Proceedings of the Twenty-first (2011) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Maui, Hawaii, USA, June 19-24, 2011

Copyright © 2011 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-96-8 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set); www.isope.org

Investigation of Buckling Deformation of Thin Plate Welded Structures

Jiangchao Wang, Sherif Rashed and Hidekazu Murakawa
Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
Masakazu Shibahara
Department of Marine System Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan

ABSTRACT With the development of advanced computer and numerical analysis

Buckling produced during the assembly process is the most critical
mode of welding deformation for the thin plate welded structures. In
this study, the behavior of buckling deformation has been investigated
utilizing computational welding mechanics. The computational
approach consists of two steps; a 3D Thermal-Elastic-Plastic FEA to
evaluate inherent deformation, and an elastic analysis based on the
Inherent Strain/Deformation Method. Based on the computational
results, the phenomenon of buckling deformation can be clearly
explained. Using the same method, the line heating process is simulated
to control and reduce the welding-induced buckling deformation.
KEY WORDS: buckling deformation; FEA; Inherent deformation;
elastic analysis; thin plate welded structure; large deformation theory
INTRODUCTION
Welding has been widely employed in various industries such as
shipbuilding owing to its advantages in design flexibility, cost saving,
reduced overall weight and enhanced structural performance. In recent
years, ship designers have been forced to incorporate lighter, thinner
steel structures to reduce topside weight, improve fuel economy, and
enhance mission capability (Huang, T. D, et al, 2004). However, for
structures made of relatively thin components, welding can introduce
significant buckling distortion, which causes loss of dimensional
control, structural integrity and increased fabrication costs due to poor
fit-up between panels (Deo, M. V, Michaleris, P, and Sun, J, 2003).
Therefore, buckling deformation, which occurs during the assembly
process, is becoming the most critical mode of welding deformation
compared with other deformation modes for the thin plate welded
structures. It has been investigated as a new research issue of
Computational Welding Mechanics in shipbuilding industries.
The studies of buckling behavior of plates have been conducted (Zhong,
X. M, Murakawa, H, and Ueda, Y, 1995). In 1955, Masubuchi
investigated the buckling distortion of a bead-welded plate, and
obtained the buckling pattern along the weld line. Watanabe and Satoh
made a theoretical study to calculate the values of the critical thickness
for buckling distortion of plate with butt welds.
technology, computational approach based on Finite Element Method is
widely used to predict the residual stress and welding deformation for
more than four decades. Buckling is considered as the most critical
welding deformation, also has been studied with computational analysis
by a number of investigators.
Zhong, X. M, Murakawa, H, and Ueda, Y (1995) proposed an elastic
analysis using inherent strain as an equivalent load which depends on
the process conditions. A Finite Element approach is employed to
predict the buckling under given inherent strain. A technique
employing decoupled two- and three dimensional approaches was used
to predict the occurrence of buckling distortion. This investigating
process can be divided to two steps, firstly determining the residual
stress based on a two-dimensional thermo-mechanical welding process
simulation and obtaining the critical buckling stress and the buckling
mode with a three-dimensional eigenvalue analysis sequentially (Deo,
M. V, Michaleris, P, and Sun, J, 2003). Later, Asle Zaeem, M, Nami, M.
R, and Kadivar, M, H (2007) investigated the local and global welding
buckling distortion of a thin wall aluminum T joint during and after
welding. A computation with thermo-elastic-visco-plastic model
involves two uncouple analysis to determine temperature history and
longitudinal residual stresses.
In this study, the inherent deformation method is proposed. The
inherent deformations produced in a typical fillet welded joint are
evaluated by means of 3D Thermal-Elastic-Plastic FEM firstly. Then
the buckling deformation is investigated using an elastic analysis based
on inherent deformation theory. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the
line heating to control the buckling deformation is examined using the
proposed method.
METHOD OF ANALYSIS
Thermal-Elastic-Plastic FEM
An in-house 3D Thermal-Elastic-Plastic finite element code (JWRI)
based on an iterative substructure method (Nishikawa, H, Serizawa, H,
and Murakawa, H, (2007)) is employed. The thermo-mechanical
behavior is analyzed using thermal/mechanical uncoupled formulation.
However, the uncoupled formulation considers the contribution of the
transient temperature field to stresses through thermal expansion, as

