Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124

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Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Analytically based equations for distortion and residual stress

estimations of thin butt-welded plates
M. Hashemzadeh, Y. Garbatov, C. Guedes Soares
Centre for Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering (CENTEC), Instituto Superior Tcnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Analytical, finite element and experimental analyses of thin butt-welded plates are performed for esti-
Received 28 June 2016 mating thermal field, distortions and residual stresses. The existing empirical equations for the maximum
Revised 16 January 2017 distortion amplitudes are evaluated and new relationships are developed to estimate the distortion and
Accepted 17 January 2017
residual stress spatial distributions on the thin butt-welded plates. To validate the newly developed
Available online 3 February 2017
equations, experimental test results and finite element analyses are used. The validation confirms that
the developed relationships are in a good agreement with the collected experimental results and finite
Keywords:
element analyses, representing common shipyard welding conditions. In addition, different thicknesses
Butt-weld
Finite element analysis
of thin plates are numerically investigated to validate the accuracy level of the new regression equations.
Regression equations 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tests

1. Introduction of the solid-state phase transformation on welding residual stres-

The welding induced residual stresses and distortions have sig-
nificant importance on the structural capacity of metal structures
and hence, it is essential to consider them in the structural integ-
rity analysis. There is a growing concern of the welding process
and resulting residual stresses and distortions, which lead to inten-
sive research activities in this field in the recent years. An example
is the analysis of the temperature distribution as a thermal load
and the employment of the finite element method (FEM) in pre-
dicting the weld induced distortions and residual stresses.
The finite element method has been proven to be a very suitable
tool for the thermo-mechanical analysis of welding and to estimate
the resulting residual stresses and distortions. A common practice
is to calibrate the FE analysis based on the experimental results.
Michaleris and DeBiccari [1] compared numerical estimations with
the experimental data from small and large-scale welded speci-
mens to validate the scalability of the results. Also, a number of
finite element models, aimed at illustrating the effect of using dif-
ferent modelling strategies for analysing the thermo-elasto-plastic
stages of the welding process, were presented by Mollicone et al.
[2].
Deng et al. [3] analysed the influence of the plate thickness of
stiffened panels on the post-welding deformation and predicted
the possibility of hot cracking in the weld toe using temperature-
dependent interface elements. Deng [4] investigated the effects
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: c.guedes.soares@centec.tecnico.ulisboa.pt (C. Guedes Soares).
ses and distortions in the low carbon and medium carbon steels
based on the sequentially coupled thermal, metallurgical, mechan-
ical 3-D finite element models using the commercial software
ABAQUS.
Seyyedian Choobi et al. [5] have simulated the welding process,
using FEM, investigating the effect of clamping and the clamp
releasing time on the welding residual stresses and distortions in
a single-pass butt-welding of 304 stainless steel plates. Asadi and
Goldak [6] demonstrated a surrogate model to optimize the
sequences of welding in all possible combinations to minimize
the distortion. They compared the surrogate model results with
the full transient FE analysis and proved the accuracy of their
model.
The welding speed, energy input and heat source distributions
have prominent effects on the shape and the boundaries of the
fusion zone (FZ) and the heat affected zone [7,8]. In a continuation
of this work, Long et al. [9] investigated distortions and residual
stresses in butt-welded plates. Their results revealed that the plate
thickness and welding speed had a significant effect on the welding
distortions and residual stresses. Asadi et al. [10] elaborated a
regression model for the residual stress approximation. An analysis
was introduced to verify the computational welding model with
the exciting result obtained from experiment by means of the
uncertainty analysis. This uncertainty analyses was done employ-
ing the Monte Carlo simulations. They proved that their calibrated
model is an effective alternative for calculating the residual stress
of welding.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2017.01.041
0141-0296/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
116 M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124
The effects of different finite elements types and mesh density
were studied as well. Adak and Guedes Soares [11], and Hashemza-
deh et al. [12] studied the effects of the heat input models in the
temperature field and distribution, as well as the effects of the
boundary conditions on the weld induced residual deformations
and stresses in steel welded plates.
The effect of welding cannot be ignored in the structural design
and analyses procedures as well as especially in the fatigue damage
and ultimate strength assessments due to the influence of the
residual stresses and distortions. In this matter, a systematic anal-
ysis is needed to evaluate the structural response accounting for
the consequences of welding. Tekgoz et al. [1315] investigated
the effect of different welding sequences on the ultimate strength
on a stiffened welded plate. They established a new methodology
to avoid the computational time consuming thermal and mechan-
ical analyses by introducing a modified stress-strain curve
implicitly.
Chen et al. [16] evaluated different techniques for predicting the
weld induced temperature and distortions in but welded plates
and investigated the effects of several parameters on the welding
response, including the torch speed, heat input and plate thickness.
Also, many investigations were performed by using a simplified
description of the residual stress and distortion distributions by
employing some empirical equations. It is computationally time-
expensive to simulate the welding process, so these empirical
equations are useful, but still need to be improved to account for
the effects of welding process as pre-stresses and distortions. At
the same time as increasing the computational ability by employ-
ing the finite element method and parallel computing, it is vital to
enhance the accuracy level of these simplified equations by means
of transforming them into a precise fast approach, which may be
used as a direct structural design approach. Chen et al. [17,18]
developed new equations for predicting the distribution of residual
stresses in thick plates and the achieved results were in good
agreement with the experimental measurements.
Another solution of these problems is to adopt analytical and
empirical equations. For a very long time such analytical equations
have been developed by Wells [19], Okerblom [20], Pflug [21] and
Verhaeghe [22] to estimate the maximum distortion induced by
the welding process, which in fact a not capable to estimate the
spatial distribution of the residual stresses and distortions around
the welded structures.
The present work is a continuation of the one reported by
Hashemzadeh et al. [23] and deals with the development of new
analytically based equations estimating the post weld distortions
and residual stresses of thin but-welded plates accounting for the
plate thicknesses. The developed equations are verified by real
measurements demonstrating a good agreement. The achieved
equations may be an appropriate alternative of the time consum-
ing thermal and residual stress finite element calculations identify-
ing the weld induced distortion and residual stresses around the
welded plates, that need to be accounted for in the non-linear
finite element assessment of welded plates.
A comprehensive study is carried out in the present work to
develop new analytically based equations of welding distortions
and residual stresses in thin butt welded plates. This type of equa-
tions is appropriate to have a fast approach to estimate the welding
induced distortions and residual stresses. The newly developed
equations may be employed to describe the distribution of the
welding induced residual stresses and distortions in relatively thin
butt-welded plates.
The methodology of the current study is presented in Fig. 1.
Analytical formulations provide solutions applicable to specific
ideal situations. These formulations will be corrected by factors
that are calibrated with results of the finite element model. These
numerical models account for the various details associated with
the welding process and are validated with experimental results.
In the initial stage of the study, the numerical estimations of FE
are verified, exploring the results of the welding induced distor-
tions taken from the experimental and analytical analyses, and
then the results obtained from the verified numerical estimations
(for a 4 mm plate thickness) are used in the regression analysis.
Two additional butt-welded plates of 2 and 5 mm thickness are
also investigated to confirm the validity of the new proposed
regression equations.
2. Analytical solution for the thermal field
The governing differential equation for the heat conduction in a
homogenous, isotropic solid, without a heat generation, in the rect-
angular coordinate system (x, y, and z) can be expressed as [24]:




