Study of microhardness, electrical conductivity and dry wear of Al7Si0,4MgxFe Alloys obtained by Horizontal Solidification
Soldagem; tensões residuais; frequências naturais; vibrações mecânicas; método de elementos finitos
Welding processes may cause undesirable residual stresses and their detection is possible using different methods. Some residual stress detection methods or techniques are destructive or semi-destructive, therefore not always applicable. Some methods are non-destructive, such as X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, and ultrasound. However, they are complex and high cost. One possible non-destructive method to detect welding residual stresses, lower cost than the current techniques, is being studied by some researchers. This method is based in the phenomenon which a structure natural frequencies vary when welding residual stress is applied. It consists in measuring the structure natural frequencies after welding, and comparing them to natural frequency values considered ideal values. These ideal values are obtained from finite element method simulation. However, the welding process simulation is not trivial; it implies at least four finite element analysis which can be executed in different manners. Different researchers have been developing studies with different types of structures, materials and results. The aim of this study is to analyze which parameters can improve Finite Element Method (FEM) model performance for obtaining simulation results closer to experiments. In this study, five models were developed and validated with experimental studies. It was observed that models using 2D shell elements generate better results than odels using 3D solid elements. In addition, it was observed that the symmetry technique which can be used in plate simulations leads to significant lower computational times, but affect modal results and, in addition, do not generate natural frequency values for all vibrational modes; therefore, the symmetry technique should be avoided in this type of analysis. The birth and death technique, which simulates filler metal deposition, was also analyzed and it was concluded that this technique has small effect in the results. Finally, this work proposes an interpolation technique for the natural frequency values to evaluate the modal results variation due to welding residual stresses.