Investigation of temperature distribution of submerged arc welded plates is essential while designing submerged arc welding joint because the key parameter for the change of weld bead geometry dimension, thermal stress, residual stress, tensile stress, hardness, and so forth is heat input, and heat input is the function of temperature distribution of GMAW process. An attempt is made in this paper to find out the exact solution of the thermal field induced in a semi‐infinite body by a moving heat source with Gaussian distribution by selecting appropriate inside volume for submerged arc welding process. It has been revealed that for GMAW, best suitable heat source shape is a combination of semispherical and semioval.