An efficient FE computation for predicting welding induced buckling in production of ship panel structure

In a Thermal-Elastic-Plastic (TEP) FE analysis to investigate welding induced buckling of large thin plate welded structure such as ship panel, it will be extremely difficult to converge computation and obtain the results when the material and geometrical non-linear behaviors are both considered. In this study, an efficient FE computation which is an elastic FE analysis based on inherent deformation method, is proposed to predict welding induced buckling with employing large deformation theory, and an application in ship panel production is carried out. The proposed FE computation is implemented with two steps:(1) The typical weld joint (fillet weld) existing in considered ship panel structure is conducted with sequential welding using actual welding condition, and welding angular distortion after completely cooling down is measured. A TEP FE analysis with solid elements model is carried out to predict the welding angular distortion, which is validated by comparing with experimental results. Then, inherent deformations in this examined fillet welded joint are evaluated as a loading for the subsequent elastic FE analysis. Also, the simultaneous welding to assemble this fillet welded joint is numerically considered and its inherent deformations are evaluated.(2) To predict the welding induced buckling in the production of ship panel structure, a shell element model of considered ship panel is then employed for elastic FE analysis, in which inherent deformation evaluated beforehand is applied and large deformation is considered. The computed results obviously show welding induced buckling in the considered ship panel structure after welding. With its instability and difficulty for straightening, welding induced buckling prefers to be avoided whenever it is possible.