Numerical Simulation of Residual Stresses in Welding and Ultrasonic Impact Treatment Process

Welding technology is considered as a reliable and efficient joining method, which has been widely used in almost all the industry departments. Detrimental factors induced by welding such as micro-cracks/flaws, tensile residual stresses, high stress concentration may degrade the mechanical and fatigue properties of weld joints. Ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is considered one of the most efficient post-weld treatment which could improve the fatigue performance of weld joints. In this study, the effect of the UIT on residual stress distribution of 304L weld joints was particularly investigated. FE analysis simulation and the XRD experiment were performed to predict and measure residual stresses of both as-welded and the UIT-treated joints. Compared results show that simulated stresses are in good agreement with the experimental results along various paths, confirming the validity of welding model. The UIT introduces a compressive residual stress layer with depth between 2 and 3 mm near the impacting surface of weld joint.