Vibratory Stress Relief of Welded Austenite Stainless Steel Plates: Numerical and Experimental Approach

Residual stresses are one of the most important factors in the integrity of welded structures. There have been vast majorities of research conducted on the mechanism of vibratory stress relief method (VSR), but the lack of a specific mechanism, explaining the process, was tangible. Therefore, in this article, the mechanism of VSR was explained using a new finite element model by focusing on the welded residual stresses, being widely used in industry. To be more specific, the effect of resonant vibration on residually stressed specimens was investigated numerically and experimentally. To model the welding simulation, a volumetric moving heat flux was defined using Goldak’s model in Abaqus/CAE. In addition, experiments were planned in a way to investigate not only the effects of vibration time, but also the effect of amplitude of the vibration. Residual stresses were measured using Incremental Centre Hole Drilling (ICHD) method. Finally, a mechanical shaker was designed and assembled to induce higher frequencies and larger amplitudes.