Analysis of Residual Stress and Deformation of Aluminum Alloy Box Welding

To fill the lack of research on mechanical properties of aluminum alloy box welding, the change rule of residual stress and deformation of aluminum alloy box after welding was investigated by simulating the welding process of aluminum alloy box. A three-dimensional finite element model was developed to simulate the stress fields of the aluminum alloy box and a double-ellipsoidal volumetric model was developed to simulate the temperature fields of the aluminum alloy box during the welding process. The effect of welding current on the aluminum alloy box welding was simulated by changing the current of double-ellipsoidal volumetric model. In the simulation experiment, six kinds of aluminum alloy box size models were used to simulate the diversity of the size of aluminum alloy box. The simulation experiment results show that aluminum alloy box welding residual stress concentrates in the opening corner and deformation centers around the second half of the weld. The equivalent plastic strain of the aluminum alloy box vertex corresponding to the second weld is the largest and increases with the increase of current, while the maximum principal stress of the aluminum alloy box vertex corresponding to the fourth weld is the largest and is less affected by current after aluminum alloy box is welded along four sides in turn. Aluminum alloy box overall dimensions increase with the increasing of current, and the maximum deformation value is close to 5 mm when the aluminum alloy box thickness is 0.8 mm. © 2018, Editorial Board of Journal of Tianjin University(Science and Technology). All right reserved.