@ @T @ @T @ @T @T
k k k qc 1
@x @x @y @y @z @z @t
where k is the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity.
A specific initial temperature of the welding is T T 1 for t = 0,
where T 1 is the ambient temperature. The heat flux due to the arc
welding is applied on the weld path surface qn qsup and
k @T
@n
qsup for t > 1. The convection loss only occurs in the rest
of the plate surfaces k @T
@n
hf T 1  T for t > 0.
The linear Newtonian convection cooling is considered on all
surfaces. The heat loss due to radiation, conduction through the
electrode and heat consumed by burning of the flux and melting
of the electrode are accounted for by the arc energy transfer effi-
ciency parameter, g, which takes into account the loss of electric
energy by radiation, convection etc.
The analysis of the heat source demonstrated that the temper-
ature gradients in the front of the arc are steeper than the one
behind the arc. For the arc welding processes, the deposition of
the heat may be characterized as a distribution of heat flux on
the weld surface. Assuming that the heat from the welding arc is
applied at any given instant of time the rate of heat generation
as given by Goldak et al. [25], who combined two semi-
ellipsoids, called double ellipsoidal heat source model.
For the arc welding processes, the deposition of heat may be
characterized as a distribution of heat flux on the weld surface.
Assuming that the heat from the welding arc is applied at any
given instant of time, t to a point within the first semi-ellipsoid,
z = 0, moves with a constant velocity, v along x-axis, the rate of
the internal heat generation by the welding torch is modelled with
a double ellipsoidal power density distribution at instant and is
described by the following equation [25]:
8

