Journal of Materials Processing Technology 183 (2007) 219225

Determination of welding deformation in fillet-welded joint by means of

numerical simulation and comparison with experimental measurements
Dean Deng a, , Wei Liang b , Hidekazu Murakawa b
a

Research Center of Computational Mechanics, Inc. Togoshi NI-BLDG 7-1, Togoshi, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 142-0041, Japan
b Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University, 11-1, Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan
Received 14 July 2006; received in revised form 9 October 2006; accepted 10 October 2006

Abstract
Fillet weld is the most common weld type used in the fabrication of structural members in shipbuilding, automobile and other industries. Filletwelded joints usually suffer from various welding deformation patterns, such as longitudinal shrinkage, transverse shrinkage, angular distortion and
longitudinal bending. Welding deformation has negative effects on fabrication accuracy, external appearance and various strengths of the welded
structures. In this study, experiments are performed to investigate the characteristics of welding deformation in the fillet-welded joint. In order to
precisely predict welding deformation by numerical method, a 3-D thermal elastic plastic finite element computational procedure is developed.
The simulated results are in a good agreement with the experimental measurements. The influence on welding deformation of the flange thickness
is investigated by experiment and numerical simulation. In addition, the generation mechanism of angular distortion is clarified through numerical
simulation.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Welding deformation; Numerical simulation; Angular distortion; Transverse shrinkage; Temperature field

1. Introduction
The distortion in a welded structure results from the nonuniform expansion and contraction of the weld and surrounding
base material, due to the heating and cooling cycle during welding process. Welding distortion has undesirable effects on accuracy of assembly, external appearance and various strengths of
the welded structures. In many cases, additional costs and schedule delays are incurred from straightening welding distortion.
Therefore, the prediction and control of welding deformation
have become of critical importance.
Until now, a lot of analytical and numerical models have been
proposed for predicting welding distortion in butt joint, and a
number of databases have also been established [16]. However,
only very limited literatures describing welding deformation of
fillet welds are available [7,8]. It is necessary to perform further
research through either experiment or numerical simulation to
fully understand the characteristics of welding deformation produced in fillet welds. In this study, experiments are carried out

Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 3 3785 3033; fax: +81 3 3785 6066.
E-mail address: deng@rccm.co.jp (D. Deng).

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2006.10.013

to investigate the characteristics of welding deformation of fillet

joints. Meanwhile, a 3-D thermal elastic plastic finite element
model is developed to simulate welding deformation. Angular distortion and transverse shrinkage predicted by numerical
simulation are compared with the experimental measurements.
The influence on welding deformation of the flange thickness is
investigated. In addition, the generation mechanism of angular
distortion is also clarified through numerical simulation.
2. Experimental procedure
In order to investigate the characteristics of welding deformation generated
in fillet joint and clarify the influence on welding deformation of the flange
thickness, two experimental models (Models A and B) are fabricated and their
transverse shrinkage and deflection are measured. The experimental Model A is
shown in Fig. 1. In this model, the length is 500 mm; the breadth of the flange is
500 mm; the height of the web is 300 mm. The thickness of the flange is 12 mm
and that of the web is 9 mm. In Model B, except for the thickness of the flange,
the other dimensions are the same as Model A. The thickness of the flange is
9 mm in Model B. The material used in this study is shipbuilding steel SM400A.
The chemical composition and mechanical properties of SM400A are shown in
Table 1.
The web and the flange are tack welded at first. Then the welding is performed
using a single-sided welding process. The welding direction is shown in Fig. 1.
The locations of tack weld are shown in Fig. 2 using the short bars. Each length

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D. Deng et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 183 (2007) 219225

and after welding. The deflection in each location can be calculated using the
coordinates in vertical direction before and after welding. The locations of these
targets are shown in Fig. 2 using the circles.

3. Finite element modeling

Fig. 1. Experimental model.

