Improving the accuracy of welding distortion simulation by taking account of the deep drawing process.

Welding simulation offers the metal-processing industry a great potential for reducing the development times and costs. In this respect, a stress-free initial condition is generally assumed for simplification purposes. Since this assumption does not apply to the welding of deep-drawn sheet parts, it may be necessary to define the component condition from a forming simulation as the initial condition. Moreover, accuracy losses may occur during that transfer of results from the forming simulation to the welding simulation which is required to this end because, in both simulations, different models are used, for example, for the material behaviour. The accuracy losses are expressed, for instance, in the falsification of the geometry and of the stress condition. The objective of the presented investigations was to answer the questions: not only "On what influences do these accuracy losses depend?" but also "When is it necessary to take account of forming results in a welding simulation as the initial condition?" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]