Distortion Analysis of Welded Stieners

O. A. Vanli , P. Michaleris

June 19, 2001

Abstract

This paper presents a welding distortion analysis approach for T-stieners with a particular emphasis on welding-induced buckling instabilities. 2-D thermo-mechanical welding process simulations are performed to determine the residual stress and angular distortion. The critical buckling stress along with the buckling mode and bowing distortion are computed in 3-D eigenvalue and linear stress analyses. The eects of the stiener geometry, weld sequence, weld heat input and mechanical xturing on the occurance of buckling and the distortion pattern are investigated.

Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, 307 Reber Building, Pennsylvania State

University,University Park, PA 16802, USA Tel : (814) 865-0059, Email: oav100@psu.edu

Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, 232 Reber Building, Pennsylvania State

University, University Park, PA 16802, USA Tel : (814) 863-7273 Fax : (814) 863-4848 Email: pxm32@psu.edu

Introduction

Welding, among all mechanical joining processes, has been employed at an increasing rate for its advantages in design exibility, cost savings, reduced overall weight and enhanced structural performance. In this research, welding is being evaluated as the manufacturing method for stieners as an alternative to the present fabrication method of cutting or stripping from standard Ibeams. Use of welding in stiener fabrication may introduce considerable savings by eliminating scrap parts.

Thinner section components made of higher strength steels are being commonly utilized in shipbuilding, railroad and aerospace industries in fabricating large structures to achieve reduction in overall weight and more controllable manufacturing. However, for the structures made of

relatively thin components, welding can introduce signicant buckling distortion which causes loss of dimensional control and increased fabrication costs due to poor t-up between panels. Flame straightening is the commonly used technique to correct the out-of-plane distortion resulting from welding processes, and is a labor intensive and costly process.

Finite element techniques have been used in the prediction of welding residual stress and distortion for more than two decades. Due to the nature of the process, additional complexities are involved in the FEA of welding compared to traditional mechanics, such as temperature and history dependent material properties; high gradients of temperature, stress and strain elds with respect to both time and spatial coordinates; large deformations in thin structures and phase transformation and creep phenomenon.

Most of the currently performed welding simulations, both 2-D and 3-D, are based on small

deformation assumption and are limited to simpler structures and weld geometries (e.g. butt joints) or focusing only to the heat aected zones, ignoring the surrounding structure. A small deformation analysis assumes innitesimal displacements and loads being applied to the undeformed geometry. The interaction between the weld zone and the structure is eective on the accumulated distortion, and large deformation modes in unrestrained structures may not be captured with this type of analysis [1], [2]. Brown and Song [1] have performed 2-D axisymmetric and 3-D weld simulations of a ring stiened cylinder structure, and concluded that 2-D analysis overestimated the rotation of the ring during the heating segment, and it was very sensitive to model modications, such as joint clearance and location of constraints. Michaleris et. al. [2] studied the eects of the restraints and the solidied portions of the weld on the residual stress and distortion proles by comparing the performance of 2-D and 3-D weld simulations.

Earlier studies of welding accounted for the non-linearities due to temperature dependent material properties and plastic deformations [3, 4, 5]. The majority of those analyses were

limited to two-dimensions on the plane perpendicular to welding direction, but good correlations have been observed between the numerical predictions and experimental results [6, 7, 8, 9], and especially for residual stress predictions, 2-D models provided accurate estimations comparable to 3-D analyses, since the stress eld exhibits a fairly uniform distribution through the length of the work-piece. Argyris et. al. [6] computed the thermo-mechanical response using 2-D models in a staggered solution strategy to combine and integrate the thermal and mechanical computational steps. Rybicki et. al. [7] performed thermo-elasto-plastic analysis on a 2-D axisymmetric nite element model for a two-pass girth-butt welded pipe problem, and veried the numerical results with the experimentally obtained temperature history and residual stress distributions. Papazoglu and Masubuchi [8] solved the multipass GMAW process problem by performing uncoupled 2-D heat

transfer and stress-strain analyses, incorporating the phase transformation strains.

2-D models, as mentioned above, have been particularly useful with their high eciency and accuracy in determining the solution in the analysis plane and reduced computational requirements. However, for welding practices where tack welding or xturing allow out-of-plane movement 2-D analyses may not be accurate, particularly, in distortion predictions [1]. Furthermore, longitudinal heat transfer and instability aspects, and end eects (i.e. due to initiation and termination of the heat source) cannot be realized in two dimensional formulations.

