Hybrid Experimental-numerical Concept of Residual Stress Analysis in Laser Weldments

by D. Holstein, L. Salbut, M. Kujawinska and W. Jptner

ABSTRACTThe concept, methodology and instrumentation for hybrid experimental-numerical residual stress analysis in a laser weldment are presented. Grating interferometry and digital speckle photography are applied as complementary experimental methods for the determination of the initial model of residual strains and of the material properties at the various zones of a laser weldment. These data inserted into a nite element model enable one to analyze the formation of the residual stress state of the object, which is compared and modied by means of experimental data in a closed iterative loop. This full hybrid approach is tested successfully on a laser-welded steel specimen in uniaxial tensile tests. KEY WORDSDigital speckle photography, grating interferometry, laser weldments, residual stresses, spatially resolved strain eld

Introduction An extensive introduction of laser beam welding into industry requires knowledge about the mechanical/ technological properties and the residual stresses of laser weldments. Usually, weldments represent an inhomogeneous material compound with different material constants in the base material, the heat-affected zone and the weld material. Furthermore, the deformation behavior of the compound is signicantly inuenced by the initial residual stress state. Due to shrinkage and transformation phenomena in combination with an inhomogeneous cooling of the samples after welding, residual stresses appear. When the welded joint is subsequently loaded, the residual stresses superimpose on the stresses owing to the external load. The characterization of laser-welded joints may be accomplished by means of experimental as well as numerical analyses of the deformation behavior under various loading conditions. Finite element analyses provide detailed information about the stress and strain distributions of the object under investigation. In contrast to most of the experimental techniques, the full three-dimensional information is available. However, a proper numerical analysis needs reliable input

D. Holstein is afliated with BIASBremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology, D-28359 Bremen, Germany. L. Salbut and M. Kujawinska are afliated with IMiFInstitute of Micromechanics and Photonics, 02-525 Warsaw, Poland. W. Jptner is afliated with BIASBremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology, D-28359 Bremen, Germany. Original manuscript submitted: April 19, 1999. Final manuscript received: July 11, 2001.

data for the model as well as an experimental verication of the simulated results. Hybrid techniques enable one to combine the advantages of numerical analyses with those of experimental investigations. Various types of hybrid techniques exist that represent different levels of collaboration between experimental and numerical data.1 For a basic or a localized hybrid approach, the numerical model is supported by experimentally determined material constants and/or boundary conditions.2 In contrast, the full hybrid technique requires a close linkage between numerical solutions and experimental results through all stages of the analysis. In this paper, the realization of a full hybrid concept is presented that enables one to determine nondestructively (despite the residual stress model determination, which is used as a supplementary technique) the residual stress state of a laser-welded joint. Thereby, the typical narrow dimensions of laser weldments in combination with the steep property gradients are taken into account.3 The applied optical measurement techniques provide displacements/strains with high spatial resolution to characterize the deformation in the various zones of a laser weldment separately. Conventional measurement techniques, such as strain gages, are usually not able to provide the required data due to a lack of spatial resolution. Furthermore, not only the elastic but also the plastic properties of each weldment zone must be available. Usually, a single measurement technique cannot provide both data, so that two complementary techniques must be applied. Grating interferometry and digital speckle photography are two nondestructive optical measurement techniques that cover the whole required measurement range.4,5 In the hybrid concept presented here, grating interferometry is used to determine elastic properties whereas the large displacements involved in the plastic domain are measured by means of digital speckle photography. These measurements are performed in uniaxial tensile tests. The experimental results and a rough experimental approximation of the qualitative residual stress distribution enter a nite element model. On the basis of this model, simulations are performed and afterward compared with experiments. This is done in a closed iterative loop, so that an agreement in the results enables one to make conclusions about the residual stress state of the object under experimental investigation. Test Specimens The specimens for the uniaxial tensile tests were cut from laser-welded steel plates. The base material of the plates is

