Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Residual Stresses in Seamed Pipe in Dependence on Welding and Metal Forming

Concerning the increasingly widespread utilization of the finite element method (FEM), the concept of the so-called virtual factory is also gaining ground, and not only in the engineering industry. This approach does not use numerical simulations of individual production technologies separately but treats the entire production process as a chain of interrelated technologies. Thus, the output data from one technology is taken as input data for the following technology. The resulting thermal and mechanical effects are then not only dealt with within one technology but always comprehensively within the production process. In the consideration of the loading and subsequent service lives of manufactured components, values of residual stresses are one of the very important characteristics. For these reasons, this paper deals with the effect of residual stresses’ magnitude and distribution during the formation and the final springback of the seamed pipe end section with and without respect to the influence of the preceding welding. The resulting residual stress values from numerical simulations are subsequently compared with the actual values of residual stresses experimentally measured using X-ray diffraction.