A COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF DEFORMATIONS IN A DRAW BEAD WELDED PIPE

Draw bead welding is a procedure used to align pipe ends for closure welds or to align bolted flange connections in piping systems. The draw bead weld has the appearance of a girth weld that is made partially around the circumference of the pipe. The non-symmetrical nature of a draw bend toward the side of the pipe where the weld metal is deposited. Currently, data on deformations of draw bead welded pipes is limited, and there is a need for a computational model to better understand deformations resulting from draw bead welding. An exact model of the draw bead weld would require a three-dimensional analysis, which is too costly to run for the numerous cases required to study draw bead welding. This paper describes an approximate but efficient computational model that represents the welding parameters and geometric aspects of the draw bead weld. Laboratory data for the deflections of a draw bead welded pipe are also presented. Comparisons between the deflection data and values computed by the model show good agreement. The model is also used in a sensitivity study to evaluate the effects of the weld groove girth angle, the width of the draw bead weld groove, and the location of the weld pass on the amount of deflection experienced by the pipe.