Practice Design of Ship Thin Section Considering Prevention of Welding-Induced Buckling

Abstract

_ The lightweight fabrication of thin-walled cabin sections is popular for advanced ships, and the dimensional tolerance generated by welding buckling significantly influences the fabrication accuracy and schedule with poststraightening. A typical thin section employed in the superstructure of a high-tech passenger ship is considered the research object. Conventional fabrication procedures and welding conditions were examined beforehand with combined thermal elastic-plastic and elastic FE computations based on the theory of welding inherent deformation, while welding buckling was represented with identical behavior compared with fabrication observation. Actually, there are usually two methods to prevent welding buckling with advanced fabrication. Stiffeners with optimized geometrical features and excellent elasticity moduli were assembled to enhance the rigidity of the ship thin section, and less welding inherent deformation with advanced welding methods can be employed to reduce mechanical loading. Computational results show that either less in-plane welding inherent strain or higher structural rigidity can reduce the magnitude of welding-induced buckling, and avoid the generation of welding-induced buckling during the lightweight fabrication. Keywords ship thin section; welding buckling; FE computation; welding driving force; structural rigidity