Method of calculating residual stress in the laser welded joints of dissimilar metals

A method of calculating residual stress in a weld joint of workpieces have dissimilar metals, comprising:

• establishing a finite element model of an assembly comprising of a first workpiece joined to a second workpiece with a weld fillet formed by laser welding, wherein the first workpiece includes a first base metal and the second workpiece includes a second base metal dissimilar to the first base metal;
• and
• calculating the residual stress of the weld fillet by performing a finite element analysis of the finite element model over a heating and cooling temperature range effective to form the weld fillet by the laser welding;
• and
• wherein the finite element analysis includes incorporating phase transformation and phase-specific properties of the weld fillet at predetermined temperature increments over the heating and cooling temperature range.

A method of calculating residual stress in weld joints, comprising:

• establishing a finite element geometric model of an assembly comprising of a first workpiece joined to a second workpiece with a weld fillet, wherein the first workpiece includes a first base metal and the second workpiece includes a second base metal dissimilar to the first base metal;
• implementing a solver to calculate the residual stress of the assembly by performing a finite element analysis on the finite element geometric model over a heating and cooling temperature range effective to form the weld fillet by laser welding;
• and
• incorporating phase transformation and phase-specific properties of the first metal, the second metal, and a mixture of the first metal and the second metal utilizing a User Defined Subroutine (UMAT).