# Automated and Low Computational Cost Thermo-Mechanical Simulation of Arbitrary GMAW T-Joint Welds Using a Moving Heat Source

## TL;DR

This paper introduces an automated, low-cost simulation method for predicting thermal and mechanical effects in GMAW T-joint welds using finite element analysis.

## Contribution

The novelty is an automated APDL-based thermo-mechanical simulation method with a volume element strategy for reduced computational cost.

## Key findings

- The method reduces computational time by up to 50% while maintaining accuracy.
- Validation with experimental results shows good agreement in temperature and displacement.
- The approach enables efficient parametric analysis of T-joint geometries and welding conditions.

## Abstract

Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) is widely adopted in automated manufacturing industries where the accurate prediction of thermal fields and welding-induced distortions is essential to ensure joint integrity of the parts; however, finite element modeling, as the most reliable non-destructive predictive approach, remains time-consuming and highly user-specialized. This work presents an automated and low computational cost thermo-mechanical finite element methodology implemented in Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL) for the parametric analysis of GMAW T-joints, integrating automated geometry generation, meshing, heat source implementation, and thermo-mechanical modeling for different beam and weld seam dimensions under continuous or intermittent single-pass configurations. A volume element selection strategy is introduced to limit heat input calculations to the active weld pool region, achieving up to a 50% computational time reduction while maintaining high predictive accuracy, in contrast with conventional and partial selection methods. Overall script performance was validated through temperature and displacement comparisons between the numerical and experimental results of two T-joint configurations using SM490A structural steel specimens. The results demonstrate that the developed macro provides a useful tool for automated thermo-mechanical welding analysis, significantly reducing model preparation effort while enabling the evaluation of parametric T-joint geometries and welding conditions with a low computational cost focus.