Experimental Mechanics 343

S235JRLC.6 The geometry of the specimens was prepared according to the standard DIN 50120 (Fig. 1). Generally, a uniaxial stress state (y = 0, x = z = 0) is assumed in the tensile tests. The measurement areas located at the center of the weldment have dimensions of 13.0 13.0 mm2 for digital speckle photography and 10.0 7.0 mm2 (tensile tests) or 25.0 20.0 mm2 (residual stress model determination) for grating interferometry. The numerical part of the hybrid analysis requires a nite element model, which represents a model analogous to the center part of the tensile test specimen. The model should describe the real tensile test specimen and the testing conditions exactly. Generally, all simulations are performed by means of the nite element code ANSYS. Welded specimens usually consist of two base material zones, two heat-affected zones and the weld material itself. These zones have different material properties and dimensions. Thus, in the nite element model of the tensile test specimen, these three characteristic zones are dened as well (Fig. 2). The properties of each zone, such as Youngs modulus (E ), Poissons ratio () and the stress-strain relations after plastication, can be dened separately (e.g., with the support of experimental data). In addition to the inhomogeneous material properties of the weldment, residual stresses occur in and near by the fusion line.7 From these internal stresses, the essential components perpendicular to the weldment (y ) are implemented in the model by means of an internal pressure distribution (Fig. 3). It is assumed that the internal pressure distribution causes the same deformation at the surface of the object as a residual stress state. For the approximation of the residual stress state, a homogeneous pressure distribution through the thickness (z-direction) and across the width (x -direction) is applied. The variations of the real residual state in thickness and width are neglected in this approach. Thus, the pressure

BM HAZ WM HAZ BM

Fig. 2Volumes and mesh of the nite element model (BM = base material, HAZ = heat-affected zone, WM = weld material)

max
Residual stress

max

Weld material

HAZ

min

HAZ

Distance from the weldment

Fig. 3Residual stress distribution in the nite element model

Weld

Measurement area 20mm 40mm

30mm

7.5mm

distribution provides a valid approximation of the residual stress state only at the surface of the sample. The required a priori information about the qualitative residual stress distribution perpendicular to the weldment is provided by a knowledge base7,8 and special experiments5 explained below. Between the local maximum (max ) in the heat-affected zone and the local minimum (min ) in the weld material, the residual stress, or rather the internal pressure, is interpolated linearly (Fig. 3). However, the quantity of the maximum and the minimum can be adjusted in the nite element model. Experimental Procedure and Results Two optical full-eld methods for in-plane displacement/ strain determination were employed, namely, grating interferometry9 and digital speckle photography,3,1012 to fulll the experimental requirements of the hybrid concept outlined earlier. The basic features of these techniques are given in Table 1. They clearly indicate that grating interferometry is preferable for high-accuracy laboratory investigation of the displacement/strain distribution in the elastic range. Digital speckle photography provides a wider range of measurement and is more suitable for wide-scale measurement of stressstrain relations in the elastic-plastic domain.4,5

Fig. 1Geometry of the welded tensile test specimen

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TABLE 1BASIC FEATURES OF GRATING INTERFEROMETRY AND DIGITAL SPECKLE PHOTOGRAPHY Applied Accuracy of Measurement Range for Measurement Lateral Displacement Strain Determination Modication Method Area Resolution Determination Minimum Maximum of Specimen Grating 25 25 mm2 interferometry 10 7 mm2 Digital 13 13 mm2 speckle photography a. Dependent on the surface nish 50 m 10 m 100 m 20 nm 250 nm 5 106 100 106 8000 106 To specimen failure Grating replication White paint or not requireda

Complexity of Setup Medium Low

Grating (moir) Interferometry PRINCIPLES AND INSTRUMENTATION Automated grating interferometry was applied to perform two measurement tasks: (1) determination of local material constants (E , ) and stress-strain diagrams within the elastic range and (2) determination of qualitative residual strains in the vicinity of the weldment. In the grating interferometry setup, a portable workshop interferometer (Fig. 4) with a measuring head with compensating grating is applied.13 This solution ensures that grating interferometry is relatively insensitive to vibrations and can be used in an unstable environment or directly on a loading machine (rst task). A cross-pattern diffraction grating with frequency of 1200 l/mm is replicated at the sample and illuminated sequentially by two pairs of coherent beams. The deformations of x - and y -direction gratings introduce into the output interferograms information about u or v in-plane displacements, respectively. The deformations may be caused by the load applied to the sample (rst task) or by releasing the residual stresses (no load requiredsecond task). The intensities captured by the CCD camera are I (x, y) = a(x, y) + b(x, y) cos 4 4 u(x, y) or v(x, y) , d d (1)