Table 1
Chemical compositions and mechanical properties of SM400A
Chemical composition (mass%)

Mechanical properties

Si

Mn

Yield
strength
(MPa)

Tensile
strength
(MPa)

0.23

0.56

<0.035

<0.035

292

442

Table 2
Welding method and welding conditions
Shielding Wire
gas
CO2

Pass
number

DW100V 1, 2

Length of
leg (mm)

Current
(A)

Voltage
(V)

Speed
(mm/min)

6.0

270.0

29.0

400.0

of tack weld is approximately 10 mm. The tack welds are performed by TIG
welding process. The final welding is done by robot, and the welding method
is CO2 gas arc welding. The angle of torch is 45 . Table 2 shows the welding
conditions. The same welding conditions are used in both Models A and B.
The Vernier caliper is used to measure the transverse shrinkages near the two
ends of the flange. The transverse shrinkages in both the upper surface and the
lower surface are measured. The locations of measurement are shown in Fig. 2
using solid circles. Three-dimensional (3-D) photograph measurement [9] is
used to measure the deflection on the upper surface of the flange after welding.
In 3-D photograph measurement, targets are used to measure coordinates before

In this section, based on Abaqus code [10], a thermal elastic plastic finite element computational procedure is developed
to calculate welding deformations of fillet-welded joints. The
thermo-mechanical behavior is simulated using uncoupled formulation, because the dimensional changes in welding are negligible and mechanical work done is insignificant compared to
the thermal energy from the welding heat source.
The heat conduction problem is solved independently from
the stressstrain problem to obtain temperature histories. However, the formulation considers the contributions of the transient
temperature field to the stressstrain analysis through thermal
expansion, as well as temperature-dependent thermo-physical
and mechanical properties. The solution procedure consists of
two steps. At the first step, the temperature distribution and its
history are computed by the heat conduction analysis. At the
second step, the temperature history is employed as a thermal
load in the subsequent mechanical analysis.
The meshes of Model A are shown in Fig. 3. The dimensions
of the simulation model are the same as the experimental model.
In the weld zone and its vicinity, a fine mesh is adopted. The
minimum element is 2.25 mm 3 mm 5 mm. The number of
node is 25,250, and that of element is 20,000.
3.1. Heat source and thermal analysis
Calculation of the temperature field history during welding entails a transient thermal analysis. The thermal analysis is
based on the formulation of heat conduction using temperaturedependent thermo-physical properties [11] and a moving heat
source. According to the nature of the CO2 gas metal arc welding, the heat input to the work piece can be divided into two
portions. One is the heat of the welding arc, and the other is that
of the molten metal droplets.
In this study, at any time t, the heat of the welding arc is
modeled by a surface heat source with a Gaussian distribution.

Fig. 2. Locations of measurements and locations of tack weld.

D. Deng et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 183 (2007) 219225

law for gray body radiation with a temperature-dependent emissivity. To consider heat transfer due to fluid flow in the weld
pool, an artificially increased thermal conductivity is assumed
for temperature above the melting point. The thermal effects
due to solidification of the weld pool are modeled by taking into
account the latent heat for fusion. The latent heat, solidus and
liquidus temperature are 270 J/g, 1450 C and 1500 C, respectively.
The user-defined subroutines facility in Abaqus are utilized
in the heat transfer analysis to model convection and radiation
boundary conditions, and heat fluxes input from the welding
arc and molten metal droplets. In these simulations, the welding
conditions are the same as those of the experiments shown in
Table 2. The length of leg is the same as the average value of
the experiments. In the surface heat source model, the angle
of the torch is also assumed to be 45 , which is identical to
the experimental value. In Abaqus code, the DC3D8 element is
employed to calculate temperature fields.

Fig. 3. Simulation model and mesh division.

Thus, points lying on the surface of the work piece within the
arc beam radius ra receive distributed heat fluxes q(t) according
to the following equation:
 
 
3QA
r(t) 2
q(t) =
(1)
exp
ra2
ra
where r(t) is the radial distance measured from the instantaneous
arc center on the surface of the work piece and QA is the heat
input from the welding arc
QA = IU QW .

