Prediction of thermal and residual stress distributions in SS304 materials for nuclear application using finite element analysis

The welding process adopted for nuclear vessels is important from temperature and residual stress. In, this study stainless steels material was used to simulate the weldability with respect to reaching the melting at the Fusion zone with respect to the weld input power and process time. Static thermoelastic process simulation was done using 3D-Finite Element Analysis using ANSYS. For a representative 3 mm plate butt welding process, isotherms in the transverse weld bead area were used to identify melting and solid to solid phase change points in Fusion and HAZ. The distributions evaluated at Fusion, HAZ and in base material along the longitudinal direction, transverse and along the thickness. The residual stress evaluated along the transverse direction is compared with yield strength to evaluate weldability. Also, the transverse analysis leads to an understanding of structural stability. A single-pass weld process limit was obtained for a feasible time and power source and the thermoelastic distributions studied.