Analysis of residual stresses in hemispherical head to cylindrical shell joints of steam generator by weld cycle simulation

Analysis of cylindrical-to-spherical shell multipass weld joint is carried out by finite element simulation to obtain the residual stresses and the extent of heat affected region from the weld. Detailed analyses considering the effects of all passes grouped into three different layers (requiring a large CPU time on the computer) as well as simplified models involving analysis of (i) only top layer considering all the weld passes under that layer and (ii) only a few last passes of top layer are carried out for assessing the reduction in CPU time and labour commensurate with the accuracy obtainable.