Analysis of Welding Shrinkage

A simplified approach to estimating welding shrinkage assumes the plate being

welded contains a thermoelastoplastic zone and a fully elastic zone

BY N . R. M A N D A L and C. V. N . S U N D A R

ABSTRACT. The problems of distortion, thickness. Several investigators have tion in lower strength materials is less
residual stresses and reduced strength of worked on welding distortion and have likely.
structure in and around a welded joint are suggested different methodologies to es- The modulus of elasticity is a measure
of major concern in the shipbuilding in- timate these shrinkages. An analytical of the stiffness of a material. A higher
dustry and in other similar manufacturing model to predict the transverse shrinkage modulus material is more likely to resist
industries. The present paper deals with has been presented by Gupta (Ret. 1). distortion.
the theoretical analysis of transverse The effect of the physical and me- Thermal conductivity gives a measure
shrinkage in a welded butt joint. The math- chanical properties of metals on distor- of the ease of heat flow through a mater-
ematical model used in this analysis is tion has been reported (Ref. 2). During ial. Metals with low thermal conductivity
based on the assumption that the plate un- the heating and cooling cycles of a weld- do not dissipate heat rapidly, and a steep
dergoing welding is made up of a thermo- ing process, many factors affect shrink- temperature gradient results. Hence the
elastoplastic /one and a fully elastic /one. age <>l the metal, making accurate pre- shrinkage effect in the weld and in the
The analysis provides a simplified ap- clic lions of distortion complex .\rn\ adjacent plate increases.
proach for estimating welding shrinkage. difficult. The physical and mechanical The amount of expansion or conlr.ic -
properties of the metal that affect the de- tion a metal will undergo during a heal-
Introduction gree of distortion change with the appli- ing or a cooling cycle depends on the c o-
cation of heat. As the temperature of the efficient of thermal expansion. The
weld area increases, the yield strength, possibility of distortion will be larger in
Welding is the most frequently used
the modulus of elasticity and the thermal metals having a higher coefficient of ther-
metal joining method, and the complex
conductivity of the steel decrease, mal expansion because they are ex-
problem of welding distortion is an ob-
whereas the specific heat and the coeffi- pected to experience higher shrinkage
stai le that must be overcome. During the
c ienl of thermal expansion in< rease. during cooling of the weld metal and the
heating and cooling cycles while weld-
ing, thermal strains occur in the metal To accommodate the shrinkage of a adjacent metal.
and the base metal regions near the weld. welded joint on cooling, stresses must Masubuchi has dealt w i t h various
The strains produced during heating are reach the yield strength of the weld types ,md causes of welding distortions
accompanied by plastic upsetting. The metal. The higher the yield strength, the (Ref. 3). Various empirical relations have
stresses resulting from the strains com- higher the residual stress that can act to been presented for estimating different
bine and react to produce internal forces, distort the assembly. Conversely, distor- types of welding distortions (Refs. 4, 5).
causing shrinkage of the material. De- Apart Irom these empirical means, var-
pending on the shrinkage pattern, vari- ious other methodologies based mainly
ous structural deformations such as on the finite element method (FEM) have
bending, buckling and rotation take been used by investigators to predict
place. These deformations are referred to welding distortions (Refs. (S-fi). The com-
as welding distortions. KEY WORDS putational requirements (long CPU times)
This investigation aims at finding the of these numerical methods for thermo-
[Distortion elastoplastic analysis make the solutions
transverse shi inkage in .1 u elded btltl Shrinkage
joint between two plates having equal very expensive. In this work, a simplified
Weld in a Butt joint approach based on a logical sequence of
Near Field thermally induced distortions has been
N. R. MANDAL is .in Assistant I'rotvssm u ith Far Field suggested for estimation of transverse
the Department of Ocean Engineering and Temperature Distribution shrinkage of welded steel panels.
N.iv.il Architet lure, Indian Institute of Tech- Heat Conduction
A mathematical model for predicting
nology, Kharagpur, India. C.V.N. SUNDAK is Heat Flow
,1 Postgraduate Stmlent with the Department transverse shrinkage due to welding has
Quasi-Stationary State been developed by assuming near and tar
ofI tcean Engineering and Na\ .1/ Architecture
Indian Institute oi Technology, Kharagpur, field zones (Ref. 9). The near field has been
India. assumed to extend Irom the weld line to a

W E L D I N G RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT I 233-s

 CL 0 I
LL
s
"So u
b

1000 - 200-
i/i
<u

0 750 - 150-
a
o
u
a
500 - 100
ii
u
L^

c 250 50
a.
0 0
200 400 600 800 1000
Te m p e r a t u r e ( C)

Fig. 2 Temperature-dependent properties.

