Abstract:The thermo-elastic-plastic finite element method (FEM) is used to simulate the thermo-mechanical behavior of Al/steel tungsten inert gas (TIG) arc-assisted laser welding-brazing (A-LWB) butt joint. The influence of material nonlinearity, geometrical nonlinearity and work hardening on the welding process is studied, and the differences in the welding temperature field, residual stress and welding distortion by A-LWB and by single laser welding-brazing (SLWB) are analyzed. The results show that the thermal cycle, residual stress distribution and welding distortion by the numerical simulation are in good agreement with the measured data by experiments, which verifies the effectiveness of FEM. Compared with the SLWB, A-LWB can make the high-temperature distribution zone of weld in width direction wider, decrease the transverse tensile stress in the weld and reduce the distribution range of longitudinal tensile stress. And the welding deformation also decreases to some extent.

Key words: arc-assisted laser welding-brazing (A-LWB); Al/steel; finite element method (FEM); temperature field; residual stress; welding distortion