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FE Analysis of Buckling Behavior Caused by Welding in Thin Plates of High

Tensile Strength Steel

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FE Analysis of Buckling Behavior Caused by Welding

in Thin Plates of High Tensile Strength Steel
Jiangchao Wang, Sherif Rashed, and Hidekazu Murakawa

(Submitted May 5, 2014; in revised form August 26, 2014)

The target of this study was to investigate buckling behavior during the entire welding process which
consists of the heating and the cooling processes. For thin plate structures made of high tensile strength
steel, not only residual buckling during or after cooling down but also transient buckling during heating
may occur. The thermal elastic plastic FE analysis to investigate welding-induced buckling during the entire
welding process is presented. Because of the high yield stress of high tensile strength steel, larger longi-
tudinal compressive thermal stress is produced near the welding line compared with that in the case of
carbon steel. Therefore, the plate may buckle due to thermal expansion, before the material nears yielding.
During cooling down, the longitudinal compressive thermal stress close to the welding line disappears, and
longitudinal tensile residual stress is produced due to contraction. Meanwhile, longitudinal compressive
residual stress occurs far from the welding line to balance the tensile stress close to the welding line. This
distribution of longitudinal residual stress would change the deformed dish shape of transient buckling into
a saddle buckling type when the stress exceeds the critical buckling condition.

wave length as influenced by the size of plate and welding

Keywords high tensile strength steel, lightweight welded struc-
ture, thermal elastic plastic FEM, transient buckling,
welding-induced buckling
1. Introduction
For welding engineers and researchers, welding distortion is
always one of difficult problems for welded structure (Ref 1).
Generally, welding distortion will degrade the assembly accuracy
and performance capability of welded structures, and when
mitigated, will delay the production schedule and increase
fabrication cost. When thin plates are used for assembling
lightweight welded structure such as ship, auto, and train, to
improve its carrying capacity and enhance fuel utilization, not
only the normal welding distortion will be produced, but also
welding-induced buckling after cooling down may occur.
Welding-induced buckling after cooling down is considered to
be the most critical mode of welding distortion compared with
other modes of welding distortion. This kind of welding
distortion not only has the negative influence on welded structure
as normal welding distortion, but also will be very dangerous
because of its instability and difficulty of straightening (Ref 2).
Until now, many investigations of welding-induced buckling
after cooling down were conducted by experiment. Masubuchi
(Ref 3) conducted experiments of buckling-type deformation of
thin plates caused by welding, and presented the critical buckling
Jiangchao Wang, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada; and Sherif
Rashed, and Hidekazu Murakawa, Joining and Welding Research
Institute, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. Contact e-mail:
WangJiangchaocn@gmail.com.
conditions. Watanabe and Satoh (Ref 4) observed welding-
induced buckling distortion, the so-called concave-convex or
convex-concave type, in a series of experiments of bead-on-plate
welding on thin plates. The critical buckling force and the
moment when buckling occurs in welded plates with different
aspect ratio are measured and studied (Ref 5). Terasaki et al. (Ref
6, 7) also investigated plate buckling behavior caused by
welding, utilizing experiments, and numerical analyses. They
have shown that welding-induced buckling is affected by the
welding conditions, size of plate, and material properties.
Also, using the computational approach in particular FE
analysis, welding-induced buckling is investigated based on the
development of advanced numerical techniques and high perfor-
mance computers. Tsai et al. (Ref 8) pointed out that the bifurcation
phenomenon of buckling starts during the cooling cycle, and this
may continue to grow until the completion of the cooling process.
An integrated experimental and numerical approach was applied to
investigate the mechanism of welding-induced buckling evolution
process. Meanwhile, eigenvalue analysis using welding longitudi-
nal inherent strain distribution and 3D thermal elastic plastic FE
(TEP FE) analysis considering large deformation were performed
on welded structural models to understand the buckling distortion
process observed in the experiments. Michaleris (Ref 9) pointed out
that the compressive residual stress parallel to welding line
contributes a loading that eventually results in buckling if the
stress exceeds the critical buckling stress of the welded structure. He
called this stress as the applied weld load (AWL), which is
determined by performing local 3D TEP FE analysis of the welding
process. A 2D shell model depicting the actual ship panel using a
relatively coarse mesh is then used to perform an eigenvalue
analysis that determines the various buckling modes caused by
welding residual stress. The minimum eigenvalue obtained from
the analysis is used to evaluate the resistance to buckling. This
resistance to buckling has been called the critical buckling load
(CBL). A comparison of the AWL and the CBL indicates whether

