Part 1: Manual weld definition

Welding is a process that joins materials by causing fusion: the base metal is melted and typically a filler material is added to form a pool of molten material. When simulating the welding process in order to assess the structural behavior of a welded joint, there are two main challenges when setting up the model:

• Thermal and structural behavior needs to be coupled to each other
• Material needs to be added during the welding process. This also changes the boundaries and thus the location of the boundary conditions.