Mechanism investigation of welding induced buckling using inherent deformation method

• Different buckling modes due to welding are observed in different welded structures.
• Inherent deformation is employed to clarify and predict welding induced buckling.
• Eigenvalue analysis using inherent deformation is used to analyze critical condition.
• Elastic FE analysis is carried out to investigate welding induced buckling.
• Computed results have a good agreement compared with measurement.

Due to the increasing use of thin plates in lightweight welded structure, welding induced buckling may occur in such thin plate welded structure. In this study, welding induced buckling of thin plate welded structure is investigated using the eigenvalue analysis and elastic Finite Element (FE) analysis based on inherent deformation theory, and the mechanism of welding induced buckling is clarified.Bead-on-plate welding is first examined. Measured out-of-plane welding distortion indicates that saddle type buckling is produced after cooling. Eigenvalue analysis shows the computed lowest buckling mode is the saddle type and the corresponding critical force is less than the applied tendon force evaluated by Thermal–Elastic–Plastic (TEP) Finite Element (FE) analysis beforehand. Using elastic Finite Element (FE) analysis in which all components of inherent deformation are used and also considering initial deflection, out-of-plane welding distortion is predicted with high accuracy compared with measurement. It is also concluded that tendon force (longitudinal inherent shrinkage) is the dominant reason of buckling and it determines the buckling mode, and initial deflection and inherent bending are considered to be disturbances which trigger buckling.Later, a thin plate stiffened welded structure with fillet welded joints is examined. Although welding did not induce buckling of plate fields in bending modes in the considered thin plate stiffened welded structure, the whole stiffened welded structure buckles in a twisting mode, while plate panels remain unbuckled. Eigenvalue analysis gives the twisting buckling mode as the lowest buckling mode. However, in stiffened welded structures, not only tendon force (longitudinal inherent shrinkage) but also transverse inherent shrinkage is responsible for buckling. The good agreement between computed and measured out-of-plane welding distortion shows that the elastic Finite Element (FE) analysis using inherent deformation theory is an advantage of the computational approach to predict welding distortion in large-scale and complex welded structure with enough computational accuracy.