p > ff 3xv t2 3y2
x>v t
6 3  Q net < af exp  a2f  b2  c2 ;
3z2
qsup p   2
b c  p p> : f r exp  3xv t2  3y2  3z2 ;
ar a2 b2 c2
x>v t
r
where f f is the heat input ratio of the front part, 0.6 in the case
before the torch passes the analysis region, f r is the heat input pro-
portion in the rear part, 1.4 in the case after the torch passes the
analysis region, f f f r 2, Q net gUI=v is the welding heat input
per a unit weld length in W s/cm, the current of the direct source
is defined as I in A, and the voltage between the electrode and the
base plane by U, the traveling speed of the electrode v, x, y, and z
are the local coordinates of the double ellipsoid model aligned with
the weld, b is the radius in the y-direction of the weld, c is the weld
penetration or is the radius in the z-direction of the weld, af (respec-
tively ar) is the weld ellipsoid length [26]. Also,
 M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124 117

Fig. 1. Developing new regression equations.

Z 1 Z 1 Z 1
strain suggested by Okerblom [20] provides an excellent prediction
2Q net qx; y; zdxdydz 3
0 0 0 of the longitudinal shrinkage caused by a temperature distribution
along the weld. Recently, the longitudinal shrinkage has also been
When the heat source of the welding travels along the weld line,
studied in [23,27] and compared to different analytical solutions.
the temperature distribution in the base plane changes as a func-
The Okerblom [20] formula to estimate the longitudinal strain is
tion of the time elapsed and the temperature of the thermal cycle
given by:
may be calculated from:
dL AT  t qa
Q net y2 eL 0:335 8
T y;t e4ktbt
p 4 L A A  v w  cc
v d 4pcckt
where dL is the longitudinal deformation and L is the length of the
where Q net gUI is the arc welding energy input power, k is the
plate and AT, Te and Qnet are defined as:
thermal conductivity, v is the speed of the welding process,
Z 2eA ey
k k=cc is thermal diffusivity and cc is the volumetric heat 0:3355  a  Q net
AT b  a  T e y  dy 9
capacity. eA ey cc  t

3. Analytical based weld induced distortion models 0:484  Q net

The elongation and shortening in the butt-welded plates, due to
the non-uniform distribution of heating, cooling and thermal phase
transformations during the welding, lead to a development of
residual strain and stresses. In this section a revision of the devel-
oped regression models to estimate the shrinkage and distortion is
given.
3.1. Longitudinal shrinkage models
The temperature-induced strain, ea during the longitudinal
shrinkage, may be defined as:
ea aT
where a is the thermal expansion of the material and T is the tem-
perature in C. The total strain is calculated as a sum of elastic, plas-
tic and thermal strain:
et eel epl ea
If an initial imperfection is observed, before the heating load is
subjected to the plates, the total strain results in:
Te 10
cc  t  2  y
UI
Q net g qAw 11
vw
where U is the arc voltage, I is the arc current, vw is the speed of
welding, c is the specific heat, c is the material density, t is the
thickness of the welded plates, g is the coefficient of efficiency, q
is the specific heat of the unit welded joint area (1 mm2), Aw is
the cross-section area of weld metal in butt welded joint The ther-
mal impulse is defined as:
AT t 0:844  103 Q T 12
5
The formula of Okerblom [20] assumes that the weld is depos-
ited simultaneously over the whole length and it is valid for fast
moving heat sources or short welds. A review of some theoretical
prediction models of distortion has been presented below, based
on the comprehensive review performed by Verhaeghe [22]. Wells
6
[19] developed a model based on analytical analysis and experi-
mental results. He considered the longitudinal strain by including
the effect of the temperature distribution, transverse to the weld:

et eel Depl ea eo;pl 7 dL qa kt

eL 0:335  0:8 e 13
L A  v w  cc vw  A y
where Depl is the plastic strain, developed during the heating and
cooling of the welding processes and e0,pl represents the initial The model of Pflug [21] is based on the same reasoning, but the
imperfection. When two plates are welded, the developed distor- area that undergoes plastic deformation as defined by Okerblom
tion is because of the shrinkage along the axis of the weld. Different [20] is replaced by a ratio related to the weld area and has similar
analyses indicated that the formula to estimate the longitudinal limitations:
118 M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124

