On reducing the post-heat-treatment time of the weldment

Post heat treatment of weldments is one of the most extensively used techniques by the industrial community for relieving welding residual stresses. Such practice not only delays the manufacturing process, but also increases the cost of manufacturing. In this article, an idea of a new welding technique, which is a promising tool for relieving welding residual stresses, is presented. This method is anticipated to reduce the time and cost of the manufacturing process. The first part of the investigation focuses on simulation of an idea by using an auxiliary heat source for creating a weldment with a more uniform temperature distribution both spatially and temporally. A subroutine has been developed for optimizing the size of an auxiliary heat input (AHI). The details of the subroutine and the parameters considered for optimizing the AHI are presented. The results show that by increasing the stabilizing temperature and size of the AHI, the speed of cooling and spatial temperature gradient decreases. This may result in reducing the level of residual stresses.