Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the distortion and the residual stress of GTA tubular welds between tube and head. In order to do it, the heat input model for GTA welding process was first developed by experiment and FE analyses. The welding distortion and the residual stress distribution of the tubular welds according to welding pass and various restraint degrees were evaluated by using FEA with the heat input model. From FEA results, it was found that the residual stress and the radial distortion at the weld toe of tube part decrease with a decrease in the number of welding pass. However, the maximum residual stresses in each direction of tubular welds are almost constant regardless of the external restraint degree. It was mainly due to the high internal restraint of the welds.