dL ry A which estimates the temperature distribution around the simu-

eL 0:42 14
L E A  Aw lated weld, based on the mechanical properties that vary as a func-
tion of the applied temperature.
White et al. [28] developed a model for a longitudinal shrinkage
Considering that the mechanical response of the welded struc-
accounting for the effects of the process efficiency, which had not
ture has negligible effects on the thermal analysis, indirect, decou-
been included in the previous models:
pled, thermo-mechanical analysis is performed, where the thermal
dL 160  q and mechanical analysis are performed separately (see Fig. 3). In
eL 15
L E  vw  A this regard, Fig. 4 illustrates the model for decoupled thermo-
mechanical analysis. The commercial software ANSYS [31], was
used to perform the appropriate finite element analysis. The finite
3.2. Transverse distortion models
element model is elaborated using eight-node three-dimensional
brick thermal elements, Solid 70, which is changed automatically
The transverse distortion, as proposed by Okerblom [20], is
during the computational process to Solid 180 for solving the
given by:
mechanical part.
1q a A refined finite element mesh is generated near the weld path,
dT 0:293 16
t v cc while a rough element size is used for the rest of the model, away
from the welding path. More detailed description of the mesh den-
Based on extensive experiments on steel plates of different sity calibration can be seen in [12,18].
thickness, Blodgett [29] derived an equation relating the area of In the present work, a three dimensional heat source model is
the deposited weld and material thickness to estimate the trans- employed to analyse the heat transfer, the distortion and residual
verse distortion as: stresses in butt arc welded plates. A three dimensional conduction
Aw model is assumed for the heat flow analysis and the method intro-
dT 0:1 17 duced in [32] was implemented to estimate the resulting distortion
t
distribution over the entire plate and to calibrate the new devel-
Based on theoretical and experimental investigations, Leggatt
oped regression equations.
[30] derived an equation, which is valid for a range of processes
In order to simulate the arc welding, it is assumed that the mov-
and steels to estimate the transverse distortion:
ing heat source is a transient process. During the movement of the
aq heat source as a welding progress, the heat energy is kept constant,
dT 1 m  g 18
cc  v w  t but the centre of the heat source is changed as a function of time.
The surface of the butt- welded plates is subjected to heat convec-
tion, while the weld path is in a contact with the heat source and it
3.3. Angular distortion models
is subjected to a heat flux instead. The temperature-dependent
material properties of the A36 ASTM steel, used for the transient
The angular distortion (Fig. 2) is one of the unavoidable distor-
heat transfer simulation during the welding process are given in
tions and it should be controlled in welded structures.
Table 1 [33]. The general mechanical properties and chemical com-
Okerblom [20] suggested a model for an angular distortion,
position of ASTM A36 are presented in Tables 2 and 3 respectively.
which is valid for parabolic shaped weld profiles, and where the
The analysis of the heat source shows that the temperature gra-
weld penetration, p is p/t < 0.6. An efficiency coefficient gm was
dient in the front of the arc is less steep although the gradient
used, which accounts for the heat fusing the base material, and a
behind the arc is steeper. The deposition of the heat may be char-
constant, which depends on the joint configuration:
acterized as a distribution of the heat flux on the weld surface in
q arc welding processes. It is assumed in the present study that the
bf C  gm 19
v w  t2 heat, sourced from the welding arc, is applied at any given instant
Leggatt [30] showed in experiments on the bead on plate sam-
ples that the angular distortion for a single pass weld peaks to the
maximum, which occurred at a penetration of the material and it is Step 2
estimated as a half of the material thickness. After taking the max- Temperature dependent material
imum, the angular distortion decreases with increasing the heat Step 1 properes
input. An equation was suggested to provide an empirical relation- Build Geometry Specic heat coecients
ship of angular distortion for the higher penetration of the weld as: Element type
BC
q
bf 0:22 ; if p < t=2 20
v w  t2
Step 3
Step 4
4. Finite element analysis Nonlinear transient thermal analysis
with a moving heat surface ux Temperature Distribuon
The finite element analysis is performed to estimate the post
welding distortions using a transient thermo-mechanical analysis,
Step 5
Mechanical Analysis Step 6
Mechanical properes
Welding induced distorons
Element Type
Welding induced residual stresses
BC
Load from Step 4

Fig. 2. Angular distortion of butt-welded plates. Fig. 3. Transient thermo-mechanical analysis.

