Comparative study of welding deformation of a stiffened panel under various welding procedures

The welding distortions of large-scale structures are extraordinary complicated. If an effective tool of predicting welding distortion is available, then marine design and manufacturing engineers can use this to improve production quality and reduce costs. This article focuses on the comparative studies of welding procedure of a stiffened panel. An efficient thermal elasto-plastic finite element method–based procedure is developed to predict the welding deformation and residual stress of structures. A combined shell/solid model is adopted to enhance modeling and calculation efficiency. The welding process of a stiffened panel is simulated. Three welding procedures of simultaneous, successive and bidirectional welding are studied. The results show that welding distortion can be well controlled by adjusting the welding procedure