Journal of Materials Processing Technology 211 (2011) 688–694

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Study on welding temperature distribution in thin welded plates through

experimental measurements and finite element simulation
M.J. Attarha ∗ , I. Sattari-Far
Mechanical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, P.O. Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The welding temperature distributions in the HAZ were measured using K-type thermocouples in sim-
Received 7 October 2010 ilar and dissimilar thin butt-welded joints which experienced one-pass GTAW welding process. Three
Received in revised form dimensional finite element simulations were also implemented to predict the temperature distributions
27 November 2010
throughout the plates using ABAQUS software. Comparison between experimental and simulation results
Accepted 2 December 2010
reveals very good agreement. The results provide good evidence for prediction of the HAZ microstructure
Available online 8 December 2010
considering the fact that the thermocouples have been attached very closely to the weld line, and provide
objective cooling slopes. The absence of filler materials in the welded joints is helpful to observe the peak
Keywords:
Welding temperature distribution
temperature and cooling slope differences in relation with material properties differences.
Finite element simulation © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Thermal analysis
K-type thermocouple

1. Introduction due to different welding sequences and parameters of inconel 800

Welding is the most reliable, efficient and practical metal join-
ing process which is widely used in industries such as nuclear,
aerospace, automobile, transportation, and off-shore. In spite of the
many advantages, there are some limitations affecting this pro-
cess. Welding defects influence the desired properties of welded
joints. Thermal cycles significantly affect parameters such as resid-
ual stresses, deformations, weld microstructure, HAZ hardness.
Because of local heating during welding process, controlling the
thermal cycles is critical.
Murugan et al. (1998) measured temperature distribution
in type 304 stainless steel welded plates using thermocouples.
Their results show that the temperature distributions at mea-
suring points are clearly dependent on welding conditions. Deng
and Murakawa (2006) experimentally obtained temperature dis-
tributions in butt-welded pipe joints using thermocouples and
compared the results with finite element simulations. Referring
to their results, it is obvious that the temperature distribution
around the heat source is very steady when the welding torch
moves around the pipe. In another work, Deng and Murakawa
(2008) measured the temperature cycles and residual stresses in
2.25Cr–1Mo steel pipes incorporating solid-state phase transfor-
mation. Kermanpur et al. (2008) studied the temperature cycles
∗ Corresponding author at: No. 56, Asayesh Ave., Alborz Town, Tehran, Iran.
Tel.: +98 2122444068.
E-mail address: javad attarha@aut.ac.ir (M.J. Attarha).
welded pipes. They showed that volumetric heat source provides
the best results for temperature cycles throughout the pipe. Kasuya
et al. (2000) suggested an analytical heat conduction model for
predicting temperature histories of bidirectional multi-pass weld-
ing samples with short bead lengths, and verified the model with
experimental results using thermocouples. Lee and Wu (2009)
studied the effect of peak temperature and cooling rate on the sus-
ceptibility to intergranular corrosion of alloy 690 by laser beam
and gas tungsten arc welding. In their welding time, the tem-
perature was recorded continuously at various points within the
HAZ and base metal, and the resulting thermal profiles were then
correlated with microstructural observations of the tested speci-
mens in order to investigate the influences of peak temperature
and cooling rate on the susceptibility of the GTAW and LBW weld
pieces to IGC. Robot simulation has been used by Ericsson and
Nylen (2007) in combination with finite element simulations to
optimize robot speed in order to minimize distortions while keep-
ing complete joint penetration. They provided an iterative method
for robot speed optimization. The proposed method allows for
optimization of the heat input to the component, and thereby, mini-
mizes component deformation for parts with complex shapes. Their
model is validated comparing temperature distribution predictions
with experimental measurements. In another article, variation
of transient temperatures and residual stresses in a friction stir
welded plate of 304L stainless steel has been measured by Zhu and
Chao (2004). Three-dimensional nonlinear thermal and thermo-
mechanical numerical welding simulations were used to predict
temperature and residual stress distributions. Their results show