and Poissons ratio ( = x /y ) calculationsunder the assumption of a uniaxial stress statewere taken as the average values along the cross sections at both sides of the weldment (as shown in Fig. 5). These data calculated for various loads enable one to present the stress-strain diagram for different zones of the welded specimen. The directional coefcient of the diagrams presented in Fig. 6 represents average Youngs modulus values for the given zone. Due to the averaging of strain elds used for calculations and the least squares t procedure of the directional coefcient, the accuracy of the determination of the local material constants is estimated for 6.5 percent of the measured value. The variations in material properties in the cross section of the weldment are shown in Fig. 7, whereas the E and values inserted into the nite element model are given in Table 2. RESIDUAL DISPLACEMENT/STRAIN DETERMINATION To determine residual displacement and strain elds [(x, y ) and y (x, y)], the residual stresses were released by cutting the specimen through the entire thickness of the weldment, as shown in Fig. 8. Before cutting, a cross-type grating was attached to the specimen, so the fringes that appear in the (x, y) interferograms [Fig. 9(a)] show the in-plane displacement maps directly related to the residual stresses. Of course, the fully released (integrated through the thickness) displacements occur at the edge of the cut only, whereas partly released displacement are observed at some distance from the cut [Fig. 9(b)]. Regardless, the (x, y) map was differentiated, and the y distribution [Fig. 9(c)] obtained indicates the approximate qualitative model of the residual stress distribution. This distribution was compared with the model predicted by the knowledge base (Ref. 5 and Fig. 3) and was inserted into the hybrid procedure of quantitative residual stress distribution investigations in the laser weldment [Fig. 9(d)]. Digital Speckle Photography PRINCIPLES AND INSTRUMENTATION Digital speckle photography was applied for full-eld inplane displacement vector measurement and for the determination of stress-strain relations for all zones in the weldment

where a(x, y) and b(x, y) are the background and contrast functions, respectively, and d is the period of the specimen grating. The basic sensitivity of the in-plane displacement determination is 417 nm per fringe. Interferograms obtained in the grating interferometry system are analyzed by an automatic fringe pattern analyzer based on the ve-point spatial carrier frequency phase shifting method.14 It allows one to determine displacements on the base of a single interferogram with properly introduced carrier fringes. The overall accuracy of displacement measurement by the applied method and software is 20 nm. Displacement maps with a resolution of 512 512 points over the measurement area are obtained. The displacement elds are then numerically differentiated in order to calculate x and y strain maps. MATERIAL CONSTANTS DETERMINATION The x and y strain distributions were calculated by differentiation of in-plane displacement maps captured for the specimen tensile-loaded in the range from 1 to 2.4 kN with steps of 0.2 kN. The average accuracy of strain map determination after performing median ltering (window 7 6 pixels) is estimated for 8 microstrains. Figure 5 presents the exemplary strain maps obtained for a load of 1.6 kN. The strain values needed for Youngs modulus (E = y /y )

TABLE 2EXPERIMENTAL VALUES OF THE MATERIAL CONSTANTS Heat = Weld Affected Base Material Zone Material E (MPa) 236000 210000 180000 0.40 0.35 0.27
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u(x,y)

v(x,y)

Fig. 4Experimental setup of the grating interferometry (SP = specimen with grating; M1, M2 = interferometer mirrors; CG = compensating grating; IO = imaging lens; CO = collimating lens)

a)
BM HAZ1 W HAZ2 BM

b)
BM HAZ1 W HAZ2 BM

Fig. 5Contour plots of (a) x and (b) y strains (BM = base material, HAZ = heat-affected zone, W = weld material)

20

18

16

14

12

stress [MPa]

10

Weld Material Heat Affected Zone Base Material

0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

ey [microstrain]

Fig. 6Stress-strain diagram of the various zones of a laser weld under tensile load within the elastic range of 1 to 2.4 kN

a)
250 240 230 220 210

b)
0,45 0,4

Poisson ratio

E [GPa]

0,35

200 190 180 170 160 150 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8

0,3

0,25

0,2 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8

[mm]

[mm]

Fig. 7(a) Youngs modulus and (b) Poissons ratio variations at the cross section of the laser weldment

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specimen weld

Y u

cutting

Fig. 8Specimen for residual strain determination

a)

b)

c)

d)

Fig. 9Residual displacement and strain analysis in the weldment: (a) interferogram representing (x, y) map, (b) threedimensional plot of displacement map, (c) contour map of residual strains y , (d) contour map of residual strains cross section A-A

for a wide elastic-plastic range of loads.2 The standard setup for these measurements is shown in Fig. 10. The specimen under investigation is coherently illuminated by means of an expanded laser beam. The typical granular speckle pattern on the opaque surface of the sample is stored electronically. This speckle pattern is a representation of the surface at the current load state. It appears due to microinterferences of the coherent light after reection at the rough surface of the sample. A speckle pattern of the reference state and a speckle pattern of the considered load state are digitized by means of a high-resolution CCD camera. The evaluation of the displacements occurring between these two load states is done numerically. The available speckle images with a size of 2024 2043 pixels are divided into subimages (Fig. 10). The typical sizes of these subimages are 64 64 pixels or 32 32 pixels. The calculation of the local displacement vectors at each subimage is performed by cross correlations of the subimages at the reference state (I ) and the subimage at the load state (I ):