 M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124 119

Fig. 5 shows the temperature distribution at the line of a 10 mm

Fig. 4. Dimensions and boundary conditions.
of time and hence the rate of the generated heat could be esti-
mated by a double ellipsoidal model of the heat input as given
by Goldak et al. [25].
The arc welding process is characterized by the welding current
of 173 A, voltage of 28.2 V and welding speed of 6.25 mm/s. The
convection and radiation coefficients of the external areas are con-
sidered as hf = 15 Wm2 and e = 0.9 [8] and the environmental
temperature is assumed to be 25 C. The applied boundary condi-
tions are illustrated in Fig. 4. The finite element model is elabo-
rated by using four layers through the thickness of the welded
plates.
The existing empirical equations estimate exclusively the max-
imum value of the longitudinal shrinkage and transverse and angu-
lar distortions, however they cannot be applied for describing the
distortion around the welded plates, which seems to be an essen-
tial issue since the post-weld imperfection and resulting residual
stresses of welded plates may cause reduction in fatigue and buck-
ling strength.
In this study, first the results obtained from the FE estimations
of the temperature and distortions are verified based on the real
measurements and then, new regression equations are developed
for ux (transverse distortion), bf (angular distortion), uz (longitudi-
nal shrinkage) and residual stresses as well.
It has to be pointed out that the effect of welding on structural
response has been investigated using both the numerical and
experimental approaches. The arc welding is considered, where
the consistent welding properties, taken from the experimental
tests, are applied in the analysis. The results obtained from the
thermal and structural parts were measured precisely. The temper-
ature measurement has been performed by thermocouples type J,
which was welded on the upper surface of the plate by thermocou-
ple welder and the data were recorded every two seconds by the
Agilent 34970A Data Acquisition / Switch Unit. The welding
induced distortions were measured by a displacement gauge at
the edges of the plate.
distance far away from the welding path obtained from the FE sim-
ulation, experimental measurements and analytical solution,
respectively. It can be seen that the results achieved from FE sim-
ulation has a good agreement with the experimental results, but
they are deviated from the predications made by analytical formu-
lation (Eq. (4)). This may be explained with the fact that the radi-
ation and convection heat transfer applied in the FE analysis are
ignored in the analytical solution of the temperature estimation.
The comparison between the numerical and experimental
results is presented in Fig. 6 for the vertical distortion at the edge
of the welded plate. It is detected that the both finite element and
experimental approaches produced almost consistent results. It is
noted that there exist some incompatibilities between the real
measurements and FE estimations, which probably is due to the
occurrence of some undeniable errors during the real
measurements.
5. New empirical models
The new regression models for the weld-induced distortion and
residual stresses are developed based on the past models of Wells
[19], Okerblom [20], Pflug [21], Verhaeghe [22] of the maximum
distortion, umax p1 ; p2 . . . pn , accounting for the most important
governing parameters [27] of the welding process and extending
the existing empirical models by introducing a term that deals
with the distribution, f x; z; t, of the distortion around the butt-
welded thin plate. The equations developed here are valid for a rel-
atively thin plate up to 7 mm.
The butt-welded plates are assumed to be free to move at their
edges during the welding process and the best equation fitted for
the purpose of estimating the angular distortion distribution is
suggested:
bf x; z bmax q; v w ; te f b x; z; b; l; bfo 21
where
q
bmax q; v w ; te 0:22
v 2w t2e
te 1:55  e0:087t
"

2 #
2
2x 2z  l
f b x; z; b; l; bfo  bfo
b l
and x, and z are the coordinate of any particular point of the welded
plates (see Fig. 4), b and l are the breadth and length of the plate and
bf0 is the initial imperfection of the plate. For the angular distortion
model, Eq. (21), the maximum angular distortion bmax is defined
based on the Leggatt [30] model, which is applicable for the partial

Table 1
Temperature-dependent material properties, ASTM A36A36 steel.

T (C) C (J/kgC) K (W/mC) a (lm/m C) ry (MPa) E (GPa)

20 450 51 11.2 380 210.0
100 475 50 11.8 340 195.0
210 530 49 12.4 320 195.0
330 560 46 13.1 262 185.0
420 630 41 13.6 190 168.0
540 720 38 14.1 145 118.0
660 830 34 14.6 75 52.0
780 910 28 14.6 40 12.0
985 1055 25 14.6 38 11.8
1320 2000 32 14.6 28 10.4
1420 2100 42 14.6 25 10.2
1500 2150 42 14.6 20 10.0
120 M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124

Table 2 14
Mechanical Properties, ASTM A36A36 steel.