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2010.12.003
 M.J. Attarha, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 211 (2011) 688–694
Fig. 1. Specifications of three butt-welded joints and the locations of thermocouples throughout weld pieces.
that due to unknown heat energy input from the process, their
analysis method is unique and effective for the calculation of
temperature fields. Liang and Yuan (2008) investigated welding
temperature fields by non-contact temperature measurement in
welding of AZ31B magnesium alloy and obtained cooling curves
using thermocouples. Zhu and Chao (2002) in another work tried
to investigate the effect of each temperature-dependent material
property on the transient temperatures, residual stresses and dis-
tortions in the computational simulation of welding process. Their
results show that the thermal conductivity has certain effects on
the distribution of transient temperature fields during welding.
The present work is concerned with the calculation of the tran-
sient temperature distributions developed in welded plates. Two
similar and one dissimilar GATW one-pass joints are chosen here
to measure the temperature cycles throughout welding. K-type
thermocouples are utilized for this purpose. Based on ABAQUS soft-
ware, 3D finite element models are developed in order to predict
the temperature cycles. Experimental results are then conducted
to validate simulations.
2. Experimental procedure
The temperature measurement was implemented using K-type
thermocouples. This method was used during the gas tungsten arc
welding (GTAW) of two similar joints from stainless steel type 304
and St37 carbon steel, and one dissimilar joint from these mate-
rials, all without application of filler materials, and the results
were compared with those of finite element method. The ther-
mocouples were located in drilled holes in the work pieces, fixed
at mid plane level. Temperatures were measured at different dis-
tances from the weld melt line on both left and right side of the
Table 1
Welding parameters.
Experiment code Welding voltage (V) Welding current (I)
E1 14.6 101
E2 14.8 100
E3 15.5 101
689
plates. Fig. 1 shows schematic of the test specimen and the ther-
mocouple locations. As presented, the weld piece was comprised
of 200 mm × 200 mm × 3 mm plates. To record the measured tem-
peratures, the collected signals were transferred to a data logger
and a PC. The data logger was set to record at least 10 readings per
second from the thermocouples. Lab View software was used to
display the thermal curves.
When a thermocouple is attached to a plate, the following fac-
tors must be taken into consideration as well. The temperature is
recorded at the first point along the thermocouple at which the two
wires touch. If any other junction is there along the thermocouple
for any reason, the thermal cycle measurement will not be accurate.
The work pieces were welded in one pass without filler material.
During welding, argon backing gas was used for protecting weld of
hot cracking. Voltage and current were noted during welding by
means of welding apparatus. Furthermore, the duration of welding
pass was recorded and through which, welding speed was calcu-
lated. The voltage (V), current (I) and the traveling speed (v) of the
weld passes in each joint are given in Table 1. Considering an arc
efficiency of 0.5 () for GTAW process (Zhu and Chao, 2002), the
heat input per mm length of weld (Qw ) was calculated using the
following equation:
VI
Qw = (1)
v
Transient temperature distributions are reported in the follow-
ing sections in detail for each joint mentioned above. The variations
of temperature vs. distance from the weld melt line have also been
considered. The chemical compositions of steels S304 and St37 are
provided in Table 2.
Welding speed (mm s−1 ) Arc efficiency Shielding gas Ar (Lit/miri) Heat input (kJ mm−1 )
1.8 50% 10 0.409
3.125 50% 10 0.237
2.3 50% 10 0.341
690 M.J. Attarha, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 211 (2011) 688–694

Table 2
Chemical composition of AISI type 304 stainless steel and St37 carbon steel.

Grade C Mn Si P S Cr Mo Ni Co

S304 0.046 1.5 0.7 0.025 0.003 18.42 0.08 8.13 0.06
St37 0.12 0.57 0.02 0.01 0.012 0.002 0.01 0.03 0.001