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

the welded structure is expected to buckle and what mode of
buckling is likely to occur. Vanli and Michaleris (Ref 10)
considered fillet welded joints with a particular emphasis on
welding-induced buckling instabilities. The effects of stiffener
geometry, welding sequence, welding heat input and mechanical
fixtures on the occurrence of buckling, and the distortion pattern are
investigated. Michaleris et al. (Ref 11) suggested that the magnitude
of longitudinal residual stress is critical in the prediction of buckling
distortion. An evaluation of modeling procedures to predict
welding-induced buckling distortion incorporating a moving heat
source, 2D and 3D small deformation analysis, 3D large deforma-
tion analysis, and 2D-3D applied plastic strain analyses is carried
out by comparing computed residual stress and distortion with
experimental measurements. Tajima et al. (Ref 12) pointed out that
welding longitudinal shrinkage (tendon force) produces compres-
sive stress in the surrounding plate fields that sometimes cause these
plate fields to buckle. In order to avoid buckling, a series of TEP
finite element analyses are carried out to predict welding tendon
forces and transverse shrinkage/bending when utilizing continuous
and intermittent welding with different welding specifications. A
cross-stiffened panel of a car deck of a car carrier is investigated. Bi-
directional residual stresses are then evaluated for different welding
patterns. The effectiveness of welding pattern (continuous, parallel,
and zigzag intermittent welding) in reducing welding residual stress
and preventing buckling is quantified. Wang et al. (Ref 13) focused
on the residual buckling distortion in a test specimen with a
thickness of 2.28 mm under bead-on-plate welding. Eigenvalue
analysis and elastic FE analysis based on inherent deformation
theory are carried out to investigate the generation mechanism of
residual buckling in bead-on-plate welded joint. The tendon force
(longitudinal inherent shrinkage) is the dominant reason to produce
buckling and the disturbance (initial deflection or inherent bending)
triggers buckling but does not influence the buckling mode.
These achievements mentioned in above literatures are
essential to recognize welding-induced buckling after completed
cooling down in lightweight welded structure. However, when
thin plates with high tensile strength steel are used, not only
residual buckling during or/and after cooling down but also
transient buckling during heating may be produced. In addition,
due to the instability feature of buckling, transient buckling
during heating can inversely influence the welding process and
damage the welding equipment. Therefore, the investigation of
transient buckling during heating is also an important research
issue in production of thin plate welded structure.
Thermal buckling of aircraft structure during flying with
supersonic speed was investigated beforehand. The thermal stresses
which result from non-uniform temperature distribution produced
by aerodynamic heating may have a significant effect on the
buckling of aerodynamic surfaces and aircraft performance. Hel-
denfels and Roberts (Ref 14) investigated thermal stresses produced
in a flat, rectangular, and aluminum alloy plate by non-uniform
heating by experimental and theoretical analysis. The measured
thermal stresses using bonded resistance wire strain gages are found
to be in a good agreement with an approximate theoretical solution
of the problem. Later, Gossard et al. (Ref 15) proposed an
approximate method based on large deflection plate theory to
calculate the deflection of flat or initially imperfect plates subject to
the thermal buckling. The examined object fixed by simply
supported boundary condition is subjected to a tentlike temperature
distribution over the plate surface. Experimental results for this
particular panel are in a good agreement with the theoretical results
for the range of temperature and deflections considered in the test.
Tauchert (Ref 16) presented a survey of investigations concerned
with the response of flat plates to thermal loading. The topic of
buckling, post-buckling, and large deformation behaviors associated
with elevated temperature and rapid heating is discussed. Further,
