A Weld Setup object has the following configurable parameters:
- Selection Method
Two options are available for selecting weld bodies. allows you to select the weld bodies interactively or by named selections, while allows you to select the weld bodies using the wildcard option in the worksheet.
- Weld Heat Input
Three options are available to supply the load to the weld object:
: this option allows you to assign a direct temperature to the group of weld elements active in a specific load step.
: direct heat per unit volume is applied to the weld object. This option exposes the Direct Heat Generation parameter.
: net energy is calculated and applied to the weld object. This option exposes the following parameters
- Machine Parameter
Multiplication parameter specific to the welding tool to calibrate machine heat deposition rate.
- Voltage
Electrical voltage of the welding tool.
- Current
Electrical current drawn by the welding tool.
Power is calculated as follows: Machine Parameter * Voltage * Current / Number of groups.
- Thermal Strain Scaling Factor
Factor used in calculating the temperature at which the thermal strain begins acting on the model. The melting temperature is multiplied by this factor to set the body reference temperature. This is available only when the Weld Setup object is in a Static Structural environment.
- Ambient Temperature
This is used to specify the environment temperature of the weld process.
- Weld Velocity
The velocity of the welding tool. This determines the Welding Time in the worksheet and is used to automatically set the correct load step timing table.
- Weld Mode
Two options are available:
: Element kill and alive technology is used to create the welding elements in order to simulate weld feeding material deposition.
: Only thermal input is applied, but there is no activation or deactivation of elements, to simulate welding process without filler material.
- Elements Groups per Weld
This parameter determines the clustering or grouping of elements within a weld. The value is used to determine the number of fractions into which the weld volume would be split during the analysis. The number of load steps in the analysis settings is equal to the total number of elements groups plus additional cooling time for each welding line.
Note: Weld Direction calculation is done using the longest edge of the weld body. Welds should be modeled as long continuous bodies where possible. The accuracy of Weld Time is dependent on effective defeaturing in the model.