Mechanical properties 12
Ultimate tensile strength, ru 400550 MPa
Tensile strength, yield, ry 360 MPa 10

Y-displacement (mm)
Elongation at break (in 200 mm) 20.0%
Elongation at break (in 50 mm) 23.0%
Modulus of elasticity, E 210 GPa
8
Bulk modulus 140 GPa
Poisons ratio, v 0.260 6
Shear modulus, G 79.3 GPa
Melting temperature, Tm 1517 C
Density, c 7.86  103 kg/m3 4
Total volume heat capacity, cc 5.07 J cm2 K Numerical results
Thermal expansion ratio, b 0.01 1/C 2
Thermal conductivity, k 0.38 W/(cm K) Real Measurement
Thermal diffusivity, j = k/cc 0.08 cm2/s
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
Length of Plate (mm)
Table 3
Chemical composition, ASTM A36A36 carbon steel. Fig. 6. Vertical distortion at edge of plate.

Element Content
Carbon, C 0.2500.290% transverse distortions, longitudinal shrinkage and residual stres-
Copper, Cu 0.200%
Iron, Fe 98.000%
ses. It is detected that the numerical results associated with the
Manganese, Mn 1.030% distortion has a good agreement with the corresponding values
Phosphorous, P 0.040% of the measurements gathered from the first stage. Eventually, in
Silicon, Si 0.280% the last stage a regression analysis has been performed to explore
Sulphur, S 0.050%
the best equations as a function of a thickness and nodal locations.
In this regard, Figs. 7 and 8 show the angular distortion of the
butt-welded plates, estimated by means of the FEM approach in
which their associated results have been used to be fitted in Eq.
700
Series1 (21). The R2 factor, which illustrates the acceptance in the approx-
Series3 imation provided by Eq. (21) with respect to the estimations made
600 Analytic by the FE model is equal to 0.85 for the case, t = 4 mm. In fact, R2 is
the parameter which determines the level of the incompatibilities
Temperature, ( c)

500
between the distortion estimated by the FEM and the assumed
regression equations. The same procedure has also been adopted
400
in the regression analysis of the transverse distortions, longitudinal
shrinkage and residual stresses, as well.
300
To complement the study, the same analysis has been per-
formed for a thickness of 2 mm and 5 mm, and consequently the
200
new regression equation was verified showing the R2 value of
0.91 and 0.93, respectively.
100
The new longitudinal shrinkage distribution model is defined
as:
0
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 uz x; z uz;max ry ; E; A; Aw f uz x; z; ak t 22
Time, (s)

Fig. 5. Thermal profiles, y = 10 mm.

weld penetration and in this study as the thin plates are analysed,
4
the full weld penetration is assumed leading to the use of an equiv-
, Deg

3.5
alent thickness te. It should be noted that the distortion distribution
3
presented in Eq. (21) is not a function of the thickness.
2.5
In order to perform a regression analysis for exploring the
Displacement

2
appropriate equations corresponding to the angular and transverse
1.5
distortions, longitudinal shrinkage and residual stress distribu-
1
tions, experimental and several numerical studies have been car-
0.5
ried out. The achieved equations cover all the surface of the butt-
0
welded plates. In the first stage a real measurement of temperature
-150 -80
at different locations on the butt-welded plate surface, during the -42 -21 500
400
-7
welding procedure, have been performed. Based on the informa- 3 16 300
200
X (mm) 32 62 117 100
tion, collected from the experimental approach carried out in the 0
first stage, thermal finite element analysis have been performed Z (mm)- welding direcon
and calibrated to achieve more precise results. In the second stage,
a mechanical FE analysis is carried out to estimate the angular and Fig. 7. Angular distortion, bf, FEA, t = 4 mm.
 M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124 121

Magnitude of Longitudinal Distoron uz,

4 0.4
Displacement f, Deg

3.5 0.35
3 0.3
2.5 0.25
2 0.2

(mm)
1.5 0.15
1 0.1
0.5 0.05
0 0
-150 -80
-42 500 500
-21 -7 400 400
3 300 300
16 32
X (mm) 62 200 200
1170 100 X (mm) 0 100
Z (mm)- welding direcon Z (mm)- welding direcon
Fig. 8. Angular distortion, bf, Eq. (21), t = 4 mm. Fig. 9. Longitudinal shrinkage, uz as a function of x and z, FEM.

