Journal of Materials Processing Technology 155–156 (2004) 1690–1695

Investigation of residual stress and post weld heat treatment of

multi-pass welds by finite element method and experiments
J.R. Cho a,∗ , B.Y. Lee a , Y.H. Moon b , C.J. Van Tyne c
a Division of Mechanical and Information Engineering, South Korea Maritime University, Pusan 606-791, South Korea
b Division of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Pusan, South Korea
c Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

Abstract

The residual stress distribution after welding and after a post weld heat treatment have been determined by a finite element transient
heat flow analysis in conjunction with a coupled thermal–mechanical analysis. To verify the numerical results, the surface residual stresses
of a multi-pass butt weld were measured by the hole-drilling technique and they compared favourably with the finite element analysis
predictions. The numerical analysis was applied to two multi-pass welds of thick plates used in ship construction—a 12-pass K-groove
weld joint with 56 mm plate, and a nine-pass V-groove weld joint with 32 mm plate. A maximum residual stress of 316 MPa was found in
the 56 mm plate, but was reduced to 39 MPa after the post weld heat treatment.
© 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Welding residual stress; Thermal elastic-plastic analysis; Post weld heat treatment; Finite element analysis

1. Introduction ultrasonic analysis, hole drilling and sectioning. Numeri-

Fusion welding is a joining process extensively used
in construction, ship building, steel bridges, pressure ves-
sels, etc. The advantages of welding, as a joining process,
include high joint efficiency, simple set up, flexibility
and low fabrication costs. Even though it has many posi-
tive properties, fusion welding can alter the properties of
the material and may causes deflection, shrinkage and/or
residual stresses in the joint. A post weld heat treatment
is widely used to relieve the residual stresses caused by
welding.
Thermal stresses are generated during welding due to
the non-uniform temperature distribution around the joint.
As the temperature of the base metal increases, the yield
strength decreases and the thermal stresses increase. It is
well known that resulting residual stresses have a strong
influence on weld deformation, fatigue strength, fracture
toughness and buckling strength. Thus, it is important
to evaluate and understand the residual stresses due to
welding.
There are many methods to evaluate the residual stress dis-
tribution. Experimental methods include X-ray diffraction,
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 51 410 4298; fax: +82 51 403 3856.
E-mail addresses: cjr@mail.hhu.ac.kr (J.R. Cho), yhmoon@pusan.ac.kr
(Y.H. Moon), cvantyne@mines.edu (C.J. Van Tyne).
cal methods, which provide detailed analysis of the residual
stresses due to welding, have developed considerably during
the last three decades due to the improvements in computers
and in the numerical techniques [1]. Among these develop-
ments is the work of Hibitt and Marcal [2], who developed
numerical thermal–mechanical models using the finite ele-
ment method. Rolelns et al. [3] compared experimental re-
sults for residual stresses determined by X-ray diffraction
with those of a numerical analysis. Janosch et al. [4] have
proposed a numerical model for multi-pass welding and a
material database for toughness of butt-welded assemblies
used in heavy structures. The effect of residual stress on the
fatigue strength in a weld toe for a multi-pass fillet weld
joint has been investigated by Mochizuki et al. [5]. Varia-
tions of the welding process sequence controlled the residual
stresses in their weld joints.
For the present investigation, the residual stresses after
welding and after a post weld heat treatment were de-
termined by the finite element method. A fully coupled
thermal–mechanical two-dimensional analysis was per-
formed with the commercial software program ANSYS [6].
Heat flow was evaluated by a non-linear transient analysis.
The results of numerical analysis for the residual stresses
in multi-pass butt weld were verified by experimental mea-
surements of surface residual stress using the hole-drilling
method.

