ABSTRACT
The effect of welding improvements on the ultimate strength of a butt-welded structural component is evaluated. The ultimate strength enhancement has been achieved by applying welding heat treatment and using proper welding constraints. In this context, this study deals with the impact of the thermal and mechanical induced constraints for reducing the negative impact of welding. For heat treatment, both pre-and post-heating are considered and for mechanical constraints, different conditions are applied during the welding process. A butt-welded plate is modelled by employing the finite element method, and the transient thermo-mechanical analysis is applied to simulate the welding procedure in each case studied here. Then, the generated model is implemented directly in the ultimate strength analysis. The results of studied cases are analysed and compared with the butt-welded plate without any treatment and constraints to evaluate the impact on the ultimate strength.
