Residual stress simulations of girth welding in subsea pipelines

Abstract

Numerical modelling of the welding of dissimilar materials, stainless steel and mild steel, has been carried out using Abaqus together with Gas Metal Arc Weld (GMAW) in order to provide a better understanding of the transient temperature profiles and the stress distribution in a pipe. The results clearly show that the temperature distribution in the modelled pipe is a function of the thermal conductivity of each weld metal as well as the distance away from the heat source. Results also clearly show agreement with previous findings.