Oddy et. al. [10] examined the butt welding of a bar via 3-D FEM, and computed the temperature, strain and stress elds. Tekriwal and Mazumder [11, 12] simulated thermal and elasto-plastic response of the butt-welded plates through 3-D models, considering ller material addition. Multi-pass welding simulation of plates and experimental validation have been addressed in [13, 14].

Welding-induced buckling of thin-walled structures has been investigated in greater detail by [15, 16, 17]. Tsai et. al.[15] studied the distortion mechanisms and the eect of welding sequence on panel distortion. Ueda et. al. [16, 18] presented a methodology to determine the buckling behavior of plates by large deformation elastic FEA and employing inherent strain distributions.

For the welding practices where tack welds or xturing are used to restrict the movement of the welded parts, the structural response may be evaluated by means of decoupled 2-D welding and 3-D buckling simulations. When mechanical xturing on the structure prevents the longitudinal shrinkage during welding, the out-of-plane structural behavior doesnt have inuence on the inplane welding response, and buckling is only observed after the restraints are removed and the structure cools down. Exploiting this fact, Michaleris et. al. [17] proposed a method to predict 4

welding-induced buckling by uncoupling the weld simulation and the structural buckling analysis. They expressed the residual stress prole from the 2-D welding simulations as buckling stress on the 3-D structural model. This approach is analogous to the work by Ueda et. al. [18], where the concept of inherent strain is used to generate the welding residual stresses by applying a prescribed thermal strain eld using empirical methods. In the former study, however, residual stresses are calculated with weld process simulations, which provides improved estimations for buckling analysis compared to empirically determining the residual stress.

Phase transformations and transformation plasticity have also been incorporated in the analysis as recent developments [10, 19, 20]. The primary objective there is to more accurately model the residual stress distribution, microstructure and local distortion in the area immediately adjacent to the weld.

In this work the decoupled 2-D and 3-D nite element analysis technique by Michaleris et. al. [21, 17] is applied to evaluate welding-induced buckling of fabricated stieners. Eects of the following process and design parameters are investigated,

stiener cross-section (small section, large section), xturing and future stiener straightening (as weld, and rammed-down congurations), Gas Metal Arc and Submerged Arc Welding processes, simultaneous (oset-torch) and sequential welding processes.

Figure 1: Distortion Modes in fabrication of stieners

Analysis Approach - Modelling the Welding Distortion

Following the work of Michaleris et. al. [21, 17], the response of the stiener is evaluated in two steps by combining two-dimensional welding simulations with three-dimensional structural analyses in a decoupled approach.

2-D Thermo-mechanical Weld Simulation :

A two dimensional thermo-elasto-plastic analysis is performed to determine the angular distortions, residual stresses, and plastic strain elds during the welding process ignoring the structural response. Residual stresses are caused by the negative plastic strains resulting from the welding thermal cycle.

3-D Eigenvalue and 3-D Linear Stress Analyses :

The buckling distortion and critical buckling stresses are consequently determined by an 6

eigenvalue and a linear stress analysis applying the, mostly uniform and compressive, longitudinal plastic strain eld of the 2-D weld model on the 3-D structural model as equivalent load.

A constant, negative thermal load is applied at the weld region to introduce the eects of welding into the 3-D structure. Thermal loading is used rather than mapping the plastic strain eld, which would require a complex analysis procedure. An eigenvalue analysis is performed to determine the critical residual stresses and buckling distortions, and a linear stress analysis is performed to compute the bowing distortion.

2.1

Modes of Welding Distortion

The structural response of the stiener is evaluated in terms of angular, bowing and buckling distortions as illustrated in Figure 1. The overall distortion of the structure will be a combination of these distortion forms.

Angular Distortion: The angular distortion is the change in the included angle between the web and the anges on both sides (1 , 2 , Figure 2 ) and is computed by the 2-D welding simulation.

Bowing Distortion: The bowing distortion is the displacement of the web in y-direction (d, Figure 3 ) due to bending of the stiener about the x-axis, and is computed by the 3-D linear stress analysis.

Buckling Distortion: The critical buckling and the corresponding mode shape of the structure are determined in the 3-D eigenvalue buckling analysis.

Figure 2: Angular Distortion of the stiener anges

Figure 3: Bowing Distortion of the stiener

2.2

Welding Simulation

The welding simulation involves a thermal and a mechanical analysis. The eect of mechanical response is assumed to be negligable on the thermal behavior, thus the temperature eld is solved independently from the mechanical solution. To determine the temperature history prole, a nonlinear, transient heat-ow nite element analysis is performed on the plane perpendicular to the welding direction.