the influence of plate thickness, support conditions, and material
behaviors on thermally induced buckling of plate was considered.
Thornton (Ref 17) reviewed the research on thermal buckling of
plates and shells. The role of material thermal properties on
thickness and spatial temperature gradients is demonstrated.
Analytical, computational, and experimental studies are also
described. Governing equations and formulas for critical buckling
temperatures are presented for several practical applications.
Since welding process is well known as a high non-liner
physical phenomenon, extreme non-uniform temperature dis-
tribution produced by rapid heating in narrow region during
heating will generate thermal expansion, in particular which
may induce transient buckling (thermal buckling during
heating). When transient buckling occurs in production of high
tensile strength welded structure, it is difficult to clarify the
detail behaviors of transient buckling using the direct exper-
imental observation. The FE analysis has its unique advantages
to visually investigate the detail behaviors and clarify the
generation mechanism of transient bucking during heating.
In this study, transient buckling and residual buckling in thin
plates of high tensile strength steel are investigated by FE
analysis. They are first reproduced by TEP FE analysis for a thin
plate with bead-on-plate welding. Influential factors affecting
welding-induced buckling, in particular transient buckling
during heating such as large deformation theory and material
yield stress, are investigated using above-mentioned TEP FE
analysis. The cause of occurrence of transient buckling during
heating and different modes of transient/residual buckling are
clarified using theoretical explanation and computed longitudinal
inherent deformation (longitudinal transient/residual stresses).
2. Fundamental Theory and Method
With the development of high performance computer and
advanced numerical techniques, FE analysis is widely accepted
and considered as a practical and effective research tool to
investigate the welding such as buckling behavior caused by
welding. The fundamental theory and method of FE analysis
employing in this study are introduced as follows.
2.1 Mechanical Failure Behavior of Material/Structure
Based on the theory of plate mechanics under uniaxial force,
it is well known that the material will yield when the external
loading Fload exceeds the yield stress regardless the compres-
sive or tensile case. Equation 1 shows the fundamental
mechanism of yield behavior of plastic material. For a plate
fixed by simply support boundary condition under a uniform
uniaxial compressive force, the buckling will occur when the
external compressive loading exceeds the critical stress given
by Eq 2, which not only depends on the material properties but
also influences by dimensions of considered plate.
Fload
Yield case: ¼ r > rY ¼ Eetotal ðEq 1Þ
A
Fload k p2 E  t 2
Buckling Case: ¼ r > rE ¼ ; ðEq 2Þ
A 12 1  m2 b
where rY and rcr mean the yield stress and critical buckling
stress, respectively; A means the area of cross section; E and
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance
 1
m are the material properties such as YoungÕs modules and r ¼ ð3J2 Þ2 ðEq 6Þ
PoissonÕs ratio; t and b are the thickness and width of plate;
and the k is a numerical factor which determined by ratio of So material will yield when the following condition is satis-
length/width. fied.
1
Generally, the welded structure is assembled by thick plates; r ¼ ð3J2 Þ2 ¼ ryield ; ðEq 7Þ
the yield behavior and its resulting plastic deformation are the
dominant issue of welding mechanics. However, when the high where ryield is the current (after arbitrary plastic deformation)
tensile strength materials and its alloy are employed, the welded yield stress of the material.
structure can be designed and fabricated using thin plates. For In other words, material yields when the equivalent stress r
this case, the buckling behavior will become the critical researches the yielding stress given by the one dimensional
problem for the thin plate welded structures. stress-strain curve.
2.2.3 Strain Hardening Rule. Strain hardening or work
2.2 Theory of Plasticity hardening is a process by which the material grows stronger as