125
well as temperature-dependent thermo-physical and mechanical strain is given by Eq. (4). From the expression of strain, the first order
properties. The solution procedure consists of two steps. First, the term represents the linear response; the second order term is essential to
temperature distribution history is computed using heat conduction the non-linear behavior under large deformation.
analysis. Second, the transient temperature distribution history obtained u 1  u   v   w  
2 2 2

from the heat conduction analysis is employed as a thermal load in the x           

subsequent mechanical analysis. Stresses, strains and displacements are x 2  x   x   x  
then evaluated. The same finite element model used in the thermal (4)
v 1  u   v   w  
2 2 2
analysis is employed in the mechanical analysis.  y           
y 2  y   y   y  
 
Inherent Strain/Deformation Method
u v  u  u   v  v   w  w 
 can be decomposed into the sum of elastic strain  ,
e  xy              
The total strain y x  x  y   x  y   x  y 
plastic strain  , thermal strain  , creep strain  c and that produced
p T
Where, x and x means the strain in x and y direction;  xy means
t
through phase transformation
the shear strain on the x-y plane. u, v and w are the displacement in the
     p t c
e T
(1) x, y and z direction, respectively.
Noting that the deformation and the stress are produced by the total
strain and elastic strain, Eq. (1) can be rearranged to, EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
       *
e T p t c
(2)
This equation means that the deformation and the residual stress are A typical fillet welded joint shown in Fig.1 is employed as a test model
in this study. This fillet welding model is assembled by two
produced by the inherent strain  * which consists of plastic, thermal, components, flange with 300mm × 300mm × 6mm and web with
creep strains and that caused by the transformation.
300mm×100mm×6mm, respectively. Figure.1 also shows the detail
If the inherent strain is known, the welding-induced distortions and
information of the weld geometry. For this experiment, the CO2 Arc
residual stresses can be computed by elastic FEM using the inherent
welding process is employed and the welding conditions are shown in
strain as an initial strain. Among the all components of inherent strain,
Table.1.
the plastic strain during welding process is the major one of inherent
strain which can be measured by experiment or estimated by Thermal-
Table.1 welding conditions of fillet welded joint
Elastic-Plastic FEM analysis (Ueda, Y, et al, 2007).
The inherent deformation method is based on the assumption that a Current Voltage Velocity efficiency
welded joint in plate structure has an inherent amount of deformation 170-190 A 20 – 30 V 4.0 - 5.0 mm/sec 0.7 - 0.8
produced during the thermal cycle, such as the transverse shrinkage and
the angular distortion... Generally speaking, inherent deformation can COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH
be evaluated by means of the integration of inherent strain over a cross
section normal to the welding line. The advantage of inherent Based on the methods mentioned above, the investigation of buckling
deformation is that it’s not necessary to consider the distribution of deformation is conducted in two steps. In the first step, the inherent
inherent strain on the cross section. The inherent deformation can be deformations of fillet welded joint are estimated by a three dimensional
divided into four components (Murakawa, H, et al, 2010) given by Eq. Thermal-Elastic-Plastic FEA based on Iterative Substructure Method.
(3) using longitudinal inherent strain component  x* in the welding Then, in the second step, buckling deformation of large-scale and
complex structure is conducted by means of an elastic analysis utilizing
direction and transverse inherent strain component  *y in the welding inherent deformations as input data which are evaluated in the
transverse direction. first step
1
t 
 x*   x*dydz
1 Thickness: 6mm
 y*    *y dydz (3) Material: SM490A
t
12 CO2 Arc Welding
 x  3  ( z  t / 2) x:*dydz
*

t
m
12 300m
 y  3  ( z  t / 2) :y*dydz
*

t
Where, t is the thickness of the welded joint, and x, y, z are the welding 300mm
direction, transverse direction and thickness direction, respectively. 6mm

Small/Large Deformation Theory

100mm 4mm 4mm
Based on the inherent deformation method, an elastic analysis is
employed to evaluate the welding-induced distortion. According to the
elastic theory, the equation relating the strain and displacement is an 4mm
6mm
essential equation to describe the nonlinear behavior. If the small
deformation is assumed, the strains are given as a linear function of
displacements. When the deformation is large, Green-Lagrange strain Fig.1 Dimensions of experimental structure
which is the second order function of the displacements is used, the

