Considering the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) of welding joint, the residual strain be-haviors of material under constraint and temperature circulation, as well as the activating mechanism of welding process, this paper addresses a new type welding element for numerical simulation of welding deformation, which is called the LEWE (the local equivalent welding element). This element can describe the basic char-acteristics of welded seam: the local position points of inherent strain, the equiva-lent size, the bending radius (or bending angle) from inherent strain, etc. It could be used to predict the welding deformation of plate-type structure. The comparisons between the computed deflection of welded plate and its experiment measurement are present. The results showed that the LEWE possesses a potential to simulate the deformation of welding process high-efficiently and precisely. Considering the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) of welding joint, the residual strain be-haviors of material under constraint and temperature circulation, as well as the activating mechanism of welding process, this paper addresses a new type welding element for numerical simulation of welding deformation , which is called the LEWE (the local equivalent welding element). This element can describe the basic char-acteristics of welded seam: the local position points of inherent strain, the equiva-lent size, the bending radius (or bending angle) from The comparisons between the computed deflection of the welded plate and its experiment measurement are present. The results showed that the LEWE possesses a potential to simulate the deformation of welding process high-efficiently and precisely.