Numerical simulation and experimental research on temperature and stress fields in TIG welding for plate of RAFM steel

Abstract The Reduced Activation Martensitic/Ferritic steel (RAFM steel) is known as one of the most important materials for future fusion reactor blanket and the welding process is unavoidable for blanket structure, so it is extremely necessary to research his welding performance. Some simulations and experiments about welding processes of RAFM steel have been done in this paper. The multi-welding processes for medium thickness plate of RAFM steel were simulated in three-dimensional finite element models by ANSYS software. The temperature fields and stress fields from simulation were contrasted with that from experiments respectively, and the heat affected zones of welding were calculated and checked. Meanwhile, the metallic texture graphic analysis for welded zones was performed. The results from both are very similar, and the fused metal welding zones are very well without obvious defects by used 316L welding padding. The hardness on welding zone is much higher than the heat-affected zone, also base materials. All of them can provide beneficial reference for blanket design and processing of Chinese Fusion Test Reactor.