In this paper, in order to reduce the time cost of prediction experiments in industry, a new narrow gap oscillation calculation method is developed in ABAQUS thermomechanical coupling analysis to study the distribution trend of residual weld stresses in comparison with conventional multi-layer welding processes. The blind hole detection technique and thermocouple measurement method verify the reliability of the prediction experiment. The results show that the experimental and simulation results have a high degree of agreement. In the prediction experiments, the calculation time of the high-energy single-layer welding experiments is 1/4 of the traditional multi-layer welding. Two welding processes of longitudinal residual stress and transverse residual stress distribution trends are the same. The high-energy single-layer welding experiment stress distribution range and transverse residual stress peak are smaller, but the longitudinal residual stress peak is slightly higher, which can be effectively reduced by increasing the preheating temperature of the welded parts. This implies that in the specific case of increasing the initial temperature of the workpiece, the use of high-energy single-layer welding instead of multi-layer welding to study the residual stress distribution trend not only optimizes the weld quality but also reduces the time cost to a large extent.
Keywords: ABABQUS; blind hole method; narrow gap MAG welding; residual stress; swing arc.