Introduction to Integrated Weld Modeling

This article provides an overview of integrated weld modeling and presents strategic goals for the welding industry. It discusses the fundamentals of the underlying physics and the methodologies to solve the same. The article presents the pioneering work done to predict the heat-affected zone and weld metal microstructure in the early 1980s and 1990s. Applications of computational thermodynamics and kinetics tools to weld metal microstructure prediction for liquid-gas reactions and liquid-slag reactions that happen as a function of high-to-low temperature during fusion welding are discussed. The article also includes a brief discussion on weldability prediction, residual stress prediction, and distortion prediction. It concludes with information on the use of optimization methodologies.