The numerical implementation of the history dependent (transient) heat transfer problem involves an incremental scheme with several small time increments. The solution at a given time increment is obtained by using the solution at the previous time increment as an initial condition. This problem is addressed in detail in references [4, 22, 11].

The governing energy balance equation for transient heat transfer analysis is given as follows, Cp dT (r, t) = dt q(r, t) + Q(r, t) in the entire volume Vr of the material (1)

Weld GMAW SAW

Qb [W] 9750 9000

0.75 0.90

v [mm/s] 11.85 10.16

Table 1: Weld Parameters where is the density of the body ([kg/mm3 ]), Cp is the specic heat capacity ([J/kg o C]), T is the temperature ([o C]), q is the heat ux vector, Q is the internal heat generation rate, t is the time, r is the coordinate in the reference conguration and
r

is the spatial gradient operator.

The nonlinear isotropic Fourier heat ux constitutive relation is enforced; using the temperatureW dependent thermal conductivity, k ([ o Cmm2 ]),

q = k

rT

[W/mm2 ]

(2)

Convection boundary conditions are assigned for all free surfaces. The internal heat generation rate by the welding torch, modeled with a double ellipsoid heat source model [23], is given as, 6 3Qb ()f [ 3x22 + 3y22 + 3(z+vt)2 ] b c2 e a Q= abc [W/mm3 ] (3)

where Qb is the welding heat input; is the welding eciency, x, y, and z are the local coordinates of the double ellipsoid model aligned with the weld llet; a is the weld width; b is the weld penetration; c = 4a is the weld ellipsoid length, and f = 0.6 when the torch is behind the analysis plane, and f = 1.4 after the torch passes the analysis plane; v is the torch travel speed; and t is time. Material properties for high-strength steel (HSLA-65) are used in this study. Table 1 lists the values of Qb , and v that are used for the GMAW and SAW processes.

The subsequent history dependent stress analysis is performed by modelling the stress problem as a quasi-static process in a Lagrangian frame. 9 This problem has been covered by several

investigators [6, 14, 5, 12, 10]. Similar to the heat transfer analysis, the numerical implementation of the quasi-static analysis involves an incremental scheme with several small static increments. The solution at a given time interval is obtained by using the solution at the previous time increment as an initial condition.

The temperature values solved for in the previous thermal analysis are imported to the mechanical analysis as loading. Generalized plane-strain conditions are assumed to account for the out-of-plane expansion in the structure. The longitudinal (out-of-plane) strain is assumed to vary linearly with x- and y- coordinates in the analysis plane: = e xy + yx (4)

where e is the z-component of the strain at the coordinate origin and the constants x and y represent the strain variations in the y and x axes, respectively.

The stress equilibrium equation is given by,

r (r, t)

+ b(r, t) = 0

in Vr

(5)

where is the stress, b the body force, and t is time. The mechanical constitutive law is : = C ( p t ) p = f = q a (,
q , T)

(6) (7) (8)

p

e y 0

where T is temperature, C is the material stiness tensor, a is the plastic ow vector, , are the total, plastic and thermal strains and
q

and

is the equivalent plastic strain. In Equation 8, f

is the yield function, e is the Von Misses stress, and y is the yield stress. Active yielding occurs when f = 0. 10

Figure 4: FEA mesh for 2-D welding process analysis

2.3

Structural Analysis

In shipbuilding, stieners are joined to panels with llet-welding along the free edge of the web, thus, the straightness of this edge after the stiener fabrication process is important for the quality of the t-up between the stiener and the panel. The structural analysis is carried out for the stiener web to compute bowing distortions, and the critical welding residual stress that will cause buckling.

The longitudinal residual stress distribution ( r ) computed in the 2-D analyses are compared to the critical buckling stresses ( cr ) of the structure from the 3-D structural analysis to determine if the structure will buckle.

The structural analysis is composed of elastic eigenvalue and linear stress analyses. Incremental

11

Figure 5: FEA mesh for 3-D buckling analysis large deformation analyses may also be performed to determine the onset of buckling, buckling and post buckling stages in response to increasing stress, but they are computationally intensive and are usually used for validating the predictive methodology [17].

3-D Eigenvalue Buckling Analysis:

The elastic instability problem is dened as an eigenvalue problem as follows det ( K + KG ) = 0 (9)

where K and KG are the linear and non-linear strain stiness matrices, and is the eigenvalue, respectively.