126
Evaluation of inherent deformation
The inherent deformation defined by Eq. (3) changes with the welding 0.35
heat input, material properties and thickness of the welded joint. It is
almost independent to the length and the width of a welded joint if the

Material Mechanical Properties

0.3
weld line is long enough. Therefore, if the inherent deformation in a
young's modules (10 6Mpa)
basic welded joint is determined, it can be used for large structures. poisson's ratio
There are two ways to determine the inherent deformation. One is 0.25
yield stress (10 3 Mpa)
based on the experimental measurement (Liang, W, et al 2005) and
linear expasional(10 -4 /oC)
another is based on a Thermal-Elastic-Plastic FEM analysis. The later 0.2
is used for the estimation of inherent deformation.
Based on dimensions of the experimental fillet welded joint, the 0.15
computational model is made with 3D solid element as shown in Fig.2.
The number of node and element are 22351 and 18540, respectively.
Welding direction is parallel to the positive direction of x axis. The 0.1
boundary conditions to fix the rigid body motion are also presented in
Fig.2. Temperature dependent material properties of SM490A shown in 0.05
Fig.3 are used for Thermal-Elastic-Plastic computation.
Using the JWRIAN based on Iterative Substructure Method developed 0
by JWRI, a Thermal-Elastic-Plastic computation is conducted to 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
evaluate the welding-induced distortion and plastic strain. Figure.4 o
shows the deformed shape after welding and the undeformed one of temperature( C)
experimental fillet welded joint. The position of measured points is also (b) Mechanical properties
indicated in Fig.4. Comparison between the experimental result and Fig.3 Temperature dependent material properties of SM490A
computational result has a good agreement for welding distortion
shown in Fig.5. Because of temperature gradient through thickness by
heat input, the angular distortion is produced during welding process.
Figure.5 also tells us that the angular distortion gradually increase
along the welding line.

Fig.4 deformed and original shape of fillet welded joint

Fig.2 FEM model of fillet welded joint

10
1

0.9 8 experimental result

Angular Distortion (mm)

computed result
Material Thermal Properties

0.8
6
0.7

0.6 thermal conductivity

4
(10 -2 W/m/ oC)
0.5 specific heat (KJ/m/K)
density (10 -1 g/mm 3)
0.4 2

0.3
0
0.2 0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
X-coordinate (welding direction) (mm)
Temperature( oC)
Fig.5 comparison between experimental and computed result
(a) Thermo-physical properties

127
From the computational result based on Thermal-Elastic-Plastic FEA,
the distributions of plastic strain components in the longitudinal and
transverse direction are illustrated in Fig.6. The maximum longitudinal
plastic strain  xp along welding direction is just located in the area
near the starting edge of welded joint. The transverse plastic strain
has almost a uniform distribution along the welding direction in the
welded zone. Meanwhile, a smaller value of transverse plastic strain is
observed in the region between the two welding lines.
Figure.7 shows the distribution of longitudinal and transverse plastic
strains along the central cross section of the fillet welded joint. The
region of longitudinal plastic strain is a little wider than that of
transverse plastic strain. However, the magnitude of longitudinal plastic
strain is much smaller compared to that of transverse plastic strain. This
kind of distribution and magnitude are mainly influenced by the
difference in constraint (Ueda, Y, et al, 2007). Furthermore, because of
two welding lines of a fillet welded joint, Fig.7 also shows two
transverse plastic strain zones clearly and a larger longitudinal plastic
strain zone merged by two longitudinal plastic strain zones.
Because the plastic strains  x  yp
p
, are the dominant components of
To improve the efficiency of welding process, the simultaneous
welding process is employed for fillet welded joint. This welding
process means that the two welding lines, locating at two sides of the
fillet, are welded at the same time by automatic welding machine.
Using the same computational approach, the inherent deformations can
 yp be estimated as shown in Fig.9.
Figures 8 and 9 show that the inherent deformations almost have a
uniform distribution along the welding direction if the end effect is
ignored. Therefore, we can use the values averaged over the center part
of the plate as the inherent deformation for a long enough welded joint.
The average values of the inherent deformation for the two different
welding processes, namely sequential and simultaneous welding, are
computed and their values are indicated in Figs. 8 and 9.
0.01
0
-0.01

