P 708 - Investigation of the structural stability of models for welding distortion simulation of steel materials

The complexity of the interaction of the physical phenomena of the welding process on the machined component structure requires the identification of highly abstracted or reduced models with regard to the efficient use of simulation calculations in industrial applications. In order to support the user of the simulation in the selection of the applicable models for his specific application, the limits of validity of different reduced models for the calculation of the distortion and the temperature in the component are determined. The recommended choice of methods depends on the complexity of the component and the boundary conditions of the welding process. For this purpose, three components with very different sizes and structural behaviour are investigated: Gear wheel (compact component of medium size), sill (structural component from the automotive industry) and injection nozzle (micro component). Focussing the project on steel as a material makes it essential to consider the phase transitions in the solid phase. The relevance of different phase transition models for the quality of the calculated component distortion is being investigated for various steel materials typical of components. The industrial consortium accompanying the project supports the research centres in investigating the applicability of the existing simulation methods with regard to the properties of the materials under consideration and their possible integration into the structural simulation. To validate the simulation results, the analysis results and process parameters of real welding processes of the individual components are used.