Calculation of Welding Deformations by Simplified Thermal Elasto-plastic Analysis

Welding deformations injure the beauty of appearance of a structure, decrease its buckling strength and prevent increase of productivity. Welding deformations of real structures are complicated and the accurate prediction of welding deformations has been a difficult problem. This study proposes a method to predict the welding deformations of large structures accurately and practically based on the simplified thermal elasto-plastic analysis method. The proposed method combines the inherent strain theory with the numerical or theoretical analysis method and the experimental results. The weld joint is assumed to be divided into 3 regions such as inherent strain region, material softening region and base metal region. Characteristic material properties are used in structural modeling and analysis for reasonable simplification. Calculated results by this method show good agreement with the experimental results. It was proven that this method gives an accurate and efficient solution for the problem of welding deformation calculation of large structures.