Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165

www.elsevier.com/locate/tafmec

Three dimensional modeling weld solidification cracks

in multipass welding
a,* b
Z.B. Dong , Y.H. Wei
a
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding Technology Production, Harbin Institute of Technology,
Harbin 150001, China
b
Department of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Nanjing 210016, China

Available online 24 August 2006

Abstract

This paper utilizes element birth and death finite element technique to control the process of filling metal step by step
during multipass welding process. The dynamic thermal distributions and strain evolutions are simulated in 10 mm
SUS310 stainless steel in multipass welding after taking into consideration of the fluid flow in the weld pool, the latent
heat, taking into account the effect of the deformation in weld pool, change of initial temperature and solidification shrink-
age. At the same time, the driving forces to weld solidification cracks of each weld pass are obtained successfully according
to simulated thermal cycle (temperature against time) and mechanical strain cycle (mechanical strain against time). The
results show the patterns of distribution of the driving force are similar to those of surface fusion welding. The driving
force of first weld pass is larger than following weld passes and the driving force decreases gradually in company with weld-
ing processing. Sequent welding processes affect the mechanical strain distributions of previous weld pass, of which the
tensile mechanical strain changes to compressive strain. In addition, the driving forces are analyzed and weld solidification
cracks are predicted during multipass welding. The predicted results agree well with the experiments. Therefore, the sim-
ulated results in this study provide the foundation for predicting weld solidification cracking in actual weldment.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction is often used with taking into consideration of the

Thick plates are widely not only used to joint
actual welding structures in industry but also are
normally accompanied by the addition of filler mate-
rial as new weld passes e.g. Manual Metal Arc
(MMA) welding, Metal-Inert Gas (MIG) welding,
Submerged Arc welding. Multipass welding process
*
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 451 86417650.
E-mail address: dongzhb@hit.edu.cn (Z.B. Dong).
limitation of fusion width and fusion depth of single
pass welding process between the joins of thick
plates. However, this makes it difficult to model
the multipass welding with Finite Element Method
(FEM). Due to the intense concentration of heat in
the heat source of welding, the regions near the weld
line undergo severe thermal cycles, thereby maybe
generating weld solidification cracks in the weld-
ment. Therefore, predicting three dimensional weld
solidification cracks have been a major topic in weld-
ing a variety of engineering alloys.

