**4.1 Procedures for the adequacy of the quantity of material deposited in the weldment**

Since the RS in welding are the result of non-uniform deformations caused by the thermal gradient of the process, which can be attenuated by reducing the volume of weld metal deposited and adapting the chamfer design, which tends to decrease the heat transferred to the part and consequently, it causes a decrease in the RS levels and the degree of distortion of the weldment. The adequacy of the quantity of material must be chosen at the stage of development of the project and welding procedures. **Figure 4a** shows the representation of angular deformations in butt welds with various thicknesses, demonstrating that the angular distortion increases as a thicker plate is used, due to the greater amount of deposited material, resulting in a greater contraction during the solidification process. For small thicknesses, the angular deformation is not significant due to the high homogeneity of the temperature field through the thickness of the sheet. Plates with

#### **Figure 4.**

*Representation of angular distortions. (a) plate distortions in butt joints with various thicknesses and (b) angular distortion depending on the thickness of the plate and the heat input qw.*

intermediate thickness correspond to the highest angular distortion value [64–66]. However, for plates with great thickness the value of angular deformation became low, due to its greater rigidity. **Figure 4b** shows, in a qualitative way, the angular deformation as a function of the thickness of the plate and the heat input, qw [67]. The increase in heat delivered to the plate can be represented using different welding parameters, such as increasing the feed value, in the case of the GMAW process, using the welding torch manipulation, weaving, and reducing the welding speed. The variation of these parameters generates an increase in material deposited per unit of length, consequently greater heat input, which shifts the curve to the right (**Figure 4b**). The authors [68] observed in their study that by applying a variant of the GMAW process to the CW-GMAW process, a reduction in the width of HAZ was obtained. This trend would be consistent with faster cooling rates produced using the CW-GMAW process, which suppresses ferrite nucleation at the grain boundaries. This reduction in the cooling rate resulted in less misalignment of the welded joint in the CW-GMAW process, compared to welding performed by the GMAW process.