Fig. I Near field/far field model of the plate.

distance where the peak temperature at- thermoelastoplastic bar and an elastic
tained is 350C, and the rest of the plate is s p r i n g F i g . 1. e +e
considered to comprise the far field. The 8
plastic deformations are expected to occur also e= (3)
Assumptions L
only in the near field, whereas the far field
behaves elastically throughout the heating
1) The plates being welded are as-
and cooling cycles. where E* is the thermal strain = Ta and T
sumed to be sufficiently long to consider a
The temperature field associated with is the difference between the peak tem-
quasi-stationary state of heat conduction.
the moving welding arc has been solved perature and room temperature at any
2) The yield stress and the modulus of
by assuming a quasi-stationary state (Ret. given point in the near field.
elasticity are assumed to be varying lin-
10) and using a temperature-dependent
early with temperature:
specific heat and the thermal conductiv- -K8
ity (Ref. 11). The residual shrinkage con-
Now =-
T AE
sidering a temperature-dependent coeffi- \ i i 1 (1) K5 _
cient of thermal expansion (Kef. 12) has 1 'm , + aT (4)
been calculated by subdividing the near AE
field into finite strips.
I- I , (2) From Equations 3 and 4,
Theoretical Analysis aLT
of Welding Shrinkage 8=- (5;
KL
A more realistic variation of these I-
The effective heat from the electric arc properties with temperature is shown in AEj
is assumed to be distributed equally in Fig. 2 (Ref. 12). The above-mentioned
both plates. Therefore, only one plate simplification, w h i c h closely approxi- Substituting E from Equation 1 into
w i l l be considered for the distortion mates the actual case, has been per- Equation 5,
analysis. formed to obtain analytical expressions
The mathematical model is based on for the estimation of welding shrinkage. aLT
the assumption that the plate is made of (6)
3) The coefficient of thermal expan- LKT
a thermoelastoplastic zone and a fully sion is assumed to be linearly dependent 1 !
AE(Tm-T)
elastic zone. The former, which is near on temperature, which is a close approx-
the welded joint, has been termed the imation of the actual case Fig. 2.
UJ near field and the rest, which remains 4) The model assumes that no hard- where K is the equivalent spring constant
elastic during the heating and cooling ening takes place in the bar. of the material in the far field. The tem-
phases, is termed the far field. Until the thermoelastoplastic bar (i.e., perature gradient at the near field bound-
Hence, the plate undergoing welding (he near field zone) reaches the plastic ary being very stiff, the majority of the far
can be modeled as a combination of a state, the strain is given by field remains at room temperature Fig.

234-s I JUNE 1997

3. Hence K is considered to be independent
of temperature. 830
Incorporating KK, Equation 6 can be writ-
ten as 1 Sample : 1P6

(Tm-T>LT
5= (7)
Tm(l + K R ) - T 630

Equation 7 gives the relationship between the o

displacement temperature and the tempera
ture-dependent Young's modulus tor the near T3

field before it attains the plastic state.

Temperature

o
By using the force equilibrium, the yield
point is determined:

K8y
oy = (8)
A 3 sec A \ V ^ v 1 2 sec
230
6sec~1 \ \\,-9sec
rjy is the yield stress at room temperature and
is given by

K8 (9) 30 1 1 ^ ^^ I \
8yo = 00 10 20 3 0 40
A
Plate breadth (cm)

From Equ itions 8 and <).

Fig. 3 Temperature distribution across '/>< breadth ot .i plate under-
going welding.
8y = 5 1- (10)

(+ve for the heating phase; -ve for the cool-

ing phase).
Now, if heating is continued at the same
point, the thermoplastic bar, i.e., the near field,
will undergo plastic deformation.
The intersection of elastic and plastic
processes takes place at T, i.e., at T the yield
point is encountered for the first time.
Substituting T = T in Equations 7 and 10
and then comparing these two equations, one
obtains T:
K
K )Tm
(11)
S 0 +rxT m l

For the heating phase, 8 from Equation 9

is given by

Aoy
S

Substituting this value of 5 in Equation 11,

one obtains T n :

T
f. _oy(l
n ) V + KKj_m_
R)Tm 1 (12)

(oy0+aE0KKTm j

During the heating period, with the peak

temperature greater than T, the shrinkage
becomes
Fig. 4 MS test sample for shrinkage measurements.