A 3-D eigenvalue analysis is performed on the structural model with a unit negative thermal load applied in the weld region (T = 1.0) to model the uniform compressive longitudinal plastic 12

strain eld occurring in welding. The eigenvalues (i ) represent the multipliers (scaling factors) which result in the critical buckling stress eld ( cr )i when multiplied with the stress eld resulting from the unit thermal load ( L ). Equation (10) shows the computation of the critical residual stress distribution at the plate midspan. ( cr )i = i L [MPa] (10)

The scalar stress values L , cri and r , that are used in the buckling criteria, are computed at the free edge of the stiener web.

The buckling analyses may yield negative eigenvalues, which often cannot be explained by physical behavior. Those situations can be avoided by applying enough preload Tp , to load the structure just below the buckling load before performing the eigenvalue analysis. In such a case, the critical buckling stress in equation (10) is determined as ( cr )i = ( i + | Tp | ) L [MPa] (11)

Buckling distortion is determined from the eigenvectors (mode shapes) of the structure. The structure may buckle in any of the modes with critical stresses lower than the residual stress eld due to welding. It will prefer to buckle with the permissible buckling mode having the lowest critical stress. The permissibility of the modes are determined by the constraints on the structure. Certain buckling modes may be suppressed by the mechanical xturing applied, then the structure will tend to buckle the next available (higher) mode. The weight of the structure might have an inuence of causing even higher buckling modes.

3-D Linear Stress Analysis:

A 3-D linear stress analysis is performed using the negative unit thermal load applied in the 13

weld region (T = 1.0). The bowing distortion, d, at the plate midspan for a given longitudinal welding residual stress eld ( r ) is obtained by scaling the unit bowing distortion, dL , and linear longitudinal stress prole, L , as follows, d=( r ) dL L [mm] (12)

2.4

Validation

The predictive buckling analysis approach presented in this work has been veried to be accurate by several researchers [17, 24]. The results from the experimental tests involving thermo-couple, blind-hole drilling and out-of-plane distortion measurements have been reported to be in close agreement with the computational results.

Numerical Implementation

The stiener is fabricated by joining two plates longitudinally in a T-joint conguration. Two dierent stiener geometries are considered, as illustrated in Figure 6 and Table 2. The llet welds of size 1/4 in. are performed on both sides with dual-torches by either gas metal arc (GMAW) or submerged arc welding (SAW). The inuence of weld sequence is evaluated for simultaneous (3.5 oset torches) and sequential welding cases. In addition to the geometry, weld sequence, and process parameters, the eects of xturing and mechanical restraint are investigated as the case studies given in Table 3.

The boundary conditions used to implement the xturing eects are:

14

Figure 6: Dimensions of the T-type llet welded stiener BW [in] Small Section Large Section 6.9375 15.625 tW [in] 1/8 5/16 2BF [in] 4.5 10.5 tF [in] 5/16 5/8 l [ft] 20.0 20.0

Table 2: Dimensions of Small and Large sections

Free boundary (As-weld) condition Restrained boundary (Rammed down) condition

The free boundary condition analysis allows the stiener to bend during welding. This is the most typical xturing used in welding and the stiener bending manifests itself as bowing distortion (see Figure 3). The xed boundary condition is formulated to model the future mechanical

straightening of the stiener to be welded on a panel.

The nite element solutions are performed by utilizing the ABAQUS software both for the 2-D and 3-D models. The implementation details pertaining to those problems; the type of elements,

15

boundary and loading conditions, are presented to allow convenient reproduction.

2-D Welding Simulation

The translating torch for the welding heat input is programmed using the user-subroutines. The 2-D nite element mesh used in the heat transfer analysis of the small section is illustrated in Figure 4. The model is made up of heat conduction, quadratic(8 node), quadrilateral elements(ABAQUS DC2D8). The small section is composed of 716 quadrilateral elements and 2401 nodes, and the large section is composed of 2256 quadrilateral elements and 7280 nodes.

The quasi-static mechanical problem, following the heat transfer analysis, is discretized into a generalized plane strain nite element model, using ten node, quadratic, reduced integration, quadrilateral elements(ABAQUS CGPE10R), with the mesh identical to that used for thermal analysis.

To model the restriction of the supporting plate, the downward motion of the plates should be restrained. This is implemented by placing two nonlinear dashpot elements (ABAQUS

DASHPOT1) at the two outermost nodes of the 2-D model, to exert high damping forces to resist the downward motion. The dashpot damping coecient is dened as a nonlinear function of the y-displacement as follows,

c=

106

y<0 y0

[Ns/mm]

(13)

The rammed-down condition is implemented by xing the x-axis rotation degree of freedom of the generalized plane strain elements in the 2-D model.

