Residual stress distributions in ship hull specimens

This paper provides an in-depth study of residual stress distributions found in stiffened steel plate structures, such as those typically used in ship hulls. The effect of stiffener spacing on the distribution of residual stress components was studied. The welding heat input was also varied between high and moderate to study the effect of heat input level on residual stress distributions. Four specimens, resembling typical stiffened steel plate structures used in ship hulls were built and tested. Steel plates of 9.5 mm thickness were stiffened by welding L127 × 76 × 9.5 steel angles. The test was completed using the neutron diffraction method. The three normal components of residual stress were obtained in this study. It was found that a lower heat input results in higher tensile residual stress and that there exists a critical stiffener spacing somewhere beyond 250 mm that creates a maximum tensile residual stress value near the welded connection.