8 = 6,, for T0<T<TIT

'm <

W E L D I N G RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT I 235-s

 Therefore, the shrinkage at the peak Replacing KK with KK, in Equation 18
temperature T,, is given by and simplifying, one obtains

T
5 5 P) (13) ( Tpl Cm-T)al(T,1-T1) (2Tm-Tp)oy
P = o
SuM
i T, j Tm(l+KR)-Ti
K
Rt - (21)
aE0TmT|,-(2Tm-Tp)oy()

W h e n the peak temperature T(1 is

higher than the yield temperature T, To ensure that plastic deformation If the spring constant is even higher,
plastic deformation is ensured and the takes place during the cooling period, T, i.e., KK > KR1, then the final residual dis-
residual shrinkage will not be zero. must be greater than zero. This requires tortion will be obtained by setting T = 0
After the attainment of the peak tem- a minimum value of T , which is given by and replacing 8 by 8, in the following
perature, the cooling phase begins and is equation:
28QKR)Tm
accompanied by elastic unloading. (18)
Before any plasticity occurs while
T
^ 8 ,(l+KR)+oLTn / \
cooling, the incremental strain is given by 6 = - 5 1 - T
* 'm
'm ,

8-8., When Equation 18 is satisfied and the i.e., 8 r = - 8 0

Ae = ^ = Ael'+Aelh 04) temperature falls below T,, the displace-
ment temperature relation is governed by /. e., 8 r = L for A > A (22)
the following plasticity condition:
Now
8 = -8, for 0 < T < T , Substituting KK in Equation 22 with KK,
as given in Equation 2 1 , one obtains
<T-0
Ae1' and dT<0

ttTmT|) oy (J
If the spring stiffness is not high 8r =- (23)
Taking the values of E and o from 2T, - r
Equations 1 and 2 and considering the enough to lead the bar into plastic defor-
value of o\, to be as follows, mation during heating, there will be no
residual displacements even though the Equation 23 gives the final shrinkage
K5 elastic deformation is not linear after the bar has cooled down to room
p -
temperature.
i.e., 8, = 0 for K < K The method followed to calculate the
one obtains residual shrinkage using Equation 23 is
K0 is the critical value of the spring con- stated below.
slant leading the li.n into the plastic state A user interactive computer program
K(8-8)Tn at the peak temperature. This can be de- has been written in C language and com-
\r (15) termined by substituting Tn in place of T prises two modules. Module I calculates
A(Tm-T)E0 in Equation 1 2 and replacing Kk by KRn: the temperature distribution over the
plate for the given welding parameters
The thermal strain increment is given and temperature-dependent metal prop-
oyo(Tm-Tp)
by KR = (19) erties. Based on this temperature distrib-
Tm(E0Tp-oy0 ution, the extent of the near field and far
Aelh=oc(T-Tp) field zones is estimated.
(1f>)
The near field is further subdivided
Substituting KR = LK,/(AE,,) in Equa- into finite strips. The temperature across
Substituting Equations 15 and 16 into tion 19, one obtains the value of K,, as the strips is assumed to be constant. It is
Equation 14, noted that the calculated residual shrink-
AE0c.yn(Tm-Tp) age is dependent on the width of the
K0 = (20) strips. This seems to be justified because
T. ) (Tm-T)aL(Tp-T) LTm(aE0Tp-oy0) the temperature across the width of each
S = 8n I - strip is assumed to be the same, which in
TmO + Kf
reality is not the case. Analysis of avail-
(17) Equation 20 gives the critical value of able shrinkage data leads to a correlation
the spring constant so as to initiate yielding between welding heat input, welding
Equation 17 holds true until the tem- at the peak temperature during heating. speed, plate thickness and width of the
perature T decreases to a point and the If K is greater than K but not high strips. The obtained relation between
near field attains a yield point; this causes enough to lead the bar into the plastic these parameters is given by
plastic deformation in the other direc- state during cooling, the residual distor-
tion, and shrinkage takes place. tion in that case can be found by substi-
8b =
At the temperature T, (in the cooling tuting T = 0 in Equation 1 7:
-0.898 + 7.402 x 10 <? - 6.248 x 10 Q^
cycle) yielding takes place. From Equa- where 8b = strip width (cm)
LT

H'-}
tions 2 and 17 (using a negative sign for and Q = r)vi/st (J/cm-)
the cooling period), l + KR
For calculating shrinkage, a suitable
for K R 0 < K R < K R
strip width is chosen on the basis of the
above relation.
For each strip, depending on its peak