16

3-D Buckling and Linear Stress Analyses

The 3-D structural nite element models are developed using shell and truss elements. The shell elements are representing the stiener web and ange, and truss elements are representing the weld joint along the crossing of the anges and the web. The negative plastic strain resulting from the weld process is applied to the truss elements in the form of negative thermal load. Trusses only have axial degrees of freedom, thus, they will only experience orthotropic thermal expansion, and the longitudinal compressive strains will accurately be modelled.

The model for small stiener contains 8400 shell elements(ABAQUS S4R5), 350 truss elements(ABAQUS T3D2), and a total of 8775 nodes; the large stiener model has 18900 shell, 350 truss elements and 19305 nodes. The 3-D nite element mesh of the small stiener is illustrated in Figure 5. The use of structural elements rather than continuum elements is aimed at providing a more robust design tool. With structural elements, geometric features such as the plate thickness and the truss cross sectional area can be modied conveniently without changing the whole model.

For the free boundary condition case, the structural analysis, for both the small and large sections, required a preload of Tp = - 0.05 be applied to the structure; whereas for the restrained case, the reduced number of degrees of freedom eliminated the need to apply a preload (Tp = 0.0).

3.1

Results

The longitudinal residual stress distributions have come out to be as expected in both boundary settings; for the as-weld conguration the regions close to the torch have tensile stresses, and the areas away from the torch close to the ange edges, the stresses become compressive; only near the

17

Case 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Weld GMAW (3.5in oset) GMAW (sequential) SAW (3.5in oset) SAW (sequential) GMAW (3.5in oset) GMAW (sequential) SAW (3.5in oset) SAW (sequential)

Boundary Condition free free free free restrained restrained restrained restrained

Table 3: Weld Cases

free span of the web they become tensile to equilibrate the stress eld in the web. Stress proles remain the same for the restrained boundary, except that the areas close to web free span now have compressive stresses due to the xed displacement conditions. The residual stress distributions along the centre line of the stiener web for the free and rammed-down cases are shown in Figure 7 to illustrate the inuence of the boundary conditions.

The analysis was repeated for the 2-D welding simulation of the SAW process with the same boundary conditions and the welding schemes. The results are compatible to those of GMAW process and they have been tabulated in Tables 4 and 5 for small section; and Tables 7 and 8 for large section.

3.1.1

Buckling in Small Stiener

Tables 4 and 5 give the critical and residual longitudinal stress values required for buckling prediction, as well as the bowing and angular distortions occurring in the eight dierent weld cases. Table 6 presents the eigenvalues for the rst 10 buckling modes obtained from the 3-D

18

Case

Weld

Angular distortion 1 (deg) 2 (deg) 89.462 89.212 89.466 89.021

Bowing distortion d (mm) 42.948 28.839 46.219 33.804

Residual Stress r [MPa] 79.876 58.248 93.378 68.275

Critical Stress cr [MPa] 458.90 458.90 458.90 458.90

Buckling

1
2 3 4

GMAW (3.5in oset) GMAW (sequential) SAW (3.5in oset) SAW (sequential)

89.290 89.572 88.835 89.290

No No No No

Table 4: Results for the Free Boundary Condition cases for Small Section

Case

Weld

Angular distortion 1 (deg) 2 (deg) 89.448 89.156 89.436 88.983

Bowing distortion d (mm) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Residual Stress r [MPa] -168.309 -123.512 -205.709 -146.997

Critical Stress cr [MPa] -71.40 -71.40 -71.40 -71.40

Buckling

5
6 7 8

GMAW (3.5in oset) GMAW (sequential) SAW (3.5in oset) SAW (sequential)

89.262 89.590 88.838 89.284

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Table 5: Results for the Restrained Boundary Condition cases for Small Section

buckling analysis.

Free Boundary (As-weld) Condition

The critical stress (cr ) in Table 4 corresponds to the rst eigenvalue. Figures 8 and 9 illustrate the residual stress distribution for the 3.5 oset and sequenced GMAW processes with free boundary conditions, respectively. A possible mode of buckling for the as weld case is shown in Figures 10. As listed in Table 4, in none of the cases, does the longitudinal stress at the edge of the web exceed the critical stress value (458.90 MPa), thus, this condition will not cause any buckling.

