Modelling welding residual stresses with a commercial multipurpose finite element program

Calculating residual stresses caused by welding is a very complex problem. Its realisation becomes more relevant with the availability of increasing computational power. Doing this comptutation using a commercial multipurpose FE package like MARC, additional routines are necessary to consider special material behaviour and processes. Simple tasks like moving heat source as well as more complex ones (phase transformation or transformation plasticity) have to he implemented. In this paper the principal structure and procedure of the implementation is presented. The focus is given to the material properties, phase transformation, stress module and the interface to the user for changing key values. Calculated results are compared with experimental values. The residual stress measurements were carried out by means of the hole drilling method; the data are analysed by using the method after Kockelmann.