it is deformed. In other words, yield stress after plastic
When welded structures are subjected to excessively com- deformation increases with the plastic strain. For a strain
pressive thermal stress due to arc heating, weld joints may undergo hardening material, the size and shape of the yield surface
plastic strain and plastic deformation. Plastic deformation is depend on the total history of deformation. Two approaches to
caused by the motion of dislocations, and dislocations are mainly describe the way that a material yields are isotropic hardening
driven by shear stress, and hydrostatic pressure does not influence and kinematic hardening.
its motion; thus, the yield condition of a metal is independent on For isotropic hardening, the yield surface expands during plastic
hydrostatic pressure unless it is extremely large. Theory of flow, and this expansion is uniform in all directions about the origin
plasticity with incremental form for stress-strain relation has been in stress space. Thus, initial shape and orientation are maintained.
employed to solve problems involving unloading in most finite For kinematic hardening, the yield surface retains its original size,
element methods. The primary research fields of plasticity are flow shape, and orientation with respect to the origin of the stress space,
theory, yield condition, and strain hardening rule, which will be but the yield surface is assumed to undergo translation in the stress
discussed respectively in the following. space. Kinematic hardening theory takes into account the Bausch-
2.2.1 J2 Flow Theory. As mentioned above, the flow inger effect and considers the material as a non-isotropic continuum.
theory is superior to the deformation theory for numerical analysis In reality, the hardening process often involves simultaneous
of practical problems. In this study, J2 flow theory is employed for translation and expansion of the yield surface, combining the
FE computation, and its details are discussed in follows. isotropic hardening and non-linear kinematic hardening approaches.
Since hydrostatic component of the stress tensor has no
effect on the yielding and the plastic deformation of the
material, the plastic phenomenon is governed only by devia- 2.3 Large Deformation Theory
toric stress Sij, which is defined by
The equation relating the strain and displacement is essential to
Sij ¼ rij  p describe the buckling behavior. If small deformation is assumed,
r11 þ r22 þ r33 ðEq 3Þ strains are given as linear functions of displacements. When the
p¼
3 deformation is large, Green-Lagrange strain, which is a non-linear
function of displacements, must be used. Equation 8 shows the
When the isotropic material is considered, the plastic
Green-Lagrange strain. From the expression of strain, the first-order
phenomenon can be described by the three invariants, which
term represents the linear response, and the second-order term is
are independent of directions, of the deviatoric stress Sij. These
essential to the non-linear behavior under large deformation.
invariants J1, J2, and J3 are defined as (      )
J1 ¼ S11 þ S22 þ S33 @u 1 @u 2 @v 2 @w 2
ex ¼ þ þ þ
J2 ¼ S11 S22 þ S22 S33 þ S33 S11  S12 S21  S23 S32  S31 S13 @x 2 @x @x @x
(      )
2 2
J3 ¼ detðSij Þ @v 1 @u @v @w 2
ey ¼ þ þ þ
ðEq 4Þ @y 2 @y @y @y
(      )
2 2
Among the above invariants, the second invariants J2 play @w 1 @u @v @w 2
an important role in the flow theory. Meanwhile, the J2 can be ez ¼ þ þ þ
@z 2 @z @z @z
rearranged by stress tensor in the following form:         
 @u @v @u @u @v @v @w @w
1 cxy ¼ þ þ þ þ
J2 ¼ ðr11  r22 Þ2 þ ðr22  r33 Þ2 þ ðr33  r11 Þ2 @y @x @x @y @x @y @x @y
6         
) @v @w @u @u @v @v @w @w
cyz ¼ þ þ þ þ
@z @y @y @z @y @z @y @z
þ6ðr212 þ r223 þ r231 Þ         
@u @w @u @u @v @v @w @w
cxz ¼ þ þ þ þ ;
ðEq 5Þ @z @x @x @z @x @z @x @z
ðEq 8Þ
2.2.2 Yield Condition. Various yield conditions have
been proposed for different materials. For example, Mises where ex, ey, and ez are the normal Green-Lagrange strain in
and Tresca yield conditions are well known. In case of J2 flow x, y, and z directions; cxy, cyz, and cxz are the shear Green-La-
theory, Mises yield condition is employed, and the equivalent grange strain on the x-y, y-z, and z-x planes; and u, v, and w are
stress is defined as the displacement in the x, y, and z directions, respectively.