RI I = F 1 F I (wx , wy ) F I (vx , vy )

(2)

where RI I is the cross-correlation function, F is the Fourier transform, F 1 is the inverse Fourier transform and the asterisk ( ) is the complex conjugation. This refers to the evaluation technique of the classical speckle photography, where double-exposed speckle photos are locally illuminated. The mean displacement vector of one evaluated subimage pair is given by the coordinates of the peak of the cross-correlation function RI I .8 After the evaluation of all subimages, the full in-plane displacement map of the measurement area is available and the strain distributions are calculated by numerical differentiation of the displacement maps.2,10 STRESS-STRAIN RELATION DETERMINATION Digital speckle photography enables one to measure the in-plane displacement vector in the total elastic-plastic range
Experimental Mechanics 347

x, y
Displacement vectors Laser Subimage I Numerical correlation R II Subimage I'

S IO

CCD Speckle image (reference state) Speckle image (load state)

Fig. 10Standard setup of digital speckle photography (S = specimen, IO = imaging lens)

of the load (i.e., 10 to 80 kN). Due to the full-eld character of digital speckle photography measurements, it is possible to determine the strains (here, y ) and present the stress-strain diagram of various zones of a laser weldment. As shown in Fig. 11, the much lower strains of the weld material in comparison to the heat-affected zone and the base material (S235JRLC) are evident. Due to its very high strength, the weld material supports the less-stiff heat-affected zone and parts of the base material. Furthermore, the yield strength is higher in the weld material than in the heat-affected zone and the base material. This phenomenon is known as overmatching. Due to the high yield strength, the weld material supports the weaker heat-affected zone and parts of the base material. It represents a kind of reinforcement in the material compound of the weldment. Digital speckle photography provides accurate values for the localized hybrid method for the stress values above the yield point. However, the additional data obtained for the stress range 150200 MPa are taken as the experimental reference in the loop of the full hybrid approach. Hybrid Solution A full hybrid approach is applied to assess the residual stress state of the specimen under investigation. This experimental-numerical analysis is based on the close linkage between experimentally and numerically determined data (Fig. 12). On the basis of the elastic-plastic material properties and the qualitative residual stress distribution, a numerical simulation of a tensile test is performed. The qualitative residual stress distribution is given by means of a knowledge base or separate experiments. However, the maximum and the minimum values in the residual stress distribution must be assumed. The nite element model is generated by means of a basic and a localized hybrid approach. In the basic approach, experimentally determined material properties entered the model. The initial residual stress distributions are applied in the localized approach. The strains resulting from the rst simulation are compared with experimentally determined strains. Here, the strains measured by digital speckle photography are used; however, they can be provided by grating interferometry or

any other full-eld technique. At rst, no agreement between the numerical and the experimental strain map is expected, so that the full hybrid approach must be applied. In an iterative loop, the nite element model is modied. Thereby, the peak values max and min of the residual stress distribution are adjusted (Fig. 3). With the modied model, a further simulation is performed and a new strain map is calculated and afterward compared with the experimental data. This procedure is repeated with corrected max and min values until an agreement between numerical and experimental strain distribution is reached. In our example of the laser-welded S235JRLC plate, the residual stress distribution is determined after four iteration loops. Three characteristic points of the experimental and numerical strain maps are compared at a specic load state between 150 and 200 MPa (Fig. 11). The locations of these points are in the weld material, in the heat-affected zone and in the base material, respectively. After the fourth iteration, a good agreement between the numerical and the experimental strains is reached (Table 3). Due to the agreement between the simulation and the experiment, the residual stress distribution of the nite element model implemented at the last iteration correlates with the residual stress state in the sample under experimental investigation (Fig. 13). Conclusion In this paper, the full hybrid experimental-numerical concept of nondestructive determination of the residual stress state of a laser weldment is presented. At the rst stage, the technique is supported by the basic and the localized hybrid approaches in which experimentally obtained material properties of the various zones of a laser weldment as well as a qualitative initial model of the surface residual strain distribution entered the nite element model. Grating interferometry and digital speckle photography are proposed as the complementary experimental methods for the determination of all experimental data within the elastic range and the plastic domain. In a second stage, the model is iteratively modied in order to achieve full agreement between the experimental data gathered by the digital speckle photography method and the

