Abstract
The thermal shrinkage technique with previously proposed input parameter values for single-pass welding was applied to a multi-layer butt-welded joint with four layers and six welding passes to validate whether these input parameters are applicable to multi-layer welded joints. The out-of-plate displacement distributions of the multi-layer welded joint obtained using the thermal shrinkage technique were in good agreement with those obtained in a thermal elastic-plastic analysis and an experiment. The angular distortion and transverse shrinkage at the center of the welding line obtained using the thermal shrinkage technique well agreed with the experimental and thermal elastic-plastic analysis results for each welding pass. Furthermore, the calculation time for the thermal shrinkage technique was 1/6 of that for the thermal elastic-plastic analysis. Our results demonstrate that the thermal shrinkage technique with the previously proposed input parameter values could be applicable to multi-layer welded joints.
