Abstract: In this paper,the temperature field of weld metal solidification cracking in the stainless steel was analyzed and simulated.Firstly,the heat input from the moving arc is assumed to be a radially symmetric Gaussian distribution which is applied on the surface of a workpiece. Secondly, the released latent fusion heat was obtained through measurement of the fraction of solid during welding by means of liquid quench test. Finally, the fluid flow of the weld pool was taken into account by increasing the heat conduction coefficient at elevated temperature. As a result, a 2-D temperature field model for welding solidification cracking was developed. Furthermore, the temperature fields were calculated with finite element method. At the same time, the paper studied influences of welding parameters and thermophysical properties of steels on the temperature fields which laid a foundation for further analysis of thermal stress/strain distributions involving weld metal solidification crack.