221

(2)

In Eq. (2), is the arc efficiency, I the arc current, U the arc
voltage and QW is the energy extracted to melt the welding wire.
The heat (QW ) of the molten metal droplets is described by
a volumetric heat source with uniform density. The heat of the
welding arc is assumed to be 40% of the total heat input, and
the heat of the molten metal droplets 60% of the total heat input
[12]. Here, the arc efficiency is assumed to be 0.80 for CO2
welding process [13]. The image of the combined heat source
used in this study is shown in Fig. 4.
Heat loss due to convection is modeled using Newtons law
with a temperature-dependent film coefficient, and heat loss
caused by radiation is simulated using the StefanBoltzman

3.2. Mechanical analysis

The same finite element models used in the thermal analyses
are employed in mechanical analyses, except for the element
type and boundary conditions. The C3D8I element is used to
simulate the stressstrain fields. The restraint condition is shown
in Fig. 3 by the arrows. The mechanical analyses are conducted
using the temperature history calculated by the thermal analyses
as the input information.
Generally, in addition to the elastic, plastic and thermal strain,
the solid-state phase transformations give rise to two additional
strains during welding. One is transformation strain due to volumetric change; the other is transformation plasticity strain.
However, for the mild steel, because phase transformation has an
insignificant effect on the welding residual stress and the deformation [14], the total strain rate can therefore be decomposed
into three components as follows:
= e + p + th

(3)

The components on the right-hand side of Eq. (3) correspond to

elastic, plastic and thermal strain rate, respectively.
The elastic strain is modeled using the isotropic Hooks
law with temperature-dependent Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio. For the plastic strain component, a plastic model
is employed with the following features: the Von Mises yield
surface and temperature-dependent material properties. Because
the effect of work hardening is not significant in mild steel, it is
not considered in this study.
4. Comparison between experimental results and
simulated results

Fig. 4. Combined heat source used in fillet-welded joint.

Basically, welding deformation can be categorized into longitudinal shrinkage, transverse shrinkage, angular distortion and
longitudinal bending. In this study, angular distortion and transverse shrinkage are investigated by means of experiment and
numerical simulation.

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D. Deng et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 183 (2007) 219225

Fig. 7. Distribution of angular distortion along welding line in Model A.

Fig. 5. Welding deformation of Model A simulated by FEM.

4.1. Angular distortion

The welding deformation of Model A simulated by FEM is
shown in Fig. 5. From this figure, it can be observed that the outof-plane deformation is significant. This is mainly generated by
the angular distortion.
Here, we take Model A as an example to compare the simulated results with experimental measurements. Fig. 6 shows
the deflection distributions along the lines 1, 2 and 3, which are
defined in Fig. 2. Line 1 is near the weld start, line 2 is in the
middle of the flange and line 3 is near the weld end. From this figures, we can know that the simulated results along the three lines
are much close to the experimental values. Therefore, we can
conclude that the finite element model developed in this study
can be effectively used to predict the out-of-plane deformation
in the fillet joint.
Fig. 7 shows the distribution of angular distortion along welding line. From this figure, we can also see that the angular
distortion increases with the distance from the weld start. This
phenomenon is generated by the moving heat source. Because

Fig. 6. Deflection distributions along lines 1, 2 and 3.

a single-sided welding process is used, the angular distortion of

the left side and the right side are unsymmetrical. However, the
difference is small. The angular distortion does not occur simultaneously over the whole weld length, so the joint is slightly
twisted.
4.2. Transverse shrinkage
Fig. 8 shows the transverse shrinkages in the upper surface
(weld face) of the flange. It should be noted that the values of
transverse shrinkage are calculated according to the difference of
transverse displacements between lines 4 and 5 defined in Fig. 2.
The experimental values near the two ends of the flange are also
plotted in the same figure. From this figure, it can be observed
that the simulated results near the two ends are in a good agreement with the experimental values. Moreover, the change of
transverse shrinkage along the welding line is small. In Model
A, the average shrinkage in the upper surface is approximately
0.36 mm.
Fig. 8 also shows the transverse shrinkage in the lower surface
of the flange. This figure tells us that the flange expanded in the
lower surface after welding. The magnitude increases with the
distance away from the weld start. Both the FEM and experiment

Fig. 8. Transverse shrinkages in the upper and lower surfaces.

