Modelling and Analysis of Welding Processes in Abaqus using the Virtual Fabrication Technology (VFT) Analysis Software developed

The ability to accurately model welding processes in order to predict residual stresses and distortions is becoming increasingly important in the engineering industry. Abaqus can be used to model the welding process but this has been found to be considerably time consuming and requires a large number of assumptions to be made. Virtual Fabrication Technology is an analysis software suite that is designed to allow Abaqus to accurately model complex welding procedures. It was developed by the Battelle Memorial Institute in conjunction with Caterpillar Incorporated in the USA. The software is centred on a Graphical User Interface that is used to assign welding paths, parameters and material properties to FE models that have been imported from Abaqus/CAE. A closed form analytical thermal solver (CTSP) and advanced user material subroutine (UMAT35) are also included in the package. The final structural analysis of the welded component is carried out using Abaqus/Standard. This paper presents the results of an extensive evaluation of the VFT software package conducted by Rolls-Royce Marine. This was carried out in order to ascertain the capabilities of this software and to determine how it improves on the weld modelling methods currently available using Abaqus stand-alone. This evaluation has shown that VFT significantly enhances the ability of Abaqus to model welding procedures while providing significant savings in both the user and computer time required. A large benefit is seen in the further integration of this software into the Abaqus/CAE package.