Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.

com, ISSN 1743-3509

Numerical simulation of welding in

Shipbuilding

T.T. Chau & F. Besnier

PRINCIPIA Marine (ex Institut de Recherches de la Construction
Navale), France

Abstract

In the context of a fierce competition between European and Asian shipyards,

quality and productivity improvement are of major importance. Continuous work
has always been done on welding techniques :
0 to increase the efficiency of the traditional Arc welding technology;
to master the new technology of metal joining by Laser welding;
to adopt a Laser-Arc combinationprocess (Hybrid Laser welding).
In this paper, advantages and drawbacks of each process are briefly analysed.
A short presentation of the PRINCIPIA methodology of numerical simulation
initially developed for Arc welding process is presented and an adaptation to
Laser and Hybrid Laser process is then described enabling for a new shipbuilding
project to predict, control and optirnise the design andlor the welding parameters
in order to avoid excessive distortions due to welding effects on thin stiffened
panel assemblies in shipbuilding. Those distortions imply costly straightening
work. Finally, as an example, a fine finite element model is presented modelling
an assembly of three thin stiffened plates which are joined by arc welding
process. The buckling state of the calculated model is then identified with the real
buckled deformed shape of the arc-welded assembly in order to test the validity
of the PRINCIPIA methodology.

1 Introduction

Competition between European and Asian shipyards is very severe and a key
point for the survival of European shipbuilding industry is the reduction of
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4 Murine Technology V

production costs through innovation guided by important research efforts.

Welding techniques are of prime importance for the hull construction. Welding
is responsible for distortion, mainly in the case of the thin stiffened panel
assemblies. Associated straightening work remain important and costly.
Shipyards are continuously trying to improve the welding process, either by
working on the traditional arc welding technique or by introduction of new
technologies such as laser or laser-arc (hybrid laser) welding. This paper presents
a numerical tool enabling shipbuilders to evaluate, predict and control the
distortion levels due to welding effects in order to enhance the efficiency of
traditional arc welding technology. Possible adaptation of this numerical tool will
be thus applied to new welding technologies such as laser and hybrid-laser
processes for other steel-working industry.

2 Short presentation of the Principia numerical method

(ex. IRCN method) for arc welding process

The arc welding technology is being currently used in large steel industry
domains for more than hundred years : shipbuilding, automotive, railways,
onshore, offshore etc. The obvious advantage of the arc welding process is its
rapidity and low cost. Electric arc is used as the heat source to melt and join
metals. The welding arc is struck between work pieces and the tip of an electrode
which will be either a consumable wire or a non consumable carbon or tungsten
that carries the welding electric current. Various arc welding processes are
usually employed in industries such as SMAW (Shielded Metal Arc Welding),
SAW (Submerged Arc Welding), GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding), PAW
(Plasma Arc Welding), MIG (Metal Inert Gas), MAG (Metal Active Gas) etc. An
important advantage of the arc welding process is that it enables to fill up large
gaps between the two metallic pieces to be joined and that for all plate
thicknesses. The Principia (ex. IRCN) methodology has been presented in 1992
for 2D problems [l] and in 1999 for 3D welding effects on thin stiffened plate
panels in shipbuilding [2]. For further information about the method, its
validation on experiment testing and its industrial applications, please refer to [2,
31.
In this paper, some technical points of the method are briefly described [3].
Principia methodology is based on a metallurgical concept issued from two
diagrams: Metallurgical Phase Transformation Diagram and Dilatation Diagram.

2.1 Metallurgical diagram of iron-carbonsteel

The typical characteristic of steel is the phase changes (solid-liquid-solid) going

with the crystalline structural transformation (ferrite-austenite) and defined by the
metallurgical phase diagram. The approximate correspondence of the thermal
zones with the peak temperatures of phase changes in a butt weld joint are shown
in Fig. l.
 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

WIMUM
TEMPERATURE 1303

j2 0 1103

Figure 1: Approximate relationships between peak temperatures, distance from

weld interface and iron-carbon phase diagram [4]

2.2 Dilatation diagram of iron-carbon steel

In thermal treatment, the behaviour of iron-carbon steel is illustrated by a

dilatation diagram in Figure 2, on which we denote four specific peak
temperatures (Tf, Tc, Ta, To) and three main thermal zones (FZ, HAZ, NHAZ)
created in the work piece during the heating cycle of welding process and their
limits.