D. Deng et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 183 (2007) 219225

reflect the same tendency. At the end of weld, the magnitude is

approximately 0.2 mm.
The characteristics of transverse shrinkage in Model A can
be summarized as following: the transverse shrinkage through
thickness in the flange is not uniform. The upper surface of the
flange shrank after welding. In contrast, the lower surface of the
flange expanded.
In Model A, because of a relatively large thickness of the
flange, a large temperature gradient is produced between the
upper surface and the lower surface during welding. The temperature gradient results in different transverse shrinkage in thickness direction. Due to uneven transverse shrinkage, a relatively
large angular distortion is generated in the flange during welding. Moreover, the angular distortion makes the flange expand
in the lower part and contract in the upper part.
5. Inuence on welding deformation of ange thickness
5.1. Angular distortion
Fig. 9 shows the distributions of angular distortion along
welding line in Model B. From Fig. 7 and Fig. 9, we can see
that the both models have a similar distribution, but the angular
distortion of Model B is larger than that of Model A. Fig. 10
shows the deflections of Models A and B in the middle crosssection. The experimental measurements are also plotted in the
same figure. Both the experiment and FEM suggest that the
angular distortion of Model B is significantly larger than that of
Model A. This tells us that although the same welding conditions are used for the two models, because of the different flange
thickness the magnitude of angular distortion is much different.
In other words, the flange thickness has a significant effect on
angular distortion.
5.2. Transverse shrinkage
A lot of researches have been carried out to investigate transverse shrinkage in butt welds. However, limited information is
available for transverse shrinkage of fillet joints [6]. Here, we
discuss the influence on transverse shrinkage of the flange thick-

Fig. 9. Distribution of angular distortion along welding line in Model B.

223

Fig. 10. Deflection distribution in the middle cross-section.

ness. Fig. 11 shows the distributions of transverse shrinkage in

the neural plane of the flange along welding line. It is clear that
both Models A and B have a similar distribution. The shrinkage
is large at the weld start and small at the weld end. Except for
the weld end and its vicinity, the change of transverse shrinkage along the welding line is not significant. This information is
very meaningful for using inherent deformation to predict welding deformation. The average value can be taken as the inherent
transverse shrinkage.
Fig. 11 also clearly tells us that the magnitude of Model B is
larger than that of Model A. Under the condition with the same
heat input, because the flange thickness in Model B is thinner
than that in Model A, the shrinkage in Model B is larger. This
tendency is similar to butt welds.
Based on the above discussions, we can understand that the
thickness of flange does not nearly influence the shape of the distribution of transverse shrinkage; however, it significantly affects
the magnitude.
6. Mechanism of angular distortion
As mentioned above, the angular distortion in fillet-welded
joint is very large. It is necessary to investigate how the angular
distortion is generated during welding.

Fig. 11. Transverse shrinkage in the neural plane of the flange.

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D. Deng et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 183 (2007) 219225

Fig. 12. Locations of temperature histories and locations of deflections.

The previous researches suggest that non-uniform contraction through thickness produces angular distortion due to welding temperature fields. Namely, the welding temperature field
largely affects the production of angular distortion. In this study,
the numerical simulation is employed to clarify the generation
mechanism of angular distortion. Because moving heat source
is used in the numerical simulation, six temperature cycles in the
upper surface and the lower surface of the flange in three typical
cross-sections of Model A are selected to study the influence
on angular distortion of temperature gradient through thickness.
The locations of these temperature histories are shown in Fig. 12.
In this figure, AS , AM and AE are in the upper surface of flange,
and BS , BM and BE in the lower surface. Subscript S represents
the start cross-section, M the middle cross-section and E the end
cross-section.
The temperature histories during the first welding of the
six locations are shown in Fig. 13. From this figure, it can
be observed that the temperature histories in the upper surface are much different from those in the lower surface. The
maximum temperatures in the upper surface are higher than the
molten point, and the highest temperatures in the lower surface
are approximately 270 C. During welding, a very severe temperature gradient through thickness of the flange is generated.
Correspondingly, the transient deflections at points CS , CM and
CE during the first welding are shown in Fig. 14. In the first
welding, the heating time is 75 s. Fig. 13 shows that when the
joint cools about 15 s the temperature gradient through thickness
disappears completely. In Fig. 14, we can observe that when the
total time reaches 90 s, the deflections nearly do not change. In
other words, when the temperature gradient through thickness

Fig. 13. Temperature histories in the upper surface and the lower surface.

