Abstract: Based on ABAQUS code,a thermo-elasticplastic finite element method considering moving heat source, material nonlinearity and geometrical nonlinearity was developed to simulate welding residual stress and deformation in the weld on thin low carbon steel plate.Meanwhile.the welding deformation and welding residual stress in weld on the thin plate were measured by experiment.Through comparing the numerical results and the measured data,the effectiveness of the computational approach was verified.In addition.the general features of welding distortion and residual stress distribution in the weld on thin low carbon steel plate were studied numerically.