Effect of the strength of steel sheets and wires on residual stress of thin steel sheet lap-fillet GMA weld joint

Weld residual stress of the lap fillet GMA welding joints which was performed using two strength grades of steel sheets and two strength grades of welding wires were measured. In addition, to consider the effects of steel sheet strength and weld metal strength on welding residual stress, thermal elastoplastic analysis using FEM was carried out for the experiments. As a result of the analysis using the temperature history of the heat-affected zone as a fitting parameter, the residual stress distributions near the toe were in agreement with the measurement in the FE analysis. Comparing the residual stress distributions in the direction perpendicular to the weld line on the weld metal surface near the toe, which is the occurring point of fatigue cracks in the FE analysis results, with the same steel sheet, the higher the weld metal strength the smaller the tensile residual stress. And comparing with the same wire, the higher the steel sheet strength the higher the tensile residual stress. The reason for the former is that when using high-strength wire, cooling transformation occurs at a lower temperature than using low-strength wire. As a result, it is considered that the tensile residual stress was effectively reduced by causing transformation expansion while the surrounding strength was high. The reason for the latter is considered to be that each stress value changes based on the yield stress of the steel sheet and weld metal because the plastic strain continues to occur in each direction until transformation occurs after welding. It was considered that the larger the ratio of the hardness of the weld metal to the base metal, the smaller the ratio of the residual stress of the weld metal near the toe to the yield stress.