Temperature-dependent thermo-physical properties
of the materials used (Lee and Chang, 2007).
Figure 8. Temperature-dependent thermo-mechanical properties
of the materials used.
the base metal adjacent to the welded area are subject to
cyclic thermal loads, the materials in these zones undergo
plastic deformation to some extent; hence the weld region
and its vicinity work harden during welding. Higher yield
stress due to the strain hardening induces high residual
stresses there. As such, work hardening behavior should
be carefully taken into account when a numerical method
is utilized to accurately predict welding residual stresses.
In this work, a linear strain hardening of the base metal
and weld metal was assumed with the rate of 500 MPa
for the temperature range 20~700oC and 20 MPa for the
temperatures above 1000oC (Taljat et al., 1998). A linear
transition between the hardening rate at 700oC and that at
1000oC was assumed.
Three-dimensional FE model using eight-noded
isoparametric solid elements is developed, as shown in
Fig. 9 to simulate the multi-pass welding of high strength
SM570-TMCP steel. Note that the FE model only
represents one half of the weldment due to the symmetry
with respect to the weld centerline. A refined FE mesh is
used in and around the weld region in order to apply heat
flux more accurately when the moving heat source passes
the area at specific time steps. The scribed area shows the
shape of groove (the heat source) and weld passes, which
are not explicitly modeled by macrograph of the welded
joint but approximated based on the preparation of the
320 Kyong-Ho Chang et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 11(3), 315-324, 2011
Figure 9. Three-dimensional FE model and weld passes.
specimen. Therefore, the cross-section area of each heat
source is roughly equal to that of the corresponding weld
bead. Mesh sensitivity study has been conducted to
examine the dependence of FE mesh size on the accuracy
of the analysis results. As a result, the present FE mesh
with the smallest element size of 1.0×2.0×25.0 (mm) is
considered to give sufficiently accurate results using a
reasonable amount of computer time and memory; though
a finer mesh would be more satisfactory.
3.1. Thermal analysis
During welding, the governing partial differential equation
for the three-dimensional transient heat conduction, with
internal heat generation and considering ρ, K and c as
functions of temperature only, is given by the thermal
equilibrium equation
∂-⎛K(T)∂T ∂-⎛K(T)∂T
------⎞⎠ + ---- ------⎞⎠ + ---- ------⎞⎠ + Q = ρ(T)c(T)∂T
∂-⎛K(T)∂T
----
∂x⎝ ∂x ∂y⎝ ∂y ∂z⎝ ∂z
o
where T is the temperature [ C], K is the thermal
conductivity [J/(mm s oC)], c is the specific heat [J/(g
o
C)], ρ is the density [g/mm3] and Q is the rate of moving
heat generation per unit volume [W/mm3].
In the present study, the heat input to the work piece
can be divided into two portions. One is the heat of the
welding arc, and the other is that of the melt droplets. The
heat of the welding arc is modeled by a surface heat
source with a Gaussian distribution, and that of the melt
droplets is modeled by a volumetric heat source with
uniform density. Heat flux distribution at the surface of
the work piece within the arc beam radius r0 is defined by
the following equation:
3Q –(r ⁄ r )2
q(r) = --------1-e 0 (4)
2
πr0
where r is the radial coordinate with the origin at the arc
center and Q1 is the heat input from the welding arc
Q1=ηIU−Q2 (5)
In Eq. (5), η represents the arc efficiency factor, which
accounts for radiative and other losses from the arc to the
ambient environment, I is the arc current, U the arc
voltage and Q2 is the energy induced by high temperature
melt droplets. The heat of the welding arc is assumed to
be 40% of the total heat input, and the heat of the melt
droplets 60% of the total heat input (Pardo and Weckman,
1989). The arc efficiency factor is assumed as 0.85 for the
FCA welding process used in the present analysis.
The heat exchange between the welded plate and its
surroundings during welding and subsequent cooling
takes place by both radiation and convection. Radiation
heat losses are dominant for higher temperature in and
around the weld pool; whereas, convection heat losses are
dominant for lower temperature away from the weld
pool. This is modeled by defining the total temperature-
dependent heat transfer coefficient, h (Abid and Siddique,
2005).
4 4
εσ((T + 273) – (T0 + 273) )
h = -------------------------------------------------------------
- + hc (6)
( T – T0 )
where T0=20oC is the room temperature; σ=5.67×10−8 J/
(m2 K4 s) is defined as the Stefan-Boltzmann constant.
The convection coefficient (hc) is estimated using
engineering formulae for natural convection to be 15 W/
(m2 K) and the emissivity is defined to be ε =0.2 (Taljat
et al., 1998), respectively.