0167-8442/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tafmec.2006.07.007
 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165
Full three dimensional simulation of fusion
welding process, for the purpose predicting residual
stresses, is now feasible and practical, given recent
developments in computing capabilities. Many
researchers have studied the thermal distributions
and residual stresses in multipass welding. Predicted
in [1] are the residual stresses during multipass arc
welding in steel pipes using finite element techniques
and discussed the effects of pipe diameter and wall
thickness on weld residual stresses. Adaptive mesh
refinements [2] are used for a procedure to transport
the results between the different meshes. The
thermo-mechanical model used as well as the simu-
lation methodology was detailed. Computed distor-
tions and residual stresses were compared with
experimental measurements. Multipass circumferen-
tial butt-welding is simulated [3] for stainless steel
pipes in a non-linear thermo-mechanical FE-analy-
sis. In particular, the axial and hoop stresses and
their sensitivity to variation in weld parameters were
studied. Described in [4–10] is a combined analytical
and experimental method for analyzing the residual
stresses in a pipe formed with a girth-butt weld.
For the studying of weld solidification cracking,
an analysis was performed [11,12] for a bead-on-
plate weld for an aluminum plate and evaluated
the mechanical strain near the weld pool. Hot-crack-
ing was studied [13] for a butt-welded aluminum
plate. They assumed that the large solidification
shrinkage was compensated by refeeding from the
melt until a critical strain of 2% was reached. This
value was obtained by fitting simulations with exper-
iments. A good agreement was obtained between
computed and measured locations of cracks near
the edge of the plate. A detailed analysis was made
[14] for the weld pool region as a preparation for
crack analysis observing that the computed strains
were sensitive to the high temperature properties.
However, the weld metal solidification crack in mul-
tipass welding was rarely studied and simulated
owing to the complex procedures involved with the
simulation, especially to structure weldments.
On the basis of simulating the single pass welding
[15–17], the present investigation utilizes element
birth and death finite element technique to control
the process of filling metal step by step during multi-
pass welding process. At the same time, the dynamic
thermal distributions and strain evolutions are ana-
lyzed in 10 mm plate-butt SUS310 stainless steel in
multipass welding with FEM. The driving forces to
weld solidification cracks of each pass weld are
obtained successfully according to simulated ther-
157
mal cycle and mechanical strain cycle. The compar-
ison between the calculated driving force and the
material resistance predict the weld metal solidifica-
tion cracking. Therefore, the simulated results in this
study provide the foundation for predicting weld
solidification cracking in actual weldment.
2. Computational model
2.1. Analysis procedure
For the model under consideration, the internal
heating due to the plastic dissipation can be
neglected considering the small transformation rates
generated by a welding operation. Therefore, an
uncoupled thermal and thermo-mechanical analysis
is adopted in this calculation. The thermal analysis
is performed first and the transient temperature his-
tory obtained from heat transfer analysis is used as
the thermal loads for subsequent thermo-mechani-
cal analysis. In the simulated results, the total strain
is composed of thermal strain, elastic strain and
plastic strain. The mechanical strain is obtained by
elastic strain plus plastic strain.
This paper utilizes the double ellipsoidal heat
source proposed in [18] to analyze three dimensional
FE model. The process of filling metal can be trea-
ted in commercial FE-codes MSC.Marc by compil-
ing specially defined user subroutines to activate
new elements in the model through so-called ‘‘ele-
ment birth and death’’ finite element technique dur-
ing multipass welding process.
2.2. Analysis of butt weld joint
Multiple passes are used to produce the weld
bead layers in a butt weld joint. The numerical anal-
ysis has multiple heat input steps to reflect the mul-
tipass process. Fig. 1 shows the finite element mesh
of multipass welding.
Two plates of size 100 · 50 · 10 mm which would
form a single Y-groove joint are used to simulate the
multipass welding. Only one plate is discretized with
eight-node isoparametric hexahedron elements due
to the symmetry along the weld center line.
Two plates to be welded are tacked together at
both ends before welding with a uniform gap of
2 mm between the plates, as it is used in industrial
fabrication. The typical thermal–mechanical prop-
erties of the material used are given in literature
[15]. This paper takes into account the effect of the
latent heat and the fluid flow in the weld pool in
158 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165
Fig. 1. The mesh used for multipass welding. (a) 3D mesh used
for calculation and (b) cross-section of mesh.
Table 1
Welding parameters during multipass welding
Pass Welding Welding Speed
number voltage (V) current (A) (mm/s)
1 20 60 1.6
2 24 120 2 peratures (in Fig. 3) seen by a point of simulation
3 24 160 1.6
thermal analysis and the deformation in weld pool,
change of initial temperature for thermal stress/
strain calculation and solidification shrinkage are
considered in the mechanical model. These methods
can be seen in literature [15]. The overall filling
welds are divided into three passes and the filling
materials are the same as the base metal.
In the heat transfer process, heat is lost from the
surfaces in the form of convection and radiation.
They occur on all surfaces of the plate except the
plane of symmetry, which is defined as adiabatic.
In the mechanical model, all nodes on symmetrical
surface are fixed y-displacement. The other mechan-
ical boundary conditions are applied to avoid the
rigid body movements of the plate.
The different sets of welding parameters are adop-
ted during multipass welding as shown in Table 1.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Thermal distributions during multipass welding
After deposition of each weld pass, the model
was allowed to cool down until the maximum tem-
perature at any position along the deposited bead
reached the specified inter-pass temperature for
each pass. Fig. 2 depicts the three-dimensional ther-
mal distributions of different passes welding.
From Fig. 2, it can be seen that the temperature
in front of the weld molten pool is zero since the fill-
ing metals are not activated. Whereas, the thermal
distributions at the back of weld molten pool are
proper as well as actual welding since the activated
weld metals take part in simulating.
The thermal cycles of seven positions summa-
rized in Table 2 in the model are shown in
Fig. 3.
It can be seen that different point has different
time to reach the peak temperature. The time of
point a, b, c, d, e and f is 30 s, 390 s, 750 s and after
750 s.
Knowledge of average maximum temperature
rises will be useful in the estimation of maximum
temperatures attained by different regions of the
base plate during multipass welding. Likely changes
in the microstructure and consequent degradation
in mechanical properties can be estimated from this
information [19].
For any weld pass, the lowest and highest tem-
can be found from the simulated results. The differ-
ence (A–A 0 ) between these two values will give the
maximum temperature rise attained at the point of
measurement during that pass. The average value
of these two maximum temperature rises will give
the average maximum temperature rise at the
referred measurement point. Similar average maxi-
mum temperature rise values can be obtained for
other simulated points also.
In Fig. 4, the average maximum temperature rise
obtained as explained above, is plotted against dis-
tance from the weld pad centre line. A similar curve
is drawn in the same figure that corresponds to the
first pass weld of the same plate.
From these curves, it can be seen that the average
maximum temperature rise uniformly varies with
distance from the weld pad centre line. The average
maximum temperature rise expected at any other
point lying between them can be read directly from
these curves. It can be also seen that the heat energy
input for the three passes are different, as seen from
Table 1. These are 0.75 kJ/mm for pass No. 1 and
1.44 kJ/mm for pass No. 2 and 2.4 kJ/mm for pass
No. 3. It can be observed that for any other heat
input value between these two values, the corre-
sponding curve can be drawn by interpolation,
 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165 159