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

2.4 Introduction of In-house Code for TEP FE Analysis
The in-house program suit Joining and Welding Research
Institute ANalysis (JWRIAN) was developed by the research
group of mathematical modeling and computational analysis,
JWRI, Osaka University. This in-house program suit consists of
a TEP FE analysis, using solid elements models.
In the TEP FE analysis, two processes are considered, the
thermal process and the mechanical process. Despite the fact that the
thermal process has a decisive effect on the mechanical process, the
mechanical process has only a small influence on the thermal
process, and a coupled thermal mechanical analysis is not necessary.
Therefore, thermal-mechanical behavior during welding is analyzed
using uncoupled thermal/mechanical formulation. This uncoupled
formulation considers the contribution of the transient temperature
field to stress through thermal expansion as well as temperature-
dependent thermal-physical and mechanical properties. The solu-
tion procedure consists of two steps. First, the temperature
distribution history is computed using heat transfer analysis. Then
the obtained transient temperature distribution is employed as a
thermal load in the subsequent mechanical analysis, in which
residual stresses, plastic strains, and displacements are computed.
The main TEP computational model for transient thermal
and stress analysis is described as follows:
2.4.1 Thermal Analysis. A welding employs a moving
local high intensity power source to the part which generates a
sharp thermal profile in the weld pool, heat-affected zone
(HAZ), and base metal. The 3D transient temperature is
basically determined by solving the partial differential equation
for the conservation of energy on a domain defined by a FEM
mesh in a Lagrangian formulation.
h_ þ r  q þ Q ¼ 0
q ¼ jrT ðEq 9Þ
dT
h_ ¼ qc ;
dt
where h is the specific enthalpy, the super-imposed dot de-
notes the derivative with respect to time, T is the temperature,
,T is the temperature gradient, Q is the power per unit vol-
ume or the power density distribution, k is the thermal con-
ductivity, c is thermal capacity, and q is density. These
material properties are usually temperature dependent.
In this analysis, the initial temperature is often assumed to
be room temperature, and body heat source with uniform power
density Q (w/m3: welding arc energy/volume of body heat
source) is employed to model the heat source of welding arc.
Besides considering the moving heating source, heat losses
due to convection and radiation are also taken into account in
the finite element model. A combined convection and radiation
boundary condition generates a boundary flux q (w/m2) on all
external surfaces. This flux is determined by heat convection
and radiation together from the following equations:
q ¼ qc þ qr
¼ hðT  Tambient Þ þ eC½ðT þ 273Þ4  ðTambient þ 273Þ4 
¼ ½h þ eC½ðT þ 273Þ2 þ ðTambient þ 273Þ2 ½ðT þ 273Þ
þ ðTambient þ 273ÞðT  Tambient Þ;
ðEq 10Þ
where qc and qr are heat convection and radiation, respec-
tively, h is coefficient of heat convection, e is emissivity of
the object which will be equal to 1 for ideal radiator, and C
is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant.
Meanwhile, the FEM domain is dynamic, which will change
with filler metal adding to the welding pass in each time step
during welding. After welding pass is completed, the time step
length was increased exponentially until sum of computed time
reaches a defined maximum examined time, and the analysis
halts.
2.4.2 Stress Analysis. Given the density q, the fourth-
order elastic plastic tensor D as a 6 9 6 matrix, the body force
b, and the Green-Lagrange strain e, and stress analysis solves
the conservation of momentum equation at the end of each time
step that can be written in the form of Eq 11 in which inertial
forces are neglected.
rrþb¼0
r ¼ De
ðEq 11Þ
ru þ ðruÞT þ ðruÞT ru
e¼
2
The initial stress often is assumed to be stress free. The
system is solved using a time marching scheme with time step
lengths with certain magnitude during welding; usually, an
exponentially increasing time step length after welding has
stopped. In terms of boundary conditions, the part is free to
deform, but rigid body motion is fixed as constraint.
3. Computation of Welding-Induced Buckling
A rectangular plate with bead-on-plate welding, whose size
is 300 9 200 9 2.28 (mm), is selected as research object. This
thin plate bead-on-plate welded joint is made of high tensile
strength steel (HT950). The TEP FE analysis is carried out to
investigate the buckling behavior in this thin plate welded joint
throughout the entire welding process.
Figure 1 shows the solid elements model of the
considered thin plate welded joint. This solid elements model
has 17,956 nodes and 13,200 elements. Boundary conditions
to prevent rigid body motion are adopted as shown in Fig. 1.
In order to investigate transient buckling and residual
buckling, the six points shown in Fig. 1 are selected to
monitor the real-time record of out-of-plane welding
distortion. Welding condition of this bead-on-plate welding
is assumed as given in Table 1. Welding heat is assumed to
uniformly penetrate the full thickness of the plate, and
the influence of bending deformation (angular distortion)
caused by temperature gradient in thickness direction is
ignored.
3.1 Welding-Induced Buckling During the Entire Welding
Process
In Fig. 2, the distributions of out-of-plane welding
distortion at different times during the entire welding process
are presented. As may be seen from the figures, the plate
deforms in a dish shape during heating and in a saddle shape
after cooling down. This difference in deformation shapes
(buckling modes) can be explained as the response to the
different distributions of compressive stress during heating
and after cooling down as discussed in the following
sections.
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance
 8.0+00
Fixed DOF
6.4+00
4.8+00
200mm
300mm 3.2+00
1.6+00
0.0+00
6 -1.6+00
5 -3.2+00