Restrained Boundary (Rammed-down) Condition

The residual stress values (-123.51 to -205.71 MPa) in the welding cases considered are greater 19

Boundary Condition Free (Tp = - 0.05)

L (MPa) 6541.72

dL (mm) 3238.90

i 0.020149 0.020149 0.020396 0.020399 0.020477 0.020483 0.020612 0.020614 0.020782 0.020803

Restrained (Tp = 0.0)

-12184.75

0.0

0.000896 0.003532 - 0.00553 0.005660 0.005663 0.005698 0.005708 0.005760 0.005788 0.005860

Table 6: 3-D Buckling Analysis Results of the Small Stiener

20

Case

Weld

Angular distortion 1 (deg) 2 (deg) 89.70 89.73 89.68 89.70

Bowing distortion d (mm) 3.796 1.990 5.173 2.604

Residual Stress r [MPa] 19.950 10.455 27.191 13.688

Critical Stress cr [MPa] 528.844 528.844 528.844 528.844

Buckling

1
2 3 4

GMAW (3.5in oset) GMAW (sequential) SAW (3.5in oset) SAW (sequential)

89.95 90.00 89.84 89.94

No No No No

Table 7: Results for the Free Boundary Condition cases for Large section

Case

Weld

Angular distortion 1 (deg) 2 (deg) 89.70 89.73 89.68 89.69

Bowing distortion d (mm) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Residual Stress r [MPa] -34.531 -19.421 -45.797 -25.337

Critical Stress cr [MPa] -13.244 -13.244 -13.244 -13.244

Buckling

5
6 7 8

GMAW (3.5in oset) GMAW (sequential) SAW (3.5in oset) SAW (sequential)

89.95 90.00 89.83 89.94

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Table 8: Results for the Restrained Boundary Condition cases for Large Section

than the critical stress of the restrained small stiener (-71.40 MPa)(see Table 5). The critical stress corresponds to the 10th eigenmode of the structure. This condition will result in buckling distortions with a probability of buckling in a mode higher than the 10th eigenmode.

Figures 11 and 12 are the residual stress distributions for the simultaneous and sequenced GMAW processes, respectively. The 4th and 10th eigenmodes for the rammed-down case are given in Figures 13 and 14, to illustrate possible buckling modes. The higher modes have the same characteristic shape due to the closely spaced eigenvalues, and the stiener may buckle in any of those shapes depending on the mechanical restraints.

21

Boundary Condition

L (MPa)

dL (mm) mode

eigenmodes eigenvalue () 0.05692 0.057013 0.0574 0.057873 0.058315 0.059409 0.059976 0.060931 0.062619 0.06343 0.001788 0.007010 0.011079 0.011119 0.011367 0.01167 0.012006 0.012395 0.01288 0.01337

Free (Tp = - 0.05)

4946.17

47.05

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Restrained (Tp = 0.0)

-7407.27

0.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Table 9: Results for the 3-D Buckling Analysis of the Large Stiener

22

3.1.2

Buckling in Large Stiener

Similar to small stiener results, Tables 7 and 8 summarize the welding simulation, linear stress and buckling analysis results.

Free Boundary (As-weld) Condition

The longitudinal residual stress distributions for the 3.5 oset and sequenced GMAW processes are plotted in Figures 15 and 16, respectively. The rst critical stress value (528.84 MPa) for the as-weld large stiener structure, corresponding to the rst eigenvalue (0.05692) in Table 9, is an order of magnitude higher than the residual stress values(10.46 to 27.19 MPa) for the four cases (Table 7), which indicates that the structure in this conguration will resist buckling. A possible mode of the free large stiener is given in Figure 17.

Restrained Boundary (Rammed-down) Condition

Figures 18 and 19 are the residual stress values for the two welding sequences. For all four welding cases, ramming-down will result in buckling distortions, since the residual stresses (Table 8) are higher than the critical stress (-13.24MPa). Moreover, the residual stress values for those cases fall between the rst and second critical stresses (-13.24MPa and -51.92MPa), thus the stiener is predicted to buckle in its 1st eigenmode shown in Figure 20 with the restrained boundary condition. The weight of the structure may have an eect of causing a higher buckling mode, such as the one given in Figure 21 (3rd mode).