Fig. 2. 3D temperature distributions during multipass welding. (a) The first pass; (b) the second pass; (c) the third pass.
160 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165

Table 2
The positions where temperature and strain were analyzed
Reference point a b c d e f
Coordinate (x, y, z) (50, 0, 3) (50, 4.05, 6.5) (50, 6, 10) (50, 7.7, 10) (50, 10, 10) (50, 15, 10)

2400 1000
Point a
Point b Pass 3
2000 Point c Pass 2
800
Pass 1
Temperature (ºC)

Temperature (ºC)
1600
600
1200

400
800

400 200

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (s) Distance (mm)

1400 Fig. 4. Average maximum temperature rise at different points on

the base plate.
1200 Point d A
Point e
Point f
1000 restore to its original strain free state at the instant
Temperature (ºC)

of transforming from solid to liquid. Moreover, the

800
tensile mechanical strain develops at the trailing
600 edge of fusion weld pool due to the resolidified weld
metal. At the same time, this point situated in the
400
brittle temperature range, which the strength and
200
ductility of the metal are very low during solidifica-
A'
tion. Therefore solidification cracking occurs easily
0 in the brittle temperature range.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time (s)
The driving forces are obtained according to sim-
ulated thermal cycles (temperature against time)
Fig. 3. Thermal cycle during multipass welding. (a) The thermal and mechanical strain cycles (mechanical strain
cycle of point a, b, c and (b) the thermal cycle of point d, e, f.
against time). The evolution of the driving force to
weld solidification cracks at different positions of
the first pass weld is demonstrated in Fig. 6.
and the average maximum temperature rise value The mechanical strain curve for a particular
can be obtained. point is plotted by monitoring both the temperature
drop and the build-up of the mechanical strain as
3.2. Strain distributions and the driving force that point is cooling down from the liquidus. The
during multipass welding curve indicates how the driving force for solidifica-
tion cracking varies during the solidification pro-
Fig. 5 presents the 3D transverse plastic strain cess. Fig. 6 suggests that the position at the end of
distribution and the mechanical strain distribution the weld will experience the highest mechanical
in the weld centerline at 30 s during the first pass strain, and there is the smallest mechanical strain
welding. at the center of weld. The results predicate that
As shown in Fig. 5, the mechanical strain (the solidification cracking is more likely to occur at
sum of the elastic and plastic strain) along the weld the start or end of the weld under the conditions
centre line is compressive before the welding torch that the plate is free of restraint, which agrees well
approaches it. In the welding pool, the points with the general concept.
 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165
Fig. 5. Transverse strain distributions at 30 s during the first pass welding. (a) 3D transverse plastic strain distribution and (b) the
mechanical strain distribution in the weld centerline.
Fig. 6. Driving force curves for three locations on the first pass
weld centerline.
Fig. 7 shows the 3D transverse plastic strain dis-
tribution and the mechanical strain distribution in
161
the weld centerline at 25 s during the second pass
welding.
From the Fig. 7, it can be seen that transverse
plastic strain distribution and the mechanical strain
distribution patterns in the weld centerline during
the second pass welding are similar to those of the
first pass welding with different values only.
As shown in Fig. 8, the driving forces of the sec-
ond pass weld at three different positions are smaller
than those of the first pass welding. It indicates that
the weld solidification cracks are likely to occur dur-
ing the first pass welding.
The mechanical strain and the driving force dis-
tribution patterns of the third pass weld are also
similar to those of the first and second pass welds,
the values of the third pass are smaller than theirs.
It is well known that the mechanical strain distri-
butions of the first pass weld are affected by a sub-
sequent pass. Fig. 9 shows mechanical strains and
162 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165
Fig. 7. Transverse strain distributions at 25 s during second pass welding. (a) 3D transverse plastic strain distribution and (b) the
mechanical strain distribution in the weld centerline.
Fig. 8. Driving force curves for three locations on the second
pass weld centerline.
temperature distributions before and after second
pass in first pass weld centerline.
Fig. 9 suggests that the tensile mechanical strain
of the first pass weld changes to compressive strain
after the second pass welding.
3.3. The material resistance to weld solidification
cracks
Quantitative assessment of cracking susceptibil-
ity requires an integrated approach including labo-
ratory weldability testing of the material inherent
resistance to cracking and computational analysis
of the driving force to cracks under actual fabrica-
tion conditions. In general, the material resistance
to cracking depends upon the intrinsic cracking pro-
cess. A variety of weldability tests have been devised
and utilized to study the material resistance for var-
ious engineering alloys. Among external-restraint
tests, Trans-Varestraint Test (TVT) is widely used
for assessment of weld metal cracking susceptibility.
 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165 163

