The distortion gap width and stresses in laser welding of thin elastic plates

Two thin elastic plates in the form of infinite half planes are joined together as a butt weld by a moving general heat source travelling at constant speed. The stresses along the weld direction and the distortion of the unwelded open end resulting from the welding process are evaluated using a Mellin-transform technique. The final result far an infinite plate is expressed in terms of a convolution integral and illustrated by numerical calculations for the point heat source of Rosenthal as an approximation to the general heat source. The distortion of the unwelded section for the case of the infinite plate is compared with that for a thin plate of finite size computed by a finite-element method.