THE INFLUENCE OF GEOMETRIC AND WELDING PARAMETERS ON RESIDUAL STRESS IN THIN WELDED STEEL STRUCTURES

Residual stress distributions have been established on thin (4 mm thick) plates made from a ferritic steel designated grade DH-36, which is relevant to ship construction. The influence of welding speed (thus energy input) and stiffener dimensions on the residual stress distributions have been studied. The residual stresses in the vicinity of the welds have been measured using the neutron diffraction technique. Increasing the weld speed reduces the weld width and subsequently the width of the high tensile strain region in the vicinity of the butt weld. However, within the practicable limits examined, the weld speed has little effect on the overall stress distribution. It has also been found that the stiffener thickness has relatively little influence on the resultant residual stress distribution.