A study on the application of deformation control methods to panel blocks of ship structures

Welding is the fundamental process in manufacturing marine structures. Welding deformation is, however, inevitable due to non-uniform distribution of temperature during welding. The deformation due to welding is one of the principle obstacles in enhancing the productivity in manufacturing procedure of marine structures. And this should be much more seriously considered in the case of thin blocks found in ship and offshore structures. This paper is concerned with the deformation control of fillet welding of thin panel blocks. Up to the present, several methods for deformation control have been proposed. Welding tests and thermo elasto-plastic analysis have been carried out in order to examine the quantitative usefulness of applying methods to fillet welding of thin panel blocks. The results are compared from view point of the quantitative impact on the reduction of welding deformation.