modeling of welding arc, based on the double ellipsoidal distribu-

tion proposed by Goldak et al. (1984), which is expressed by the
following equations. For the front heat source:
√
6 3ff Qw −3x 2 /˛2 −3y 2 /b2 −3z 2 /c2
Q (x , y , z  , t) = √ e 1e e (2)
˛1 bc 
And for the rear heat source:
√
   6 3fr Qw −3x 2 /˛2 −3y 2 /b2 −3z 2 /c2
Q (x , y , z , t) = √ e 2e e (3)
˛2 bc 
where x , y and z are the local coordinates of the double ellipsoid
model aligned with the weld line. ff and fr are parameters for defin-
ing the fraction of the heat deposited in the front and the rear of
the welding arc, respectively, and ff + fr = 2.0. In this work, ff was
Fig. 2. 3D finite element model and meshing in welding simulation.
considered 1.4 and fr was 0.6. It should be noticed that tempera-
ture gradient in the front of the arc is much steeper than that of
the rare. Qw is the welding heat source power. The calculation of
3. Numerical procedure this parameter has been mentioned in Section 2. The parameters
a1 , a2 , b, and c belong to the features of welding heat source. These
Based on using ABAQUS software, a thermal finite element parameters can be determined through experimental study of the
computational procedure was developed to calculate welding tem- weld pool and may be adjusted to create a desired melted zone
perature fields during welding of three one-pass butt-welded according to the welding conditions.
joints. The heat conduction problem has been solved using heat Since in this work, one pass GTAW has been carried out without
transfer analysis to obtain temperature histories. The formulation usage of filler metals, the common techniques of adding weld ele-
considers the contributions of the transient temperature field, as ments, such as element birth and death, element movement and
well as temperature-dependent thermo-physical properties. element interaction, are not applicable. When the welding arc is
In the finite element simulation, GTAW process with no filler applied to the work-pieces, the whole weld line is present and
metal has been considered for three butt-welded joints of AISI type undergoes heating. Thus, application of the mentioned techniques
304 Stainless Steel and St37 carbon steel, as illustrated in Fig. 2. induces errors in the simulation, and in this work, the moving heat
The material properties included are presented in Table 3. Because source reaches to the weld elements, which are included in the
of the symmetry condition of the two similar joints, one plate has model throughout the entire simulation time.
been modeled; while in the dissimilar joint, both plates have been During welding, the governing equation for transient heat trans-
modeled. The model mesh is shown in Fig. 2. The dimensions of fer analysis is given by:
the simulation model are the same as the experimental specimen.
∂T
In the weld zone and its vicinity, a fine mesh has been considered. c (x, y, z, t) = −∇ · −
→
q (x, y, z, t) + Q (x, y, z, t) (4)
The number of nodes is 9999, and that of elements is 6400. 8-noded ∂t
brick elements of type DC3D8 have been used in the thermal anal- where  is the density of the materials, c is the specific heat capacity,
ysis code. The effect of mesh size has been studied through the T is the current temperature, − →
q is the heat flux vector, Q is the
method proposed by Malik et al. (2008). In this method, the peak internal heat generation rate, x, y and z are the coordinates in the
temperature is the parameter being studied in sensitivity analysis reference system, t is the time, and  is the spatial gradient operator.
of the mesh size. Application of a finer mesh in this work led to less The non-linear isotropic Fourier heat flux constitutive equation
than 2% difference in the peak temperatures. Thus, the presented is employed:
mesh was used. DFLUX user subroutine has been employed using −
→
q = −k∇ T (5)
the FORTRAN language and called in the model to calculate the heat
flux. A moving volumetric heat source has been considered for the where k is the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity.

Table 3
Thermo-physical properties of St37 carbon steel and AISI type 304 stainless steel.

S304 St37
◦ ◦ ◦
Temperature ( C) Density (kg/m )3
Specific heat (J/kg C) Conductivity (J/m C) Specific heat (J/kg ◦ C) Conductivity (J/m ◦ C s)

0.0000 7900.00 462 14.6 444 45.9

100.00 7880.00 496 15.1 472 44.8
200.00 7830.00 512 16.1 503 43.4
300.00 7790.00 525 17.9 537 41.4
400.00 7750.00 540 18.0 579 38.9
600.00 7660.00 577 20.8 692 33.6
800.00 7560.00 604 23.9 837 28.7
1200.0 7370.00 676 32.2 860 28.6
1300.0 7320.00 692 33.7 863 29.5
1500.0 7320.00 700 120 – –
 M.J. Attarha, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 211 (2011) 688–694 691

Fig. 3. Welding direction and temperature fields at the middle of weld line.
Fig. 4. Temperature history during welding for experiment E1, at points with dif-
ferent distances from the weld melt line.

Fig. 5. Temperature history, comparison between experiment E1 and finite element simulation results at points with different distances from the weld melt line, (a) 3 mm,
(b) 8 mm, (c) 13 mm, (d) 18 mm, (e) 23 mm.
692 M.J. Attarha, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 211 (2011) 688–694

Table 4
Temperature-dependent combined convection coefficient model (Salonitis et al.,
2007).

h [W/m2 K] T − T0 [K]

1.85 56
9.079 278
18.5 556
52.6 2778

To consider the heat losses, both the thermal radiation and heat
transfer on the weld surface have been considered. Radiation losses
are dominating for higher temperatures near and in the weld zone,
and convection losses for lower temperatures away from the weld
Fig. 7. Temperature history during welding for experiment E2, at points with dif-
zone (Deng and Murakawa, 2006). It is customary to use combined ferent distances from the weld melt line.
thermal boundary conditions to avoid the difficulties associated
with radiation modeling. Likewise, a temperature dependent com-
bined convection coefficient has been used to model the cooling
condition. Table 4 presents the temperature dependent convection
coefficients.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Similar butt weld joint of St37 carbon steel

Fig. 3 presents the temperature contours and welding direction

in the finite element simulation model of this joint. In Fig. 4, the
temperature distributions throughout the weld pieces at different
points with certain distances from the weld melt line are illus-
trated. The maximum temperature at the point with 3 mm distance
from the melt line is about 550 ◦ C. It is important to notice that the
decrease of temperature with distance has a nonlinear trend. The
reason is associated with the local heating of the welding torch
and the nonlinear variation of the material’s thermal properties
with temperature. The experimental and finite element simula-
tion results are compared for distances mentioned above in Fig. 5.
It is obvious that the results have generally good conformity, but
the difference between the results is noticeable at the tempera-
ture rise. It is probably due to molten spattering during fusion
welding and the selection of heat source model. Peak tempera-
ture distribution with distance from the weld melt line is shown
in Fig. 6.
4.2. AISI type 304 Stainless steel similar butt weld joint
Temperature histories of the points in the left weld piece,
obtained by experimental measurements, are presented in Fig. 7,
Fig. 8. Peak temperatures vs. distance from weld melt line for experiment E2 and
finite element simulation results.
for this joint. The maximum temperature is about 470 ◦ C. Com-
paring Figs. 4 and 7, it is clear that the slope of cooling in St37
is steeper than S304 which is because of the differences in thermal
properties, especially thermal conductivity. The peak temperature
distributions, extracted from both experimental and FE results, are
illustrated in Fig. 8.
4.3. Butt weld joint of dissimilar metals
In this section, the temperature distribution in a dissimilar butt-
welded joint comprised of St37 carbon steel and AISI type 304
stainless steel is studied (Figs. 9–11). The experimental temper-
ature histories are shown in Figs. 9 and 11 for St37 and S304,
respectively. It can be seen that pick temperatures of S304 are
higher than St37. The experimental measurement and finite ele-
ment results are compared for both materials in Figs. 10 and 12. The

Fig. 6. Peak temperatures vs. distance from weld melt line for experiment E1 and Fig. 9. Temperature history during welding for experiment E3, at points with dif-
finite element simulation results. ferent distances from the weld melt line in St37 carbon steel weld piece.
 M.J. Attarha, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 211 (2011) 688–694 693

Fig. 12. Temperature history, comparison between experiment E3 and finite ele-
ment simulation results at points with different distances from the weld melt line
in AISI type 304 stainless steel weld piece, (f) 3 mm, (g) 8 mm, (h) 13 mm.
Fig. 10. Temperature history, comparison between experiment E3 and finite ele-
ment simulation results at points with different distances from the weld melt line
in St37 carbon steel weld piece, (a) 3 mm, (b) 8 mm, (c) 13 mm.

Fig. 11. Temperature history during welding for experiment E3, at points with dif-
ferent distances from the weld melt line in AISI type 304 stainless steel weld piece, Fig. 13. St37 and S304 peak temperatures vs. distance from weld melt line for
(F) 3 mm, (G) 8 mm, (H) 13 mm. experiment E3 and finite element simulation results.
694 M.J. Attarha, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 211 (2011) 688–694
cooling slopes are displayed for both materials in Fig. 13. As can be
observed, this slope for St37 is slightly lower than S304. It should be
noticed that since there is no consumable filler material in the dis-
similar welded work-pieces and considering the symmetry during
welding, the differences between peak temperatures and cooling
rates most correspond to thermal material properties, especially
thermal conductivity. Another reason behind peak temperature dif-
ferences may be attributed to the effect of phase transformation
on St37 carbon steel. Occurrence of solid state phase transfor-
mation in St37 carbon steel absorbs a proportion of heat source
energy.
5. Conclusions
3D finite element simulation of GTAW welding for three joints
(two similar and one dissimilar) comprised of AISI type 304
stainless steel and St37 carbon steel thin plates, was studied,
and the temperature distributions and histories were com-
pared with experimental measurements. Comparison between the
finite element and experimental results revealed that the devel-
oped model had good capability for predicting the temperature
cycles throughout welding. The following conclusions may be
conducted:
(1) Peak temperature distribution vs. distance in the weld pieces
shows that the temperature decreasing behavior has a nonlin-
ear nature. Prediction of the cooling slope with distance can be
used in the prediction of the HAZ microstructure.
(2) Comparing the peak temperatures in the dissimilar joint of St37
carbon steel and type 304 stainless steel, it is revealed that the
S304 peak temperature near the weld melt line is higher than
St37. The difference between thermal conductivity coefficients
can justify this behavior.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their acknowledgement to Dr. R.
Moharrami and Mr. I. Akbarzadeh for their fruitful help and support
during the course of this project.
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