Recent research on welding distortion prediction in thin plate fabrication by means of elastic FE computation

Elastic FE simulation with inherent deformation and interface element is an ideal and practical computational approach for predicting welding distortion in production of thin plate structures. In this study, recent researches on inherent deformation theory and welding induced buckling investigation of ship panel were sequentially introduced. Taking bead-on-plate welding as research objective (plate with 2.28 mm in thickness), integration approach with inherent strain was proposed to accurately and conveniently evaluate magnitude of inherent deformation. Also, average temperature to clarify the mechanism of influential effect of plate width on magnitude of inherent deformation was presented and examined. With the mechanism investigation of welding induced buckling by elastic FE analysis using inherent deformation, an application for predicting and mitigating the welding induced buckling in fabrication of ship panel with thin plates by employing different welding procedure patterns was carried out. Examined intermittent zigzag welding procedure is effective to reduce the magnitude of in-plane inherent shrinkages and control the possible welding induced buckling.