Plastic Strain
the inherent strain after welding, the inherent deformations can be -0.02
estimated by substituting them to Eq. (3). The longitudinal and
transverse inherent shrinkages and their distributions along the weld -0.03
line are shown in Fig.8.
-0.04

-0.05

-0.06 longtudinal ε px
transverse ε py
-0.07
-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40

Y coordinate (mm)
Fig.7 Plastic strain along cross section direction

0.4

Transverse Deformation
Inhereng Deformation (mm)

(a) Distribution of longitudinal plastic strain 0.2 Longitudinal Deformation

0
-0.11126

-0.2

-0.46014
-0.4

-0.6
0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320
X-coordinate (welding direction) (mm)
Fig.8 Distribution of inherent deformation in welding direction
(b) Distribution of transverse plastic strain
Fig.6 distribution of plastic strain after welding (0~-0.005)

128
 0.4

Transverse Deformation
Inherent Deformation (mm)

0.2
Longitudinal Deformation

0
-0.16223

-0.2

-0.4 -0.511467 Fig.11 Initial deflection of welded structure

When welded structures deformed during the welding thermal cycle,

the plastic strains are produced. Using the inherent deformations
-0.6
0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 obtained by Thermal-Elastic-Plastic FEM, the welding distortion shown
in Figs.12 and 13 are obtained by the elastic analysis based on the small
X-coordinate (welding direction) (mm) deformation and large deformation theory. According to Fig.12, the
Fig.9 Distribution of inherent deformation in welding direction for deflections produced by welding process appear clearly at the two
simultaneous welding process edges. While, the deflection in the center part of the structure is
relatively small. The parts located at the two side edges are free and not
Elastic analysis with inherent deformation restrained strongly. In case of small deformation theory, the angular
For the large-scale and complex welded structure, the inherent distortion produced by welding is the primary cause to generate this
deformation method is an ideal method in predicting welding form of deformation during the assembly process.
deformation. Figure.10 shows that the welded structure is assembled by However, in case of large deformation theory, the computational result
skin plate (16,400mm×8,200mm×6mm), longitudinal stiffeners with tells us that the buckling deformation is produced not only at the two
L section and transverse stiffeners with T section. The heights of edges but also in the central zone as shown in Fig.13. This deflection is
stiffeners are 100mm and 368mm for longitudinal and transverse, the buckling deformation generated by compressive residual stress
respectively. The thickness of all stiffeners is 6mm. produced during the welding process.
The welding sequence for this welded structure is as following:
assembling skin plate and longitudinal stiffeners firstly, and then the
transverse stiffeners are welded sequentially. For the welding of the
longitudinal and transverse stiffeners, different welding process is
employed. The skin plate and longitudinal stiffeners are welded by
simultaneous welding process; the skin plate and transverse stiffeners
are welded by one-by-one welding process. By applying the different
inherent deformation for corresponding welding process, the welding-
induced buckling deformation can be predicted by an elastic analysis.
Buckling behavior is an unstable mechanical phenomenon. To initiate
the buckling deformation, it is necessary to give certain amount of
initial deflection. Figure.11 shows the initial deflection for the whole
welded structure induced by applying randomly distributed external
force.

Fig.12 welding distortion with small deformation theory

m
0m
,40
16
Line 2
100mm

Angle-Bar

Line 1 368mm
Z 8 ,2
00m
X
m
Y thickness: 6mm Fillet-Bar
Fig.10 Large-scale welded structure Fig.13 welding deformation with large deformation theory

129
To closely examine the difference between small and large deformation
theory, the computed deflection along the lines 1 and 2 defined in 25
Fig.10 are plotted in Figs.14 and 15, respectively. At the location of
stiffener, there are no deflections during the welding process.
20
small deformation
Figures.14 and 15 show that the distribution of deflection and the large deformation
magnitude have a large difference along the line1 and line 2 between
the cases using the small/large deformation theory. The differences are 15