23

Conclusions

This paper has presented a numerical analysis technique to predict the welding-induced distortion in fabricated stieners. In particular, angular, bowing, and buckling distortion were evaluated using thermo-mechanical and eigenvalue nite element analyses. The following conclusions can be drawn based on the results obtained,

Moderate angular distortions are predicted for all cases. The angular distortions computed for GMAW and SAW are equivalent. For the small section geometry, bowing is large in magnitude (28.8 to 46.2mm, in Table 4). It is considerably reduced in the large stiener (2.0 to 5.2 mm, in Table 7), and can be ignored in the scope of many applications. Sequenced welds lead to reduced distortion and residual stresses (Reductions from 46.2mm to 33.8mm, and 93.38MPa to 68.28MPa), and possibility of buckling, in turn, is also reduced. Although it may cause large bowing distortion, the as-weld condition did not cause any buckling distortion for both stieners. Buckling is predicted to occur when the stiener is pressed (rammed) down on a straight panel for future welding. As a consequence of straightening the web edge to correct the bowing distortion, buckling becomes inevitable in both the small and large stieners. The buckling pattern introduced particularly in the restrained small stiener case (Figure 13), is detrimental, and will make the future welds dicult to track along the distorted web. Employing large section rather than small cross section stiener reduces the bowing distortion and the probability of buckling by enhancing the structural rigidity. The residual stress values are lower and the critical stresses are higher than those of the small section, both of which

24

are in favor of reducing the susceptibility to buckling. The buckling pattern of the restrained case for the large section as illustrated in the Figure 20 is also more tolerable than that of the small section (Figure 14.

Figure 7: Residual Stress Distribution along the centerline (small stiener)

4.1

Recommendations

Manufacturing process modications can be utilized to minimize bowing distortion. Conventional techniques such as reducing the welding heat input, weld size, or modifying the structural parameters, might be employed to eliminate the occurrance of buckling [25, 26, 27]. When the design considerations dont permit such modications, welding-distortions are remedied by utilizing special manufacturing procedures during the fabrication process, such as thermal tensioning [28, 29, 30]. 25

Auxiliary heating may also be applied to minimize the residual stresses; that will enable the application of restrained boundary conditions to eliminate the bowing distortion without causing any buckling.

References
[1] S.B. Brown and H. Song. Implications of Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulations of Welding of Large Structures. Welding Journal, 71(2):55s62s, 1992. [2] P. Michaleris, Z. Feng, and G. Campbell. Evaluation of 2D and 3D FEA Models for Predicting Residual Stress and Distortion. In Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference. ASME, 1997. [3] A. P. Chakravati, L. M. Malik, and J. A. Goldak. Prediction of Distortion and Residual Stresses in Panel Welds. In Computer modelling of fabrication processess and constitutive behaviour of metals, pages 547561, Ottawa, Ontario, 1986. [4] J. Goldak and M. Bibby. Computational Thermal Analysis of Welds: Current Status and Future Directions. In A. F. Giamei and G. J. Abbaschian, editors, Modeling of Casting and Weldin Processes IV, pages 153166, Palm Coast, FL, 1988. The Minerals & Materials Society. [5] H. Hibbitt and P. V. Marcal. A Numerical, Thermo-Mechanical Model for the Welding and Subsequent Loading of a Fabricated Structure. Computers & Structures, 3(1145-1174):11451174, 1973. [6] J. H. Argyris, J. Szimmat, and K. J. Willam. Computational Aspects of Welding Stress Analysis. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 33:635666, 1982. [7] E. F. Rybicki, D. W. Schmueser, R. B. Stonesifer, J. J. Groom, and H. W. Mishler. A Finite-Element Model for Residual Stresses and Deections in Girth-Butt Welded Pipes. Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, 100:256262, 1978. [8] V.J Papazoglou and K. Masubuchi. Numerical Analysis of Thermal Stresses during Welding including Phase Transformation Eects. Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, 104:198203, 1982. [9] H. Murakawa N. X. Ma, Y. Ueda and H. Maeda. FEM Analysis of 3-D Welding Residual Stresses and Angular Distortion in T-type Fillet Welds. Transactions of JWRI, 24(2):115122, 1995. [10] A. S. Oddy, J. A. Goldak, and J. M. J. McDill. Numerical Analysis of Transformation Plasticity in 3 D Finite Element Analysis of Welds. European Journal of Mechanics, A/Solids, 9(3):253263, 1990. [11] P. Tekriwal and J. Mazumder. Finite Element Analysis of Three-dimensional Tranient Heat Transfer in GMA Welding. A.W.S. Welding Journal, Research Supplement, 67:150s156s, 1988. [12] P. Tekriwal and J. Mazumder. Transient and Residual Thermal Strain-Stress Analysis of GMAW. Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, 113:336343, 1991. [13] Y. Yeda and H. Murakawa. Applications of Computer and Numerical Analysis Techniques in Welding Research. Transactions of JWRI, 13(2):165174, 1984. [14] E. F. Rybicki and R. B. Stonesifer. Computation of Residual Stresses due to Multipass Welds in Piping Systems. Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, 101:149154, 1979. [15] C.L. Tsai, S.C. Park, and W.T. Cheng. Welding Distortion of a Thin-Plate Panel Structure. A.W.S. Welding Journal, Research Supplement, 78:156s165s, 1999. [16] Y. Ueda X. M. Zhong, H. Murakawa. Buckling Behavior of Plates under Idealized Inherent Strain. Transactions of JWRI, 24(2):8791, 1995. [17] P. Michaleris and A. DeBiccari. Prediction of Welding Distortion. Welding Journal, 76(4):172180, 1997.

