Welding is a widely used procedure for the fabrication of joints and structures. Simulation of welding process using finite element method is a cost effective method for the understanding and analysis of the process. Welding of similar material is widely studied process using experimental and numerical methods but the problem becomes trivial for the welding of dissimilar materials. In the present work, finite element method is employed for the dissimilar material welding of St37 and SS304 stainless steel. Due to the differences in material properties, there is uneven partitioning of the heat at the joint interface in dissimilar welding. To compensate for heat loss at the interface between two plates; the heat source is traversed at different off-setting distances. The FE simulation is performed on MSC Marc 2013® for getting the temperature profile and predicting the weld bead behavior at different off-setting distances in dissimilar materials welding.

Keywords: Dissimilar steel welding, Finite element method, Weld bead, Temperature distribution.