4 -4.8+00 Z
-6.4+00 X
Z 3
-8.0+00
Y
X 2 Nodes: 17956
Y 1
Elements: 13200 Component [mm] Max Min
Thickness: 2.28mm Z-Direction Displacement 0.0000 0.0000
(a)
Fig. 1 Solid elements model of considered thin plate welded joint

8.0
Table 1 Welding condition 7.0
6.0
Current Voltage Velocity Efficiency
5.0
175-185 (A) 14-16 (V) 3.6 mm/s 0.7-0.8 4.0
3.0
2.0
3.2 Transient Buckling During Heating 1.0 Z
Because the investigations of residual buckling after cooling 0.0 X
down were already presented in lots of literatures, the following -1.0 Y
study topic is focused on transient buckling during heating.
To understand the behavior at the time when transient Component [mm] Max Min
buckling occurs during heating, temperature distribution and Z-Direction Displacement 7.400 0.004
(b)
longitudinal transient stress distribution are presented in Fig. 3,
in which compressive transient stresses in the longitudinal and
transverse direction are produced around the welding line. As 8.0
may be seen from Fig. 3(b), for the high tensile strength welded 6.0
structure with the high yield stress, longitudinal compressive
4.0
stress will largely increase where welding arc torch is passing,
and if it exceeds the buckling stress, transient buckling occurs. 2.0

0.0
3.3 Tendency of Out-of-plane Welding Distortion During -2.0
Welding
-4.0
To closely examine the buckling behavior caused by bead-on- Z
-6.0 X
plate welding in thin plate, out-of-plane displacements at the six Y
-8.0
selected points shown in Fig. 1 are plotted in Fig. 4 from the start
of welding to the completion of cooling down. As maybe see Component [mm] Max Min
from the figure, the magnitude of deflection increases during Z-Direction Displacement 7.186 -6.36
(c)
heating and increases in the opposite direction during cooling
down. Noting that no bending deformation can be produced by
Fig. 2 Out-of-plane welding distortion during entire welding pro-
the resulting temperature gradient in thickness direction as shown cess. (a) Out-of-plane displacement before welding (b) Transient
in Fig. 3(a), it may be concluded that the observed deflection is buckling during heating (c) Residual buckling after cooling
produced by buckling. The buckling occurs during heating is
defined as transient buckling, and buckling after completed
cooling down is defined as residual buckling. Point A shown in
happen both during heating and after completion of cooling
Fig. 4 means that the transient bucking starts to develop, and
down. To confirm buckling and the influence of yield stress of
point B means after the completion of cooling down.
the plate, computations assuming small deformation and
assuming carbon steel are carried out and presented in this
section.
4. Influential Factors of Welding-Induced Buck-
ling 4.1 Out-of-plane Welding Distortion under Small
Deformation
Through TEP FE analysis, it has been shown that when the In order to confirm transient buckling during heating, the
material of the plate is high tensile strength steel, buckling may small deformation theory is employed to analyze the same

