Development of efficient welding distortion analysis method for large welded structure

Abstract

This study proposes an efficient welding distortion analysis method for large welded structure. In this study, we propose a method to improve the accuracy of the multi-pass welding distortion analysis method by using the composite shell element which was applicable only to the single-pass welding. Also, this study introduces a new method that can easily be applied to large welded structures with a commercial FEM code using only the measured distortion rate of a unit welded specimen and scalar input variable with no restriction on the mesh size near the welding region. The proposed method can predict angular distortion, transverse shrinkage and the longitudinal bending with improved accuracy. Welding distortion analysis program that simplifies the preprocessing procedure is developed by applying the proposed method. For the verification purpose, the out-of-plane distortion of the actual welded structure was measured with a laser scanner and the result of proposed method and the experimental result showed good agreement.