348 Vol. 41, No. 4, December 2001

400

350

300

Data for localized hybrid approach

250

Stress [MPa]
200

Data for full hybrid approach

150

100

50

Base material HAZ Weld material

0 0 0,05 0,1 0,15 0,2 0,25

y -strain

Fig. 11Experimental stress-strain diagrams of the various zones of a laser weldment (HAZ = heat-affected zone)

E, (elastic) GI-experiment

/ (plastic) DSP-experiment

qualitative RS distribution knowledge base / GI-exp.

modification of RS maximum + minimum

finite-element-method

experiment

displacements + strains FE-simulation

displacements + strains DSP / GI / other -experiment

agreement ?

No

Yes

quantitative RS distribution of the specimen under investigation

Fig. 12Scheme of the full hybrid approach for residual stress (RS) determination (GI = grating interferometry, DSP = digital speckle photography, FE = nite element)

TABLE 3EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL STRAINS AT y = 191 MPa Weld Material Heat-affected Zone Experimental strains (y ) Simulated strains (y ) 8.139 104 8.154 104 1.768 103 1.774 103

Base Material 9.579 104 9.391 104

numerical data. Consequently, the residual stress state of the object under investigation correlates at the surface with the assumed residual stress distribution of the nite element model. The hybrid approach presented has proven to be very effective, and therefore it may be considered for application

in a laser weldment quality test. In this last case, the set of experimentally based nite element models of various laser weldments (material, technological parameters) should be prepared and used for quick, hybrid nondestructive weldment tests.
Experimental Mechanics 349

Fig. 13Residual stress distribution y in the object under investigation

Acknowledgments The authors want to thank the Volkswagen-Stiftung, Hannover, for the support of this project (I/72393). References
1. Laermann, K.H., ber das Prinzip der hybriden Technik in der experimentellen Spannungsanalyse, Messen+Prfen/Automatik, 184190 (1983). 2. Kobayashi, A.S., Hybrid Experimental-numerical Stress Analysis, Handbook of Experimental Mechanics, ed. A.S. Kobayashi, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 739767 (1987). 3. Holstein, D., Hartmann, H.-J., and Jptner, W., Investigation of Laser Welds by Means of Digital Speckle Photography, Proceedings of SPIE, 3478, San Diego, CA, 294301 (1998). 4. Holstein, D., Jptner, W., Kujawinska, M., and Salbut, L., Investigations of Residual Stresses Induced by Laser Beam Welding by Means of Optical Methods, Proceedings of MECHATRONIKA, Warsaw, Poland, 789796 (1997). 5. Salbut, L., Kujawinska, M., Holstein, D., and Jptner, W., Comparative Analysis of Laser Weldment Properties by Grating Interferometry and Digital Speckle Photography, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics, Oxford, UK, 13311336 (1998).

6. DIN EN 10025, Warmgewalzte Erzeugnisse aus unlegierten Bausthlen, Beuth Verlag, Berlin (1990). 7. Hilbinger, R.M., Mayer, S., Krner, C., and Bergmann, H.W., Eigenspannungen beim Laserstrahlschweissen verschiedener Bausthle, Hrterei-Technische Mitteilungen, 50, 380388 (1995). 8. Wohlfahrt, H., Schweisseigenspannungen, Hrterei-Technische Mitteilungen, 31, 5671 (1976). 9. Kujawinska, M. and Salbut, L., Recent Development in Instrumentation of Automated Grating Interferometry, Opt. Appl., 25, 211232 (1995). 10. Chen, D.J., Chiang, F.P., Tan, Y.S., and Don, H.S., Digital Speckledisplacement Measurement Using a Complex Spectrum Method, Appl. Opt., 32, 18391849 (1993). 11. Sjdahl, M. and Benckert, L.R., Electronic Speckle Photography: Analysis of an Algorithm Giving the Displacement with Subpixel Accuracy, Appl. Opt., 32, 22782284 (1993). 12. Chu, T.C., Ranson, W.F., Sutton, M.A., and Peters, W.H., Application of Digital-image-correlation Techniques to Experimental Mechanics, EXPERIMENTAL MECHANICS, 25, 232244 (1985). 13. Czarnek, R., High Sensitivity Moire Interferometry with Compact Achromatic Interferometer, Opt. Lasers Eng., 13, 93101 (1990). 14. Kujawinska, M., Spatial Phase Measurement Methods, Interferogram Analysis, ed. D.W. Robinson and G.T. Reid, Institute of Physics Bristol (1993).

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