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[18] Y. Ueda, Y.C Kim, and M.G Yuan. A Predictive Method of Welding Residual Stress Using Source of Residual Stress (Report I) Characteristics of Inherent Strain (Source of Residual Stress). Transactions of JWRI, 18(1):135141, 1989. [19] D.F.Watt, L.Coon, M.Bibby, and C.Henwood. An algorithm for modeling microstructural development in weld heat aected zones (part a) reaction kinetics. Acta metall., 36(11):30293035, 1988. [20] J.B LeBlond and J.Devaux. A new kinetic model for anisothermal metallurgical transformations in steels including eect of austenite grain size. Acta metall., 32(1):137146, 1984. [21] P. Michaleris and A. DeBiccari. A Predictive Technique for Buckling Analysis of Thin Section Panels due to Welding. Journal of Ship Production, 12(4):269275, 1996. [22] D.F.Watt, L.Coon, M.Bibby, and C.Henwood. Coupled transient heat transfer-microstructure weld computations (part b). Acta metall., 36(11):30373046, 1988. [23] J. Goldak, A. Chakravarti, and M. Bibby. A New Finite Element Model for Welding Heat Sources. Metallurgical Transactions B, 15B:299305, 1984. [24] P. Michaleris and X. Sun. Finite Element Analysis of Thermal Tensioning Techniques Mitigating Weld Buckling Distortion. Welding Journal, 76(11):451457, 1997. [25] P. Michaleris and A. DeBiccari. A Predictive Technique for Buckling Analysis of Thin Section Panels due to Welding. In 1996 Ship Production Symposium, 1996. [26] K. Masubuchi. Analysis of Welded Structures. Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1980. [27] K. Terai. Study on Prevention of Welding Deformation in Thin-Skin Plate Structures. Technical Report 61, Kawasaki, 1978. [28] Ya. I. Burak, L. P. Besedina, Ya. P. Romanchuk, A. A. Kazimirov, and V. P. Morgun. Controlling the longitudinal plastic shrinkage of metal during welding. Avt. Svarka, (3):2729, 1977. [29] Ya. I. Burak, Ya. P. Romanchuk, A. A. Kazimirov, and V. P. Morgun. Selection of the optimum elds for preheating plates before welding. Avt. Svarka, (5):59, 1979. [30] P. Michaleris and X. Sun. Finite Element Analysis of Thermal Tensioning Techniques Mitigating Weld Buckling Distortion. In Residual Stresses in Design Fabrication, Assessment and Repair. ASME, 1996.

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Figure 8: Residual stress for the as-weld small section zz (MPa) for case 1 (20X magnication)

Figure 9: Residual stress for the as-weld small sectionzz (MPa) for case 2 (20X magnication)

28

Figure 10: Buckling mode of free small stiener (3rd mode)

29

Figure 11: Residual stress for the rammed-down small section zz (MPa) for case 5 (20X magnication)

Figure 12:

Residual stress for the rammed-down small sectionzz (MPa) for case 6 (20X

magnication) 30

Figure 13: Buckling mode of rammed-down small stiener (4th mode)

31

Figure 14: Highest buckling mode of rammed-down small stiener (10th mode)

32

Figure 15: Residual stress for the as-weld large section zz (MPa) for case 1 (50X magnication)

Figure 16: Residual stress for the as-weld large section zz (MPa) for case 2 (50X magnication)

33

Figure 17: Buckling mode of the free large stiener (1st mode) 34

Figure 18: Residual stress for the rammed-down large section zz (MPa) for case 5 (50X magnication)

Figure 19: Residual stress for the rammed-down large section zz (MPa) for case 6 (50X magnication) 35

Figure 20: Buckling mode of the rammed-down large stiener (1st mode) 36

Figure 21: Highest buckling mode of rammed-down large stiener (10th mode)

37