Adaptive mesh technique for thermal-metallurgical numerical simulation of arc welding processes

A major problem arising in finite element analysis of welding is the long computer times required for a complete three‐dimensional analysis. In this study, an adaptative strategy for coupled thermometallurgical analysis of welding is proposed and applied in order to provide accurate results in a minimum computer time. The anisotropic adaptation procedure is controlled by a directional error estimator based on local interpolation error and recovery of the second derivatives of different fields involved in the finite element calculation. The methodology is applied to the simulation of a gas–tungsten‐arc fusion line processed on a steel plate. The temperature field and the phase distributions during the welding process are analyzed by the FEM method showing the benefits of dynamic mesh adaptation. A significant increase in accuracy is obtained with a reduced computational effort. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.