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2004.04.325
 J.R. Cho et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 155–156 (2004) 1690–1695 1691

2. Residual stress analysis

2.1. Analysis procedure

In general, the welding of a joint is a very complicated

operation and it is difficult to model the entire process. In
the present study, a two-dimensional analysis was used in
order to simplify the model while retaining the essential fea-
tures and characteristics of the process. To analyse properly
both the residual stresses and residual deformation by the
finite element method, both a heat flow analysis and a cou-
pled thermal–mechanical analysis are needed. The heat flow
model calculated the temperature distribution at each time
step and the residual stresses were determined by the cou-
pled thermal–mechanical analysis. For the heat flow analy-
sis, the 4-node Plane 55 element was used. For the coupled
thermal–mechanical analysis, the Plane42 element was used
[6]. During the heat flow analysis, the already deposited weld Fig. 1. Dimensions and mesh of butt weld.
beads were included but the weld beads for future passes
were excluded. In the coupled thermal–mechanical analysis,
the appropriate weld bead for each pass was created by the
birth and death method.
The material properties of SM400B (A131 Gr. 50),
which are used in the model, are shown in Table 1. The
yield stress at room temperature was obtained from exper-
imental measurements and other properties were referred
to reference [7]. The yield strength and Young’s modu-
lus of both the base and the weld metal are functions of
temperature [7] and the temperature variation of these prop-
erties was included in the numerical analysis with table
input.
Fig. 2. Welding sequence for butt weld.
2.1.1. Analysis of a butt weld joint
Multiple passes were used to produce the weld bead layers
in a butt weld joint. The numerical analysis had multiple heat The 10-pass weld process is simulated for the entire weld-
input steps to reflect the multi-pass process. Fig. 1 shows ing time. Fig. 3 shows the temperature input imposed during
the geometry of the butt weld joint and the finite element each pass. The pre-heat temperature was 120 ◦ C and the sur-
mesh. Fig. 2 shows the sequence of the 10-pass welding rounding temperature was room temperature of 25 ◦ C. The
process. Welded beads were deposited in steps A11–A18, non-linear transient heat flow analysis was performed for
in sequence. 190 s after the temperature source was removed. Mechanical
boundary conditions were applied in order to prevent rigid
body motion of the base plate.
Table 1
Mechanical properties of SM400B
Temperature (◦ C)
20 426 550 800 850 1000

Yield stress (MPa)

Weld 500 239 98.07 49.03 44.52 29.42
Base 294.2 142.3 98.07 49.03 44.52 29.42
Young’s modulus (GPa) 210.8 184.4 164.8 117.3 99.1 58.8
Poisson’s ratio 0.3
Expansion (m/m K) 1.2e-5
Conductivity (W/K m2 ) 43
Specific heat (J/K kg) 469
Density (kg/m3 ) 7850
Convection (w/m2 ◦ C) 100
Fig. 3. Temperature input for each bead.
1692 J.R. Cho et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 155–156 (2004) 1690–1695

300 before heat treatment

280 (simulation)
260
240 after heat treatment
220 (simulation)
200 before heat treatment
180 (experiment)
160
Sx(MPa)

140 after heat treatment

120 (experiment)
100
80
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
- 150 - 68 - 31 - 14 -6 -4 2 14 31 68 150
D i s t (mm)

Weld

Fig. 6. Comparison of experimental and simulation residual stresses.

Fig. 4. Residual stress distribution in butt weld (before post weld heat
Stress(MPa)

treatment).

T= 2 0 o C
Fig. 4 shows the distribution of residual stresses calcu-
lated by the non-linear thermal elastic-plastic analysis after
the completed weld has cooled. The maximum and mini- 500 A
Residual stress after welding
mum residual stress values are 333 and −267 MPa, respec-
tively. T= 6 00 oC

A post weld heat treatment was applied to the weld. The 88

temperature was increased linearly to 600 ◦ C during the ini- Residual stress at T=600 C
o

tial 1000 s and then cooled to room temperature during the
last 2600 s. Fig. 5 shows the residual stress distribution after
the post weld heat treatment. The maximum residual stress
was reduced to 38 MPa.
Fig. 6 compares the simulation results for the surface
residual stresses with experimental data at various loca-
tions. From the simulation, it is found that the surface
residual stress varies from −60 to 270 MPa before heat
treatment. After the post weld heat treatment, the surface
residual stress is reduced to a maximum of 38 MPa, which
B
C Residual stress after post-heat treatment
Strain
Fig. 7. Schematic of the mechanism for residual stress reduction.
is 14% of the value prior to the heat treatment. The simu-
lation results match well with the experimentally measured
values.
2.2. Relaxation mechanism of residual stresses

After welding and cooling to room temperature, a high

residual stress exists in the weld, assumed to be at point
A in Fig. 7. If the specimen is post weld heat treated, the
temperature goes up. With the rise in temperature, the yield
strength decreases significantly and the residual stress is
reduced to point B. If the temperature remains steady for a
period time and the weld is cooled gradually, the state of
stress does not changed significantly, moving to point C,
which is close to point B.