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

 1.6+03 0.15

1.4+03 0.10

1.2+03 0.05
1.0+03 0.00
0.8+03
-0.05
0.6+03
-0.10
0.4+03 Z Z
X -0.15 X
0.2+03 Y
Y -0.20
0.0+03
Temperature Max Min
1500°C 20°C
Fig. 5 Out-of-plane welding distortion after completed cooling
(a) down under small deformation

7.0+02 4
6.0+02
5.0+02 Point 1

Displacement in Z direction (mm)

4.0+02 2 Point 2
3.0+02 Point 3
2.0+02 Point 4
0
1.0+02 Point 5
0.0+00 Point 6
-1.0+02 -2
-2.0+02
-3.0+02 Z
X -4
-4.0+02
-5.0+02 Y
-6.0+02 -6 welding
Component [MPa] Max Min completed
X-Direction Stress 693.6 -575.8
-8
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
(b)
Time (sec)

Fig. 3 Computed results of thermal/mechanical analysis when tran-

Fig. 6 Real-time record of out-of-plane welding distortion during
sient buckling occurs. (a) Transient temperature distribution (b) Dis-
the entire welding process (carbon steel)
tribution of longitudinal transient stress

temperature gradient in thickness direction, therefore, welding

4
bending distortion cannot be produced. When the small
Point 1 deformation theory is employed, buckling-type welding distor-
Displacement in Z direction (mm)

2 Point 2 tion cannot be predicted. As expected, out-of-plane welding

Point 3 distortion is not observed except the local deformation of the
Point 4
0 Point 5 welding bead, which is produced by accumulation of in-plane
A Point 6 shrinkage that is predicted no matter whether the computation
-2
is large deformation or small deformation. Once, it can be
concluded that the out-of-plane welding distortion shown in
Fig. 2 is produced by buckling not by bending deformation.
-4

B 4.2 Buckling of a Carbon Steel Plate

-6
welding Assuming that the material of the plate is carbon steel
completed (SM490), welding distortion is analyzed assuming the same
-8 welding condition. Figure 6 shows the out-of-plane welding
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time (sec) distortion at the six selected points during heating and
subsequent cooling down. As may be seen from the figure,
Fig. 4 Real-time record of out-of-plane welding distortion during there is almost no out-of-plane welding distortion during
the entire welding process (high tensile strength steel) heating. And it is interesting to notice that out-of-plane welding
distortion observed after cooling down is as large as that in the
problem, and the computed out-of-plane welding distortion is case of high tensile strength steel. As for the buckling mode,
shown in Fig. 5. the thin plate has deformed in a saddle shape, the same as in the
Because the heat is assumed to uniformly penetrate the case of high tensile strength steel. This comes from the fact that
considered thin plate during welding, there is almost no buckling in the cooling stage is caused by the longitudinal

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

 4.0 400
3.0 High tensile strength steel
2.0 Carbon steel
1.0 200

Transient stress (MPa)

0.0
-1.0
-2.0 0
-3.0
-4.0
-5.0 Z -200

-6.0 X
-7.0 Y
-400
Component Max Min
Z-displacement 3.6593 -6.38

Fig. 7 Buckling distortion of plate after completed cooling down -600

0 50 100 150 200
(carbon steel)
Coordinate in transverse direction (mm)

Fig. 8 Comparison of transient longitudinal stresses in the cases of

residual compressive stress, which is produced in the region high tensile strength steel and carbon steel
away from the welding line to balance the longitudinal residual
tensile stress close to the welding line (Fig. 7). Noting that the
longitudinal residual tensile stress is mostly dependent on the
heat input and less sensitive to the yield stress of the material, it 1000 During heaing process
may be seen that the longitudinal residual compressive stress in After cooling down

Transient/Residual stress (MPa)

carbon steel plate and high tensile strength steel plate are nearly 800
equal.
600