Fig. 11. Distribution of local strain.

However, the strain obtained by TVT is based on

Fig. 9. Mechanical strains distribution of first pass weld center-
line. (a) Mechanical strain and temperature distributions during
second pass welding and (b) before and after second pass welding.
the assumptions of pure bending and no localized
deformation, and it neglects the strain concentra-
tion at the trailing edge of weld molten pool, as
shown in Fig. 11.
It can be seen that the strains at the trailing edge
of weld molten pool are the combined action of the
bend strain of TVT and the local strain of welding
process, which decided the occurrence of weld solid-
ification crack. Consequently, the applied average
strains ea of TVT do not represent the true material
inherent resistance to cracking.
Therefore, this paper models the TVT to get the
local strains in the vicinity of weld pool under differ-
ent bending strains with FEM. The threshold strains
for cracking initiation with modeling TVT replace
the applied average strains of TVT. Finally, the
material resistance to weld solidification crack is
modified with modeling TVT. At the same time, to

Bending block

Fig. 10. Schematic sketch of Trans-Varestraint Test.

The schematic diagram of TVT apparatus is shown

in Fig. 10.
As TVT is a pure bending process, the strain on
the top surface of the specimen is represented by the
average strain calculated in Eq. (1)
t
2 t
ea ð%Þ ¼  100%   100%; ð1Þ
R þ 2t 2R
where t is specimen thickness, R is radius of curva- Fig. 12. Comparison of the local strains between TVT and MISO
ture of the bending block. measurements [17].
164 Z.B. Dong, Y.H. Wei / Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 46 (2006) 156–165

testify the computational local threshold strains in

the cracking susceptible temperature range, TVT is
simulated at different bending strains. The local
strains are compared with the MISO [20] measure-
ment of the local strain curve for solidification
cracks initiation as shown in Fig. 12 [17].
It can be observed that the local strains obtained
with modeling TVT coincide well with those mea-
sured by MISO method.

4. Prediction of weld solidification cracks of walled

plates

The formation of weld metal solidification crack-

ing results from the competition between the mate- Fig. 14. The prediction of weld metal solidification cracks of
rial resistance to cracking and the driving force to walled plates.
cracking during the course of solidification of weld
metal, as shown in Fig. 13 [15]. Weld solidification
5. Conclusions
cracks occur only when the mechanical strain
exceeds the threshold strain in the entire brittle tem-
1. The multipass welding process of 10 mm SUS310
perature range.
stainless steel is modeled with finite element
Therefore, according to the relative position of
method. The thermal cycle and strain cycle of
the curves, the comparisons between the driving
each pass are simulated after taking into consid-
force of each pass and the material resistance can
eration of the fluid flow in the weld pool, the
predict the weld solidification cracks as shown in
latent heat, taking into account the effect of the
Fig. 14.
deformation in weld pool, change of initial tem-
Fig. 14 shows that the driving forces are smaller
perature and solidification shrinkage.
than the material resistance of simulating TVT, so
2. The driving forces to weld solidification cracks of
there will not be solidification crack during multi-
each weld pass are obtained successfully accord-
pass welding. The predicted result agrees well with
ing to simulated results. It is found that the driv-
the experiments in the same welding conditions
ing force of first weld pass is larger than following
and boundary conditions.
weld passes. Moreover, sequent welding processes
affect the mechanical strain distributions of previ-
ous weld pass, of which the tensile mechanical
ε Material resistance strain changes to compressive strain.
3. Weld metal solidification cracks are predicted
BTR
during multipass welding according to the mate-
rial resistance and the driving force. The pre-
dicted results agree well with experiments.
Therefore, the simulated results in this study pro-
vide the foundation for predicting weld solidifica-
tion cracking in actual weldment.
Driving force

Tl Ts Τ
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