Residual stresses and distortions in welded structures: a perspective for engineering applications

In this paper, some of the historical developments and recent advances in understanding welding induced residual stresses and distortions are discussed in the context of their impact on today's engineering applications. With recent rapid advances in computational simulation techniques, the complex thermomechanical phenomena associated with typical welding processes can be effectively dissected into solvable problem sets for both fundamental understanding and specific engineering applications. Although a great deal of research is currently still ongoing to advance our fundamental understanding of the complex thermophysical and thermomechanical phenomena, an engineering perspective is provided to demonstrate how an engineer can make use of the current state of knowledge to derive effective practical solutions when dealing with day to day problems in the areas of residual stresses and distortions in welded structures. First, some of the fundamental mechanical considerations associated with residual stress and distortion developments are presented. Then, some of the computational modelling requirements for engineering applications are discussed in the light of recent developments. Finally, application examples are presented to demonstrate how an effective engineering solution can be sought by taking advantage of today's advanced modelling techniques with appropriate engineering assumptions.