400
5. Results and Discussions
200

In order to understand the above-presented computed 0

results, a theoretical clarification is first proposed. During the
heating of welding, the region of welding line where the -200
welding torch is passing will be heated and then elongate due to
the thermal expansion with no constraint. However, because of -400

the high non-uniform heating with moving welding torch, the

metal away from the heated region of welding line will keep
room temperature and prevent the thermal expansion of
welding line in longitudinal direction. Then the longitudinal
compressive thermal stress is generated. When this longitudinal
compressive thermal stress exceeds the yield stress of consid-
ered material, the welding line will yield, and longitudinal
compressive plastic strain occurs. For the high tensile strength
steel, a relatively larger longitudinal compressive thermal stress
is required to make the welding line yield compared with that in
case of carbon steel. On the other hand, when the considered
plate of high tensile strength steel is thin enough, the critical
buckling stress may less than yield stress, and consequently,
transient buckling during heating will occur before the material
nears yielding due to the longitudinal compressive thermal
stress produced by welding. This is the reason for the behavior
that transient buckling with dish shape will be observed only in
the thin plate of high tensile strength steel.
After completed cooling, the above-mentioned longitudinal
compressive thermal stress in the welding line will disappear,
and an amount of longitudinal compressive plastic strain is
generated. Also, longitudinal tensile residual stress is produced
due to the contraction of welding line, and longitudinal
compressive residual stress occurs far away from the welding
line to balance the longitudinal tensile residual stress close to
-600
0 50 100 150 200
Coordinate in transverse direction (mm)
Fig. 9 Comparison of longitudinal transient stress and longitudinal
residual stress caused by welding
welding line. This kind of residual stress distribution would
change the deformed dish shape of transient buckling into a
saddle buckling type when the longitudinal compressive
residual stress exceeds the critical buckling stress.
To closely examine the stress distribution just before
transient buckling starts to develop, the stress distributions of
the carbon steel plate and the high tensile strength steel plate
are compared at time A as shown in Fig. 4, when the heat
source is close to the end of welding line. Figure 8 shows the
distribution of the longitudinal transient stress on the middle
cross section (at the heat source). As may be seen from the
figure, in the case of high tensile steel, compressive stress
observed in the area adjacent to the welding line is larger than
that in the case of carbon steel. This explains why transient
buckling during heating is likely to occur when the yield stress
of the material is high.
Figure 9 shows the distributions of longitudinal transient
stress in the case of high tensile strength steel at times A and B

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

in Fig. 4 when transient buckling is about to happen and after
cooling down. After cooling down, the typical longitudinal
residual stress distribution with a strong narrow tension band at
the welding line and compressive stress away from the welding
line are observed. Because of these different longitudinal stress
distributions, dish-type buckling is promoted during heating,
and saddle-type buckling is promoted after cooling.
6. Conclusions
Using TEP FE analysis, buckling behavior caused by bead-on-
plate welding in a thin plate of high tensile strength steel is
investigated. It is found that the plate may buckle both during and
after welding. The modes of buckling during the heating and after
cooling down in welding are dish type mode and saddle type mode.
Both types of buckling mode are produced by the compressive
stress associated with the transient thermal stress or the residual
stress, respectively. The following conclusions also can be drawn:
(1) In case of a high tensile strength steel plate 300 9 200 9
2.28 mm in length, width, and thickness and yield stress
equals to 950 MPa, transient buckling occurs during
welding. On cooling down, residual buckling occurs.
(2) During heating, because of the high yield stress, com-
pared with carbon steel, larger compressive thermal
stress is produced near the welding line. Therefore, thin
plate structures made of high tensile strength steel may
buckle due to thermal expansion during welding.
(3) During cooling down, the compressive thermal stress in
the region close to the welding line disappears, and
therefore, transient buckling also disappears. Meanwhile,
tensile residual stress is produced in and around the
welding line due to contraction. Compressive residual
stress is then produced away from the welding line to
balance the tensile stress in and around the welding line.
This compressive residual stress, when it exceeds the
critical buckling condition, will change the deformed
shape to a saddle buckling type.
(4) With development of advanced high strength materials,
transient buckling caused by welding becomes an impor-
tant issue that needs more investigation.
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Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance