Welds are often an essential part of engineering structures. Residual stresses introduced in the welded regions, due to the nonlinear thermal processes during welding, can have detrimental effects, such as stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen-induced cracking and reduced fatigue strength. It is therefore pertinent to simulate the process of welding to predict the behaviour of welded structures from finite element residual stress and deformation results.

This report introduces finite element volume methods for the modelling of welds and it depicts a brief history of the simulation of welds. A description of the heat flow processes and solid phase transformations is given in the theoretical background section. The procedure of thermal and mechanical finite element analyses is explained in the third section, titled Finite Element Weld Simulation, which also presents other examples of finite element analyses and describes the effects of solid phase transformations incorporated in the simulation of welds.

In the fourth section of the report, related research published in literature is discussed, proposing many modelling considerations which are relevant to weld simulation. This includes parametric studies and characterisation of residual stresses, the effect of material properties on residual stresses, three-dimensional geometric influences, an outline of the adaptive mesh technique and the shrinkage volume approach, and the combination of welding simulation with other heat transfer engineering processes.

Friction stir welding is described in the penultimate section of the report, which is followed by a description of the process of inertia friction welding. The finite element simulation of the two types of friction welding is discussed.

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