Nonlinear Computational Welding Mechanics for Large Structures

Abstract

In the construction of thin plate steel structures, including ships, welding is widely used to join parts. Welding inevitably causes deformation in thin plate structures, which may cause various problems. In the present study, an analysis method is developed to realize the prediction of deformation during the construction of large-scale structures based on the thermal elastic plastic analysis method. The developed method uses the idealized explicit finite element method (IEFEM), which is a high-speed thermal elastic plastic analysis method, and an algebraic multigrid method (AMG) is also introduced to the IEFEM in order to realize an efficient analysis of large-scale thin plate structures. In order to investigate the analysis accuracy and the performance of the developed method, the developed method is applied to the analysis of deformation on the welding of a simple stiffened structure. The developed method is then applied to the prediction of welding deformation in the construction of a ship block. The obtained results indicate that the developed method has approximately the same analysis accuracy as the conventional method, and the computational speed of the developed method is dramatically faster than that of the conventional method. The developed method can analyze the welding deformation in the construction of the ship block structure which consists of more than 10 million degrees-of-freedom and is difficult to solve by the conventional method.