2 3 6 - s l JUNE 1997
Table 1 Place Particulars and SAW Parameters Table 2 - Comparison of Experimental and
Theoretical Shrinkages
'Lite Dimensions SAW Parameters
CK
SnniiKdgL'
Sample length breadth thickness Current Voltage Speed
Identification (mm) (mm) (mm) Material (A) (V) (cm/s) Sample Experi- i neoreticai
Identifi- mental (mm)
1P6 1000 240 6 MS 520 26 1.80 cation (mm) % Deviation
2P6 1000 240 6 MS 520 28 1.60
3P6 11)1111 240 6 MS 540 17 1.80 1P6 0.60 IU.26 4.30
4P6 1(H)0 240 6 MS 440 10 1.83 2P6 1.02 1.140 11.76
1P12 1000 240 12 MS 480 32 0.93 3P6 0.52 0.556 6.90
El 12000 3000 16 All!.' 1180 33 1.13 4P6 0.49 0.508 3.67
E2 12000 3000 19.5 AH32 1230 33 1.05 1P12 0.26 0.278 6.92
El 0.80 0.750 6.25
E2 0.80 0.795 0.62
temperature. the distortion is ca Iculated Conclusion
by using Equation 23.
4. Mandal, N. R., and Bhangale, S. D.
The algebraic sum of the distortion of The predictions of the degree of 1989. Welding distortion in built-up MS 1 sec
each strip was taken to obtain the final shrinkage in ship panels due to welding lions, lournal of Welding ,ind Metal Fabrica-
distortion of the plate. are of great importance from the point of tion.
view of dimensional control. A simple, 5. rhe Welding Institute. \'HM. Control of
Experimental Verification easy to use mathematical tool will be of Distortion in Welded Fabric ations. Hie Weld-
great help to the designers to account for ing Institute, Abington, England.
The shrinkage measurements were the shrinkages taking place during fabri- fa. Friedman, E. 1975. Thermo mechanical
cation of various flat plate panels. analysis of the welding process using the finite
carried out on mild steel samples welded
element method. Transactions ofASME.
in a butt joint using submerged arc, one- The main conclusions derived from
7. Papazoglou, )., Masubuchi, K.,
sided welding Fig. 4. The plate di- the present investigation are as follows:
Goncalves, E., Imakita, A. 1982. Residual
mensions and the welding parameters 1) A simple methodology has been de- stresses due to welding: computer aided
are shown in Table 1. The plates were as- veloped to predict the transverse shrink- analysis of their formulation and conse-
sembled, tack welded and fitted with run age during welding in a butt joint. A user- quences. SNAME Transactions ')(): 365-310.
interactive software program has been 8. Hou, A. A., and Tsai, C. L. 1986. A
on and run off tabs. The tabs were pro-
developed based on this methodology. methodology for analyzing welding distortion
vided with the same edge details as those
2) Fairly good agreement between the of tubular frames. Proceedings of International
of the plates. The welding was carried out Conference on Trends in Welding Research,
measured and calculated results has
from one end to the other. Gatlinburg, Tenn.
been achieved.
Lines parallel to the welding line were 9. Moshaiov, A., and Song, H. 1990. Near
3) These results suggest that the de-
drawn on the plates before welding, and and far field approximation for analysing
veloped PC-based software is quite reli- flame heating and welding, lournal of Thermal
some predetermined positions on the
able anil < an be used ,is ,i design tool to Stresses.
lines at the middle part of the plates were account for welding shrinkages in practi- 10. Karlsson, L. 1986. Thermal Stresses in
punch marked. The distance between cal cases. Welding. Thermal Stresses I, Ed. by R. B. Het-
these lines was measured before and 4) The present method, however, has narski, Chapter 5, Elsevier Science Publishers
after welding. The transverse shrinkage is limitations as far as the end shrinkages B. V.
obtained from the difference between are concerned. Because the analysis is 11. Ueda, Y., et al., 1992. Simulation of
these measurements over the full width based on the assumption of a quasi-sta- welding deformation for precision ship as-
of the plates. Half of this value has been sembling (Report -1). Transactions IWRI21 (2).
tionary state, the shrinkage effect at the
taken as the shrinkage in each of the in- 12. Shin, Y., et al. 1992. Determination of
start and end of welding cannot be esti-
residual stresses in thick section weldments.
dividual plates. The results are shown in mated. Flowever, in the case of ship pan- Welding lournal 71: 305-s to i I J-s.
Table 2 for samples 1P6 to 1P12. els, the panel dimensions are generally
Ueda, ef a/., has carried out measure- very large, on the order of 8-10 m or
ments of welding shrinkage in AH 52 steel more. The extent of transient zones at the Symbols Used
(Ref. 11). The plate sizes, welding para- start and finish of the weld is very small
meters and measured shrinkages over the compared to the length of the whole E Young's modulus of elasticity of
middle part of the plates are shown in Ta- panel. Hence, this method can be gain- the material at any given temperature T
fully utilized to predict welding shrink- E Young's modulus of the material at
bles 1 and 2, samples El and E2.
age in the fabrication of ship panels. room temperature
The calculated shrinkages based on
I Equivalent spring resistance of-
the present analysis are given in Table 2
References fered by the material in the far field zone
followed by a column indicating the per-
i Welding current (A)
cent deviation of the predicted values 1. Gupta, O. P., and De, N. R. 1988. Analy- K Equivalent spring constant of the
from the actual measured ones. The de- sis of Transverse Shrinkage in Restrained and material in the far field zone (elastic)
viations are well within 7%, except for Unrestrained Weld. International Conference K Critical value of the spring con-
sample 2P6 in which case it is around on Welding technology, Sept. I l )88, Univer-
sity of Roorkee, India. stant leading the elastic bar into the plas-
12%. This could be due to some mea-
2. The Lincoln Electric Company. 1973. tic state at the peak temperature
surement error. The other predicted L Length of the near field zone
Weldment Distortion, The Procedure I land-
shrinkage values agree quite well with s Welding speed (cm/s)
t>ook of Arc Welding, Iwelfth ed., The I incoln
the measured ones. However, there is a Electric Company, Cleveland, Ohio. t Plate thickness (cm) UJ
tendency to overestimate shrinkage. This 3. Masubuchi, K. 1980. Analysis oi v Welding voltage (V)
can be due to overestimation of the weld- Welded Strut lures, Residual Stresses, Distor- I Temperature at any point within
ing heat input. It has been assumed that tion .md their Consequences, Pergamon Press, the bar
the arc efficiency is 85%. Oxford and New York. T Temperature at which the intersec-