Figure 2: Dilatation diagram of iron-carbon steel (A5O8C 13 steel heated at

30°C/s and cooled at -2OCIs) [5]

where : To = ambient temperature ("C)

T, = peak temperature at the beginning of phase transformation in
heating cycle ("C)
Tc = peak temperature at the beginning of melt liquid transformation in
heating cycle ("C)
Tf = fusion temperature =maximum temperature at melting zone centre
in heating cycle ("C)
FZ = fusion zone, limited by Tf and Tc
HAZ = heat affected zone, limited by Tc and Ta
NHAZ = non heat affected zone, limited by Ta and To
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6 Murine Technology V

2.3 Metallurgical concept

The metallurgical concept is illustrated in the following schematic analysis

(Fig.3):

Fig.3 : Schematic analysis of the Metallurgical Concept [2]

2.4 Thermo-elastic analysis

Temperature field is then applied to the 3D FE model defined above, with

isostatic boundary conditions to avoid rigid body motions. Stress and strength
results are then analysed only for elastic zones NHAZ which are the large elastic
parts of the model without phase changes before and after welding :
Buckling state is reached if calculated stresses are greater than the
effective buckling limit value : excessive distortion --+ straightening work.
Buckling state is not reached if calculated stresses are lower than the
effective buckling limit value : deformation results are available, to be
compared with the tolerance value fixed by the Quality Standard of Ship
Construction.
The following figure 4 shows the limits of the fitness zone in out-of-plane
displacements of calculated results as function of compressive stresses :

A
Effective

R
( compressive

Out-of-Buckling State Buckling State

Linear Stress Domain Non-Linear Stress ~omain,

Fig.4 : Out-of-plane deflection analysis of thin plates in compressive strength

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2.5 Advantages of the methodology

Taking account of the previous basic assumptions, the methodology presents

following advantages of use so that it may be applicable :
to Linear domain analysis (Linear FE codes),
to any metallic structure (2D and 3D),
to any plate thickness (thin and thick),
to any welding energy (low and high),
to any thermal welding process (Arc, Laser, Hybrid-Laser),
to any welded joint (continuous, discontinuous, intermittent, alternate,
simultaneous),
to any welding sequence (in sequence or not, in same direction or inverse),
to any welding speed (low and high),
to any weld section (T, fillet, V or double V butt joint),
to any single or multiple pass welds,
to any welding process (Tandem, Twin Arc),
to any welding technique (one pass one side or one pass two sides),
to all Steel Industries (Naval, Automobile, Railways, On and Off-shore,
Nuclear, Aerospace etc.)

Arc welding process

Arc welding has been and is the most important technology in steel industry.
Steel continues to be the dominant material in large ship construction. The target
of the shipbuilding and steel industries is to achieve higher productivity, and
better quality. High productivity in arc welding has been and is one of the main
objective of several R&D projects in order to decrease the construction cost by
means of new developments in technology for mechanisation systems
[ l 0,11,12,13]. But efficient welding remains a key feature for shipbuilding
industry.

The main objectives are :

to minimise the straightening-work induced by buckling distortion,
0 to predict, evaluate the distortion levels by means of numerical simulations,
to control strictly the accuracy,
0 to optimise the fabrication parameters such as the welding parameters (heat
input energy, welding speed, weld size, welding sequence, ...)
to plan the whole sequence of operations in such a way to ensure a seamless
flow of material and an optimal utilisation of the available resources,

To reach these objectives, shipbuilders may improve their efficient production

tools with help of the methodology presented in this paper such as the
optimisation procedure that has been proposed in ISME Tokyo 2000 [3] (Fig.5):
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8 Murine Technology V

Fig.5 : Optimization Procedure

4 Laser welding process

Several Research Centres in the world are working on laser technology and
industrial applications [14,15,16,17,18,19]. The big attraction of laser
technology, specially when thin plate products are extensively used, is due to the
limited heat deposition / dispersion during both laser-cutting and welding. Heat
deposition causes thermal distortion, which is an important source of re-working
and low quality. Although a big effort has been undertaken by equipment
manufacturers, research centres, gas companies, steel suppliers and, in
shipbuilding, the classification societies and some pioneers yards, the
introduction of laser technologies in shipbuilding has been rather slow. The
reasons for this lay mainly in the extensive overhauling of the whole steel
production chain which the use of laser technologies imply as well as in the very
tight tolerances and the consequent manufacturing, handling and positioning
issues [l 31. Laser cutting and welding is promoted through national programmes
in UK, Germany and Denmark [20,21,22,23,24,25].For high thickness plates, an
adaptive control system for laser welding process has been studied in France
[26], in Denmark [36] in order to adapt the laser welding parameters such as the
power laser source, the oscillations of the laser beam, the surface absorption of
work-pieces and the filler wire to the gap variation for a constant penetration.
Today, pilot programs are in place in several European shipyards, including in
particular Meyer Werft, Blohm & Voss in Germany and Fincantieri in Italy.
The research work inside the European ASPOW-project (Assessment of Quality
of Power Beam Welds) was carried out by the company Thyssen Laser Technik
GmbH (Aachen), the Institute of Steel Construction, RWTH (Aachen) and the
Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy, RWTH (Aachen).
 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

