Numerical simulation and experimental investigation of temperature and residual stresses in GTAW with a heat sink process of Monel 400 plates

A 3D thermo-mechanical simulation model was developed to predict distributions of temperature and residual stresses during the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process with a heat sink for Monel 400 plates using finite element method. The model was validated against the experimental measurements of both temperature and released strain in the welded plates. Effects of heat input, pipe diameter and water flow rate in the heat sink welding process were investigated. The results showed that in the GTAW process with a heat sink, the high temperature region was only limited to the vicinity of heat source and the maximum temperature of the sample was much lower than that of conventional GTAW process. This resulted in a lower residual stresses and even compressive stresses near the weld zone.