Evaluation of 2D and 3D fea models for predicting residual stress and distortion

Finite element simulations are increasingly used to determine welding residual stress and distortion. Although good agreement with experimental results is reported tor the residual stress predictions, limited succcess is reported in the prediction of welding distortion, especially whe 2D models are used. A number of investigators have used 3D models to demonstrate that 2D models may be inadequate in some cases. However, 3D modeling is computationally very expensive. In this work, both 2D and 3D models are used together with experimental measurements to investigate the inadequacies of 2D models and suggest a means for improving them.