| Summary: | This paper deals with the investigation on the potential of welding deformation’s prediction tool using linear thermal elastic numerical method. The weld-induced distortion was analyzed on combined butt and T-joints with thickness of 9 mm which is commonly applied in ship panel structure. In this research, the distortion behavior was predicted by means of a relatively new finite element (FEM) code developed by INPRO and ESI Group which utilizes shell elements in the numerical method to allow fast computational time. In order to verify the simulation results, a series of experiments using a fully automated welding process were carried out to measure the weld-induced distortions. By comparing the results between both methods, it can be summarized that the linear elastic FEM using this software is capable of predicting the distortion within minutes while providing a reasonable agreement with the experiments. © 2014, Springer-Verlag London.
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