where

Magnitude of Longitudinal Distoron uz,

ry A
uz;max ry ; E; A; Aw 42 0.4
E A  Aw
0.35
" # 0.3
X
10 X X
4 ij64
0.25
f uz x; z; ak t ak t i1 j
x z
(mm)

k1 i1 j0 0.2
0.15
where the maximum value, uz;max ry ; E; A; Aw , of the estimated lon- 0.1
gitudinal shrinkage is defined based on the Pflug [21] model, Eq. 0.05
(14), and the distribution function, f uz x; z; ak t, coefficients, ak t, 0
are fitted to the FEM results. The coefficients a1 to a10, which are 500
involved in Eq. (22), are given in Table 4. It is found that the R2 fac- 400
300
tor for the plate thickness of 2, 4 and 5 mm is equal to 0.88, 0.82 and X (mm) 200
0 100
0.89, respectively. It should be noted that a5, a6, a7 and a10 are equal
to zero. Z (mm)- welding direcon
Fig. 9 shows the results obtained from FEM for the case of lon-
gitudinal shrinkage distribution of a plate thickness of 4 mm, while Fig. 10. Longitudinal shrinkage, uz as a function of x and z, Eq. (22).
Fig. 10 illustrates longitudinal shrinkage distribution, which is esti-
mated based on Eq. (22) for a 4 mm thickness, respectively.
value, ux;max of transverse distortion in Eq. (23) is taken from the
The new regression equation, estimating the transverse distor-
Leggatt [30] model.
tion distribution, is defined as:
The results obtained from the both FE and new regression
ux x; z ux;max m; g; a; q; cc; v w ; t  f ux x; z; zo ; l; b 23 model are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. It is detected that the R2 factor
corresponding to the Eq. (23) in the case of a 4 mm thickness is
where equal to 0.98 and to 0.96 and 0.97 for the cases of 2 mm and
5 mm plate thicknesses, respectively.
aq
ux;max m; g; a; q; cc; v w ; t 1 v g
ccv w t
2 3
Magnitude of Transverse Distoron ux, (mm)

1
f ux x; z; zo ; l; b 1  e lx
41   5
exp  jzjb zo 0.2
0.15
0.1
where x and z are the coordinates of any single point located around
0.05
the butt-welded plates, b and l are the breadth and length of the
0
plate and z0 is the initial imperfection of the plate. The maximum
500
-124

-0.05
-80
-51

400
-32
-20

300
-9

-0.1
-2
5

200
15
25

100
39

Table 4 -0.15
62
97
1500

Coefficients of Eq. (22). -0.2

a1 2:2689t 13:168 -0.25
a2 0:0065t  0:0383
a3 2e5 t 0:0001 X (mm)
a4 2e5 t  2e7
Z (mm)- welding direcon
a8 6e5 t  0:0003
a9 2e7 t 1e6
Fig. 11. Transverse distortion, ux as a function of x and z, FEA.
122 M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124
Magnitude of Transverse Distoron ux, (mm)

390

340 0 mm
100 mm
0.2 290 200 mm
0.15 250 mm

Residual stresses (MPa)

240 300 mm
0.1
400 mm
0.05 190 500 mm
0

500
140
-124

-0.05
-80
-51

400
-32
-20

300
-9
-2

-0.1
5

200
15
25 90

100
39
62
97
1500
-0.15
-0.2 40

-10
-150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150
X (mm)
Z (mm)-welding direcon -60
X (mm)
Fig. 12. Transverse distortion, ux as a function of x and z, Eq. (23).
Fig. 13. Residual stress in midsection.