The effect of fluid flow in the weld pool has a
significant influence on the temperature distribution and
shape of weld pool. The highest temperature will be very
high, e.g., the peak temperature in the weld pool is higher
------
∂t than 3000oC in some cases if the fluid flow effect is
disregarded. This circumstance is much different from the
(3)
realistic one (Deng and Murakawa, 2008b). In this study,
to account for the heat transfer due to fluid flow in the
weld pool, the thermal conductivity is assumed to
increase linearly between the solidus temperature and
3000 K by a factor of three (Taljat et al., 1998). The
liquid-to-solid phase transformation effects of the weld
pool are modeled by taking into account the latent heat of
fusion. The latent heat, solidus and liquidus temperature
are 270 J/g, 1450oC and 1500oC, respectively.
In the thermal analysis, like the experiment, preheating
is not applied, and inter-pass temperature is taken into
consideration. The inter-pass temperature is assumed to
be 230~240oC.
 Residual Stresses in a Multi-pass Butt-welded High Strength SM570-TMCP Steel Plate
3.2. Mechanical (stress) analysis
Generally, in addition to the elastic, plastic and thermal
strains, solid-state phase transformation give rise to two
additional strains during welding. One is transformation
strain due to volumetric change, and the other is
transformation plasticity strain (Deng and Murakawa,
2006). However, as revealed in the microstructural
observations, high strength SM570-TMCP steel hardly
undergoes martensitic transformation in the process of
cooling after welding, therefore the phase transformation
effects on welding residual stresses can be neglected;
hence strain decomposition can be used to decompose the
different form of the total strain into three components.
e p th
εij = εij + εij + εij
e p
where εij is the elastic strain, εij is the plastic strain and
th
εij is the thermal strain. The elastic strain is modeled
using the isotropic Hook’s law with temperature-dependent
Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio. For the plastic
strain, a rate-independent plastic model is employed with
the Von Mises yield criterion, temperature-dependent
mechanical properties and linear isotropic hardening rule.
The thermal strain is computed using the coefficient of
thermal expansion.
The incremental form of stress-strain relation can be
written as
{dσ} = [ Dd]{dε} – {c}dT
e
where [ Dd] is divided into [ Dd ]
for the elastic range and
p
[ Dd] for the plastic range, {c} is a parameter to reflect
the stress increment due to the dependence of the physical
and mechanical properties of the materials on temperature,
dσ is the stress increment, dε is the strain increment and
dT is the temperature increment. A large deformation
theory is employed in the continuum mechanics.
The same FE mesh as in the thermal analysis is
employed here in order to facilitate data mapping
between thermal and mechanical models, except for the
element type and applied boundary conditions. The
mechanical analysis is based on the temperature history
computed in the thermal analysis which represents the
input data. As the plate is not clamped during welding, no
boundary conditions except those to prevent rigid body
motion of the weld piece are applied.
In general, when the temperature of a material point
exceeds a certain value, the material point loses its
hardening memory (so called annealing). Therefore, in
multi-pass welding, plastic strains accumulated prior to
the annealing temperature in a material point that undergoes
reheating by subsequent passes should be excluded not to
influence work hardening in later passes. In the
mechanical analysis, the equivalent plastic strain is set to
zero when the temperature is higher than the annealing
temperature to account for the annealing effect. If the
temperature of the material point cools down the
321
Figure 10. Thermal cycle at the weld area during the
welding process.
(7)
annealing temperature during cooling, the material point
can work harden again. Depending on the temperature
history, a material point may lose and accumulate the
memory several times. The annealing temperature is
assumed to be 950oC for both the base metal and weld
metal.
In the current work, the element birth (activation) and
death (deactivation) technique is employed to simulate
the deposition of filler material (Lee and Chang, 2007). In
this technique, the element sets representing the weld
metal are generated together with the FE mesh for the
base material. However, the parameters governing the
behavior of the FE model in both the thermal and
(8)
mechanical analyses are altered so that the FE elements
simulate the welding procedure, i.e., all elements
representing filler metal are deactivated before they come
under the influence of the welding torch and then
activated at the time of application of the weld metal
deposition. This technique keeps track of the movement
of the heat source and updates the status of each weld
element.
4. Results and Discussion
Results are first prepared for the thermal history
associated with the welding. Figure 10 shows the thermal
cycle at a point in the weld area during the welding
process. The thermal cycle is reported on the top layer
and half way through the weld length. From the figure, it
can be observed that the maximum temperature at the
weld pool is 2200oC or so. This result agrees with the
welding process in practice. Furthermore, it is clear that
the inter-pass temperature is well incorporated into the
thermal analysis. Therefore, it can be concluded that the
FE thermal analysis provides a temperature history which
is consistent with the expected material behavior of the
high strength TMCP steel during welding.
