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Numerical study of thermo-mechanical responses in laser transmission welding of polymers using a 3-D thermo-elasto-viscoplastic FE model

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Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study on the evolution of thermal and thermo-mechanically induced stress field during heating and cooling phases of laser transmission welding of polymers. A 3-D transient thermo-mechanical model is designed to simulate the laser transmission contour welding with a moving laser beam. Sequential coupled field analysis is performed in which the temperature results of the thermal model are added to the related mechanical model. Thermal phenomena like heat conduction, convection and radiation, and thermo-physico-mechanical properties of polymer varying with temperature are implemented in the numerical simulation. The stress–strain relationship of the polymer is defined by a multilinear isotropic hardening model that integrates the von Mises yield criteria, the associative flow rule, and the isotropic hardening law. Viscoplastic effect of polymers is included in the FE model by implementing Perzyna’s rate-dependent plasticity model in ANSYS®. The developed model is used for prediction of the temperature distribution and residual stresses in three-dimensional space.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the manuscript. Missing data, if any, that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Code availability

Software application (ANSYS®) and developed subroutine in APDL (ANSYS® Parametric Design Language).

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  1. Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, 835215, India

    Bappa Acherjee

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Acherjee, B. Numerical study of thermo-mechanical responses in laser transmission welding of polymers using a 3-D thermo-elasto-viscoplastic FE model. Weld World 66, 1421–1435 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40194-022-01300-w

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