The summery of the results for the welding induced distortion

400
achieved from both the finite element and new regression equa-
Empirical Eq
tions are shown in Table 5. The R2 factor of regression analysis is
shown for each case study as well. FEM
300
The residual stresses obtained from the finite element analysis
Residual stresses, MPa

for several sections of the weld covering the whole length of the
weld is shown in Fig. 13. As can be observed, for all the sections, 200
follows the similar trend and hence, the residual stress distribution
obtained from the mid-section was used for performing the regres-
sion analysis. 100
A new regression equation is established here to estimate the
weld-induced residual stress distribution in thin plates. If x is ori-
ented in the transverse direction, the longitudinal residual stresses 0
at any section of the welded plate may be estimated by:
(
kry exp sx  ax2 bx c; rres z < ry -100
rres z 24 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150
ry ; rres z P ry
x (mm)
where ry is the yield stress of the material. k is the scale factor and
a, b, c and s are governing factors, defined from the regression anal- Fig. 14. Residual stress distribution in midsection as a function of x.
ysis, respectively. Fig. 14 shows the agreement between the predic-
tion of the regression equation, Eq. (24) and FE results for a 4 mm
plate thickness is satisfactory which is eventually leading to
R2 = 0.99. In this regard, the regression coefficients corresponding Table 6
to Eq. (24) are estimated and given in Table 6, respectively. Coefficients of Eq. (24).
In order to estimate the two-dimensional residual stress distri- k 53:16t 312:21
bution as a function of x and z, the residual stresses estimated by s 0:463t 1:3993
Eq. (24) is multiplied to the expression showing the distribution a 0:0006t 0:0055
b 0:4634t  3:093
as a function of z, which eventually leads to the distribution func-
c 27:585t 187:95
tion of the residual stresses in the x and z directions as:

Table 5
The summery of distortion results.

2 mm 4 mm 5 mm
Max|dZ|(mm) FEM 0.45 0.47 0.17
Regression Equations 0.45 0.41 0.18
R2 of regression analysis 0.88 0.82 0.87
Max|dX|(mm) FEM 0.16 0.2 0.4
Regression Equations 0.12 0.19 0.25
R2 of regression analysis 0.96 0.98 0.97
Max|Bf|(deg) FEM 4.45 4.35 2.43
Regression Equations 4.59 3.83 1.74
R2 of regression analysis 0.91 0.85 0.93

400
350
Residual stresses (MPa)
300
250
200
150
100
50
0 50
-50
-100
-150 -50 50
150
x (mm)
Fig. 15. Residual stress distribution of top plate surface (Eq. (25)).
2 3
1 [4] Deng D. FEM prediction of welding residual stress and distortion in carbon
rres x; y 41  
jzj
5
exp  l=2 az
( 25
kry exp sx  ax2 bx c; rres z < ry
ry ; rres z P ry
The coefficients of Eq. (25) have been fitted to the results
obtained from FE simulation which is shown in Fig. 15. In fact,
Fig 15 shows the two-dimensional distribution of the residual
stresses, including the high tensile stresses, the maximum com-
pressive stresses and the sharply transformation from tension to
compression region.
The developed regression equations about the welding induced
distortions and residual stresses, that are based on systematic
finite element calculations, calibrated with the real experimental
measurements can be of great importance in the fast-structural
assessment, especially in the fatigue and buckling and ultimate
strength assessments. The developed equations can be used in
the early stage of design, avoiding a complex thermal non-linear
structural analysis. The developed equations are flexible and
demonstrated a good capacity to represent the welding induced
distortion and residual stresses showing a high level of the accep-
tance, R in the approximation.
6. Conclusions
Analytical, finite element (numerical) and experimental analy-
ses of butt-welded thin plates, were performed to investigate the
thermal field and welding induced distortion and residual stresses,
respectively. The new relationships were developed to estimate
the distortion and residual stress distributions of thin butt-
welded plates. The results obtained from experimental tests as
well as the results achieved from the finite element simulations
were implemented to validate the new developed regression equa-
tions. The finite element analyses demonstrated a very good agree-
ment with the real measurements. The vertical and transverse
distortions, estimated by the regression equations follow very clo-
sely the FE results. The longitudinal distortion shows some scatter.
The developed regression equations can be easily used for identify-
ing the distortions of the welding induced distortions and residual
stresses that can be directly imposed to the nonlinear FE analysis in
estimating the strength of thin walled welded structures. The
M. Hashemzadeh et al. / Engineering Structures 137 (2017) 115124 123
developed equations demonstrated a good capability to represent
the welding induced distortion and residual stresses showing a
high level of the acceptance, R in the approximation.
Acknowledgement
This work was performed within the Strategic Research Plan of
the Centre for Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering, which is
financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(Fundao para a Cincia e Tecnologia-FCT). The first author has
been funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Tech-
-150 nology (Fundao para a Cincia e Tecnologia - FCT) under contract
SFRH/BD/97682/2013.
-50
150 z (mm) References
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