Results are next presented for the investigation of the
residual stresses. From the stress analysis, all the stress
and strain components can be obtainable. Here, we will
discuss only the relevant data. In this discussion, the
322 Kyong-Ho Chang et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 11(3), 315-324, 2011
Figure 11. Comparison of FE and measurement results:
(a) longitudinal stress, (b) transverse stress, and (c) through-
thickness stress.
profiles of longitudinal (acting parallel to the weld line-
σx), transverse (acting perpendicular to the weld line, i.e.,
acting along the plate width-σy) and through-thickness
(acting normal to the weld line, i.e., acting along the plate
thickness-σz) stresses are predicted.
Figures 11(a)-11(c) depict the longitudinal, transverse
and through-thickness residual stress distributions,
respectively, at a cross-section of the weld piece
perpendicular to the weld line and half way through the
weld length. The stress profiles on the top layer of the
weld piece are reported as a function of distance from the
weld centerline, in which the experimental measurements
are plotted in symbols. Figure 11(a) shows the longitudinal
Figure 12. Longitudinal residual stress profile along the
weld centerline.
residual stresses, which are major concern to the
structural integrity of the structure among the residual
stress components. It can be seen that the predicted
stresses agree well with the strain gauge measurements,
though the calculated stresses are slightly higher than the
measured in the weld. This discrepancy is most likely
attributed to the assumption on the mechanical properties
of the weld metal at high temperatures above the room
temperature (Zhu and Chao, 2002). Moreover, it can also
be observed from the simulated results that within and
near the weld region, higher tensile stresses reaching the
value up to the yield stress of the material at the room
temperature occur and level out in compression away
from the weld for self-equilibrating purpose. The transverse
residual stress results on the top layer are given in Fig.
11(b). Here again, the agreement between the FE
predictions and the experimental measurements is very
good. The transverse stresses are nearly wholly tensile
and level out to zero. The through-thickness stress
components in Fig. 11(c) have fluctuating profiles that
vary between tensile and compressive.
Figure 12 portrays the longitudinal residual stress
profile along the weld centerline. The longitudinal stresses
reported are within the top layer, and plotted as a function
of distance along the weld length. The predicted
distribution of the longitudinal stresses is reasonably
uniform along the weld length, except near the welding
torch start and stop positions. It should be noted that the
longitudinal residual stresses are primarily dominated by
work piece’s restraint in the longitudinal direction, and
their typical distribution along the weld length is given in
the result.
Figure 13 represents the typical through-wall distribution
of the longitudinal, transverse and through-thickness residual
stresses in multi-pass welded thick-walled weldment,
which are calculated on the base metal adjacent to the
weld which is 16 mm away from the weld centerline and
half way through the weld length. The zero depth point
corresponds to the weld top surface. It can be shown that
the through-wall longitudinal stress profile is determined
by the mechanical constraints associated with the welding
 Residual Stresses in a Multi-pass Butt-welded High Strength SM570-TMCP Steel Plate
Figure 13. Residual stress distributions through-the-thickness.
sequence. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the
contribution of the longitudinal shrinkage to the variation
of the transverse and the normal residual stresses through-
the-thickness. This is consistent with residual stress
distributions along the weld length (Dong and Zhang,
1999). Of particular note in the figure is the variation of
the through-wall stress profiles, which influences on the
fatigue crack growth and the fatigue life of the weldment
(Pavier et al., 1999).
5. Concluding Remarks
This study aimed to investigate residual stresses in a
multi-pass butt-welded high strength SM570-TMCP steel
plate by employing experimental and numerical methods.
Firstly, the elevated temperature tensile test was carried
out to obtain temperature-dependent thermo-mechanical
properties of the base material welded, which are the
required input to the FE simulation of welding. Meanwhile,
characteristics of the high temperature tensile properties
were investigated. Residual stress measurements together
with metallographic observations were also performed to
examine characteristics of residual stresses in the weldment.
The experimental results have revealed that high strength
SM570-TMCP steel hardly undergoes martensitic phase
transformation in the welding process compared to the
conventional high strength QT steel of similar strength
grade; hence the residual stress relaxation due to the
metallurgical phase transformation does not occur in the
weld and the HAZ. Secondly, a three-dimensional
thermo-mechanical FE model has been developed to
predict the residual stress distribution incorporating the
experimental results. By comparison of the numerical
results with the experimental measurements, the FE
model has been considered to predict satisfactory results
for welding residual stresses. In addition, the comparison
has also indicated the significance of temperature-dependent
thermo-mechanical properties for accurate prediction of
welding residual stresses.
Based on the FE model, the typical through-wall
distribution of the longitudinal, transverse and through-
323
thickness residual stresses near the weld region was
calculated. The predicted results have shown that the
through-wall longitudinal stress profile is determined by
the mechanical constraints associated with the welding
sequence, and the longitudinal shrinkage contributes to
the variation of the transverse and the normal residual
stresses through-the-thickness. Of particular note in the
through-wall distribution is the variation of the stress
profiles, which influences on the fatigue crack growth
and the fatigue life of the weldment.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Chung-Ang
University Research Scholarship Grants in 2010.
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