FG Füge- und Schweißtechnik
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The Influence of Geometrical and Welding Imperfections on the Strength of Stiffened Structures
(2018)
The strength calculation of stiffened plates and shells via finite element simulation has been part of the state of the art for a long time. Geometrical nonlinearities as well as the nonlinear material behavior are considered within the calculation. To simplify, both types of imperfections, geometrical and structural ones, are mostly combined in these strength calculations being considered as equivalent geometrical imperfections. Values for standard cases are included in EN 1993-1-5 in case of plated structures or 1-6 in case of shells. A second possibility is the separate definition of fabrication tolerances and residual stresses, as far as they are known. With increasing complexity of the structure, less information are however available on geometrical and particularly structural imperfections. Nevertheless, by means of a more realistic consideration of these values, the actual ultimate load can be determined significantly more exactly and the performance of high performance steel structures is increased.
In the investigated cases, deformations and stresses arise mainly due to welding. Therefore, the topic of this article is the application of an analytical numerical hybrid model for predicting imperfections induced by welds. This is presented on an example of a stiffened steel structure and a subsequent ultimate load calculation. At the beginning the analytical model, its physical basis as well as the physical interrelationships are introduced and explained. This is followed by the explanation of the coupling procedure between the analytical model and the numerical calculation for the calculation of weld-induced deformations and residual stresses. The significance of the hybrid model is proven by means of a few sample applications. For a realistic determination of the weld imperfections in the investigated stiffened structure, the coupled hybrid model is used afterwards. An ultimate load analysis gives information about the load carrying behavior under axial loading. The results are compared with the results of an ultimate load analysis from a literature example assuming different eigenvalues with different scaling. The results underline the potential additional utilization of load bearing capacity by this new approach.