Fig. 14. Transient deflections at CS , CM and CE .

in the whole welded joint disappears, the angular distortion does

not increase any more.
Fig. 14 also tells us that although the final deflections at
points CS , CM and CE almost have the same value the transient
deflections in the three points are much different. The difference results from the moving heat source. Carefully observing
Fig. 14, we can find that when the torch reaches each crosssection, each transient deflection curve generates a short flat,
and after the torch leaving the deflection begins to significantly
increase again. It seems to demonstrate that significant deflection growth starts again only when the temperature in the lower
surface of flange reaches a relatively high temperature.
According to the above discussion, we understand that the
temperature gradient through thickness largely governs the production of angular distortion. The contraction of the weld metal
between web and flange may be another contributor to angular
distribution. This factor is not discussed in detail in this study.
In Section 5, we have known that the flange thickness has a
significantly influence on angular distortion. In this section, we
investigate the reason that the different angular distortion are
generated in Models A and B.
Fig. 15 shows the temperature histories of point AM and point
BM in the middle cross-section of Model B. It is very clear that
the difference of peak temperature between the upper surface

Fig. 15. Temperature history of points AM and BM .

D. Deng et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 183 (2007) 219225

and the lower surface is very large. Comparing with Fig. 13, we
can find that the peak temperature at AM in Model B is almost
the same as that in Model A; however, the peak temperature
at BM in Model B is approximately 100 C higher than that in
Model A. In Model A, because of the relatively large thickness,
the stiffness of the flange is also relatively large. Meanwhile, the
peak temperature in the lower surface is relatively low. Thus, the
flange has a relatively large stiffness to resist the deformation
generated during welding. In Model B, due to the relatively small
thickness and a relatively high peak temperature in the lower
surface, the flange is soft enough and more apt to deform during
welding. Thus, a large angular distortion produces in Model B.
It can be inferred that a relatively large angular distortion is more
apt to produce in medium thickness welded joint in practice.

225

Model A, and hence the peak temperature in the lower surface of the flange is also relatively high. Due to relatively
high peak temperature in the lower surface and a relatively
thin flange, the material is more apt to deform. Hence, a
larger angular distortion is produced in Model B.
Acknowledgement
This research is the results of Development of Highly Efficient and Reliable Welding Technology, which is supported by
New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NODE) through the Japan Space Utilization Promotion
Center (JSUP) in the program of Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry.

7. Conclusions

References

In this study, both experimental method and numerical simulation are used to investigate welding distortion in fillet-welded
joints. The influence on welding deformation of the flange thickness is investigated. In addition, the generation mechanism of
angular distortion is clarified by means of simulation. The conclusions are summarized as following:

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(1) The simulated results are in a good agreement with the

experimental measurements. The thermal elastic plastic
finite element model can be effectively employed to predict
welding deformation. A large amount save of time and cost
will be expected if the computational procedure proposed in
this study can be employed to predict welding deformation
in practice.
(2) The flange thickness has an influence on welding deformation. When welding condition is identical, the magnitude
of transverse shrinkage decreases while the flange thickness increases. In this study, it is found that the distribution
of transverse shrinkage along the welding line is nearly
not affected by the flange thickness. Similar to transverse
shrinkage, the distribution of angular distribution along the
welding line is nearly not influenced by the flange thickness,
but the magnitude is significantly affected by it.
(3) The simulated result demonstrates that the temperature gradient through thickness is a main factor that strongly governs
the generation of angular distortion in fillet-welded joint. In
this study, the angular distortions of two models with different flange thickness are investigated. In Model B, besides
a large temperature gradient through thickness generated
during welding, the flange thickness is smaller than that of