Weld Residual Stress Analysis

Certain welding processes — pipe-to-pipe butt welds, small-bore penetration J-groove welds, and weld overlay repairs, for example — leave residual stresses that can affect the strength of welded nuclear plant components. Structural Integrity Associates, Inc. (SI) offers a full range of temperature-controlled, non-linear, path-dependent weld residual stress analyses, using ANSYS, Inc.'s ANSYS® finite element analysis software to simulate various welding processes. These analyses simulate a thermal pass, complete with appropriate weld heat input, heat efficiency, and appropriate cooling time, to determine temperature distributions due to welding processes; a simulated stress pass in turn calculates residual stresses due to non-linear, elastic-plastic load/unload stress-reversal cycles from the heating and cooling of the weld elements throughout thermal transient history. For especially complicated weld geometries, SI can perform three-dimensional moving heat source residual stress analyses.


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