Estimating welding deformation of ultra-thin mild steel bead-on-plate joints by means of inherent strain method

Abstract

The inherent strain method as an efficient computational tool has been widely used to predict welding deformation for large and complex structures with thin and medium-thick plates. For ultra-thin plate welded structures, geometric non-linear phenomena often arise during welding because of the low stiffness. In this study, the welding deformation of 0.8 mm thick bead-on-plate mild steel joints was studied by both experimental method and thermal-elastic-plastic finite element method (T-E-P FEM), and the influences of weld lengths on Tendon force, transverse shrinkage and angular distortion were examined experimentally and numerically. Meanwhile, a non-linear elastic finite element method based on the inherent strain theory using ABAQUS software as a platform was developed to reproduce the welding deformation of the ultra-thin bead-on-plate joints with different weld lengths, and the adaptability of the inherent strain method to ultra-thin plate weldments was clarified.