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT I 237-s

lion of the elastic and plastic states of the 8 Shrinkage in the near field zone at K Relative stiffness ratio of the near
material takes place in the heating phase room temperature field zone
T, Melting temperature of the material 8pl Shrinkage in the near field zone at KK Critical relative stiffness leading
Tp Peak temperature for a given heat the peak temperature T p the bar into the plastic: state in the heat-
input 8y Shrinkage corresponding to the ing phase
T, Temperature at which the elastic given yield stress of the material Kk, Critical relative stiffness leading
and plastic states intersect in cooling At Incremental strain of the near field the bar into the plastic state in the cool-
phase zone before it reaches the plastic state in ing phase
a Coefficient of thermal expansion the cooling phase
of the material AE' Incremental elastic strain in the
e Strain in the near field zone before near field zone before it reaches the plas-
it reaches the plastic state tic state in the cooling phase
e11' Thermal strain of the near field Aelh Incremental thermal strain in the
zone before it reaches the plastic state near field zone before it reaches the plas-
8 Shrinkage in the near field zone at tic state in the cooling phase
a temperature T H Arc efficiency

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

American Technical Education Association (ATEA)

The American Technical Education Association, Inc., will sponsor the 35th National Confer-
ence on Technical Education. The conference theme is "Technical Education: Cornerstone of
American Progress." It will be held March 19-22, 1998, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Downtown,
in Knoxville, Tenn. Pellissippi State Technical Community College will host this event. For more
information, contact Betty Krump, ATEA, NDSCS, 800 N. 6th St., Wahpeton, ND 58076. Phone:
(701) 671-2240 or 2301. FAX: (701) 671-2260. E-mail: [email protected].
Conference planners invite you to submit presentation proposals focused on the conference
theme "Technical Education: Cornerstone of American Progress." Suggested topics include the
following: innovative technical programs, emerging technical fields, work site training initia-
tives, distance education, school-to-career programs, funding technical programs, and recruit-
ing students/marketing. Presentations are limited to 45 min each. Presenters are expected to reg-
ister for and provide their own transportation and housing for the conference.

One page, double-spaced abstracts and one page resumes of presenters MUST be submitted by
IULY 1,1997.
Send proposals to
Michael L. Hudson, Conference Chair,
Pellissippi State
P.O. Box 22990
10915 Hardin Valley Rd.
Knoxville, TN, 37933-0990
Phone:(423)694-6416
FAX: (423) 694-6583
E-mail: [email protected]

238-s I JUNE 1997