Deflection (mm)
summarized as following: longitudinal stiffener
(1) As seen from Figs.14 and 15, the case of small deformation shows
10
the deformation with hungry horse mode. They are all one half-wave
bending deformation in the upward direction because of angular
distortion. However, the deflection mode is different for the case of 5
large deformation. The panels of the structure are deformed with multi
wave mode. This tendency is clearer along the edge shown in Fig. 14
0
compared to that in the center shown in Fig. 15.
(2) The magnitude of deflection is another difference for two computed
cases. For the case of the large deformation, the computed deflection is -5
always larger than that of the case of small deformation. This
phenomenon is presented clearly in Fig.15.
-10
For the case of small deformation theory, the welding distortion is 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
mainly produced by angular distortion. However, the buckling
deformation is generated by compressive residual stress in the case of Y-coordinate (mm)
large deformation theory as a consequence of nonlinear behavior. Fig.15 Deflection along line 2
To control and to minimize the welding distortion, the effectiveness of
the line heating method is examined in this study. This method is an
efficient and economical method in manufacturing, especially in
shipbuilding industries. Using the line heating process, the buckling
deformation is reduced as shown clearly in Fig.16. Figure.17 shows
that the deflection at the different assembly stage, e.g. initial deflection,
those of after welding and after rectification with line heating. As seen
from Fig.17, the deflection is remarkably reduced by line heating
especially in the center part of the structure.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, the buckling deformation is investigated for a large-scale

welded structure by means of elastic analysis based on inherent
deformation theory. The following conclusions can be summarized:
(1) The inherent deformation method is an ideal method to predict
welding-induced deformation for large-scale and complex welded Fig.16 reducing buckling deformation with line heating process
structure.

25 25
transverse stiffener
20 20
initial deflection
15 15 welding
Deflection (mm)

Deflection (mm)

line heating
10 10

5 5

0 0

-5 small deformation -5
large deformation
-10
-10
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 1 10 4 1.2 10 4 1.4 10 4 1.6 10 4 0 2000 4000 6000 8000
X-coordinate (mm) Y-coordinate (mm)
Fig.14 Deflection along line 1 Fig.17 deflection with assemble process along line 1

130
(2) The welding distortion computed by the Thermal-Elastic-Plastic
FEA agrees very well with the experimental result. From this analysis,
the inherent deformations which are used in the elastic analysis are
determined.
(3) The mode and the magnitude of the deflection computed by an
elastic analysis using the small and the large deformation theories, have
significant difference because of buckling as a result of the nonlinear
behavior.
(4) Through a typical example, it is demonstrated that the buckling
deformation of large welded structure can be simulated using an elastic
analysis based on the inherent deformation theory.
(5) Further, it is demonstrated that the buckling deformation can be
reduced by the line heating.
REFRENCE
Asle Zaeem, M, Nami, M. R, and Kadivar, M. H, (2007). "Prediction of
Welding Buckling Distortion in a Thin Wall Aluminum T Joint",
Computational Materials Science, Vol 38, pp 588-594.
Deo, M. V, Michaleris, P, and Sun, J, (2003). "Prediction of Buckling
Distortion of Welded Structures", Science and Technology of
Welding and Joining, Vol, 8, No1, pp 55-61.
Huang, T. D, Dong, P, DeCan, L, Harwig, D, and Kumar, R, (2004).
"Fabrication and Engineering Technology for Lightweight Ship
131
Structures, Part 1: Distortion and Residual Stress in Panel
Fabrication", J Ship Production, Vol 20, No1, pp 43-59.
Liang, W, Deng, D, Sone, S, and Murakawa, H, (2005). "Prediction of
Welding Distortion by Elastic Finite Element Analysis using
Inherent Deformation Estimated through Inverse Analysis",
Welding in the World, Vol 49, No 11-12, pp: 30-39.
Murakawa, H, Deng, D, and Ma, N, (2010). "Concept of Inherent Strain,
Inherent Stress, Inherent Deformation and Inherent Force for
Prediction of Welding Distortion and Residual Stress", Proc Int
Symp on Visualization in Joining and Welding Science, Osaka,
Japan, pp 115-116.
Nishikawa, H, Serizawa, H, and Murakawa, H, (2007). "Actual
Application of FEM to Analysis of Large Scale Mechanical
Problems in Welding", Science and Technology of Welding and
Joining, Vol 12, No2, pp 147-152.
Ueda, Y, Murakawa, H, and Ma, N, (2007). Computational Approach
to Welding Deformation and Residual Stress, Sanpo Publication,
pp 36-37.
Zhong, X. M, Murakawa, H, and Ueda, Y, (1995). "Buckling behavior
of plates under Idealized Inherent Strain". Transactions of Joining
and Welding Research Inst, Vol 24, No2, pp 87-91.