Characteristics of welding induced initial deflections in welded aluminum plates

It is well known that welding-induced initial deflections, among other factors, significantly affect the ultimate strength behavior of welded plate structures. This means that it is of vital importance to identify the features of plate initial deflections prior to tile plate ultimate strength computations. The aim of the present paper is to investigate the characteristics of initial deflections that occur during welding fabrication of aluminum plates used for marine applications. A total of 78 single and multi-bay stiffened plate prototype aluminum structures which are full scale equivalent to sub-structures of an 80 m long all aluminum high speed vessel are constructed by metal inert gas (MIG) welding. Initial deflections of plating between stiffeners are then measured. A statistical analysis of the measured database is performed to determine mean and coefficient of variation (COV) of tile plate initial deflection. The insights developed from the present study will be very useful for reliability analyses and code calibrations of ultimate limit state strength and fabrication quality control for welded aluminum plate structures. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.