3. Applications to thick plate welding

Because of the success for the butt welding simulations, a

similar modelling approach is taken to examine the residual
Fig. 5. Residual stress distribution in butt weld (after post weld heat stresses for thick plate welding of parts used in ship con-
treatment). struction. The material properties are the same as those used
 J.R. Cho et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 155–156 (2004) 1690–1695 1693

Fig. 8. Dimensions and mesh for K-groove model.

the butt weld analysis (i.e. properties of SM400B as shown
in Table 1).
3.1. K-type butt weld joint
Fig. 8 shows the geometry and mesh of a K-type butt weld
joint. Fig. 9 shows the 12-pass bead sequence. The order
of the beads is that A1 and A2 are welded first on the top
side then A3–A6 on bottom side. Finally, beads A7–A12 are
welded in sequential order.
The preheat temperature is 120 ◦ C and the input temper-
ature for each new bead is 900 ◦ C with a 2 s heat-up. The
time of the heat flow analysis for each bead is equal to the
total joint length (2900 mm) divided by the welding velocity
(20 cm/min).
Fig. 10 shows the residual stresses at room temperature
after welding. The residual stresses prior to the post weld
heat treatment range from a maximum of 316 MPa to a min-
imum of −300 MPa in the weld. On the surface, a maxi-
mum of 316 MPa to a minimum of 145 MPa residual stress
is observed.
Fig. 11 shows the residual stresses after post weld heat
treatment and the maximum value on the surface is 39 MPa.
The post weld heat treatment reduces the maximum residual
stress on the surface to 12% of the value that exists imme-
diately after welding.

Fig. 10. Residual stress distribution for K-groove model (before post weld
Fig. 9. Welding sequence for K-groove model. heat treatment).
1694 J.R. Cho et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 155–156 (2004) 1690–1695

Fig. 11. Residual stress distribution for K-groove model (after post weld
heat treatment).
Fig. 13. Welding sequence for V-groove model.

3.2. V-type butt weld joint

Fig. 12 shows the geometry and mesh for the V-type

weld joint of another part used in ship construction. Fig. 13
shows the nine-pass bead sequence. The bead sequence is
first from A1 to A7 and then A8 and A9, which are the
bottom side. The time for the heat transfer analysis for each
bead is that the total joint length (2000 mm) divided by the
welding velocity (20 cm/min). Fig. 14 shows the residual
stresses after welding but prior to post weld heat treatment
range from −239 to 265 MPa in the weld and form 97 to
209 MPa on the surface.
As shown in Fig. 15, the post weld heat treatment reduces
the residual stresses to values between −34.2 and 30.7 MPa

Fig. 14. Residual stress distribution for V-groove model (before post weld
heat treatment).

Fig. 15. Residual stress distribution for V-groove model (after post weld
Fig. 12. Dimensions and mesh for V-groove model. heat treatment).
 J.R. Cho et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 155–156 (2004) 1690–1695
in the weld and to a range between −1.7 and 30.7 MPa on the
surface. The maximum residual stress in the weld is reduced
to 15% of that found prior to the post weld heat treatment.
4. Conclusions
A numerical analysis for a multi-pass welding process of
thick plates was performed to understand the distribution of
residual stresses and to evaluate the effect of a post weld
heat treatment. The residual stresses were calculated using a
two-dimensional thermal elastic-plastic finite element anal-
ysis. The non-linear transient heat flow and fully coupled
thermal–mechanical analysis was done with the commercial
software ANSYS. Experimental measurements for the sur-
face residual stresses of a butt weld joint were made using
the hole drilling method. The experimental data were con-
sistent with the results from the numerical model.
The maximum residual stresses for K- and V-type weld
joints of thick plates were 316 and 265 MPa, respectively,
before the post weld heat treatment. After the post weld heat
treatment, they were reduced to 39.3 and 30.7 MPa, which
1695
is a stress relaxation to less than 15% of the values before
the heat treatment.
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