Three main types of Lasers are currently used for cutting and welding:

C02 Lasers, developed in USA in 1964, which can handle large power but
cannot be transmitted through fibre optics:
-+ Thermal efficiency is up to 10% and maximum output is 45 kW
-+ Capacity to cut up to 20 mm of steel (85%)
-+ Capacity to weld up to 7 mm in a single pass (14%)
-+ COZlaser wave length = 10.6 pm

Nd: YAG (neodymium-yttrium aluminium garnet) Lasers, also developed in

USA in 1964, are less energy efficient and have progressed rather slowly.
The optical energy produced by Nd:YAG lasers has a significant advantage
and can pass through a fibre optic cable thus allowing greater flexibility:
-+ Thermal efficiency is up to 2.5% and maximum is about 5 kW
-+ Nd:YAG lasers are used in precision welding (70%) and cutting (25%)
-+ ND:YAG wave length = 1.06 pm.

DIODE Lasers, recently developed, have high power of electro-optical

efficiency of up 35%, much higher than that for CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers:
-+ A very compact system allowing a very easy automation of the laser head
and an attractive equipment cost,
+ Capacity to ally the specific characteristics of the laser sources (low heat
input energy therefore lower distortion, large radiation focus more able to
accommodate some mismatch in fit-up) to the technical and economical
needs by shipyards,
-+ Diode laser wave length = 0.90 pm

4.1 Advantages and constraints

The main advantages derived from using of laser technology for welding and
cutting are outlined as below:
High density energy, high speed, low heat input into the steel, low residual
stresses, important penetration (deep and narrow weld seam),
High quality square edge cuts, low heat affected zones, consistent weld quality,
Potential for 3D automation.

The main constraints that the use of laser technologies imposes are :
Investment recovery 1 intense use, restriction on low C, S and Ph steels
needed for welding, special planarity and tight tolerances needed, potential
solidification cracking, local corrosion in some joints, single pass butt welding
limited to 15 mm (not competitive with the one- side welding tandem or arc-
series submerged-arc in butt welding of plates),
Redesign of the weld configuration for laser welding specially T, Fillet welds.
 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

4.2 Adaptation of the methodology to Laser welding process

4.2.1 Thermal zones

The principles of the methodology are available for all thermal welding: the
metallurgical concept is based on the phase transformation, from a heat
source, of three thermal zones created during the heating cycle of the welding
process. In metallurgy, for iron-carbon steels, the limits of these thermal
zones are defined by three well known specific peak temperatures Tf, T, T,
(see Fig.2). The size of each thermal zone depends on the laser power source
(COZ, Nd:YAG or DIODE), the welding speed, the gap size and the surface
absorption of two work-pieces to be welded. Furthermore, it is noted that the
research studies by El-Adawi (Cairo, Egypt) in 1986 [37] and by Jian Xie
(Ohio, USA) in 1999 [l91 on the energy absorption and the fusion of metals
by laser beam are remarkable. The following Fig.6 shows two Laser V Butt
welded joint cross-sections of plates (12mm thick) using a filler wire within
gap a = Omm and a =0.5mm :

Fig. 6 : Laser V Butt Welded joint sections using filler wire [40]

4.2.2 FE Modelling
The sizes of thermal zone created in the metals by laser welding process are
smaller than those of conventional arc welding process. Figure 7 below
presents a comparison of fillet welded-joint sizes obtained by conventional
arc welding process and by laser welding process (ASPOW-project) [39]:

--
Convcnttonal Ftllet Weld

Deep Penetratmn ~ a i z e l Seam

d
-

Fig.7 : Arc Fillet welded joints / Laser Fillet welded joints

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4.2.2a Laser fillet welded-joints (Figure 8)

Heat affected zone

7 ,
Laser Fusion
Non Heat affected zone 1

!
Fig.8 : FE model of ~ a s e ;Fillet Weld Section

4.2.2b Laser butt welded-joint (Figure 9)

Laser Fusion zone

Fig.9 : FE model of Laser Butt Weld Section

5 Hybrid-Laser welding process

The Hybrid-Laser process uses two Energy sources ( Laser and Arc ) to melt
and join metals with gap sizes. The principle of Hybrid-Laser welding process
is illustrated in Fig. 10.

focussed laser beam electrode

laser-in
ionized arc

keyhole

maiten material

Fig. l0 : Principle of Hybrid-Laser welding process [40]

 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

5.1 Advantages and constraints

The laser welding process is known as a process that requires small

tolerances of the work pieces and is therefore not applied in heavy industry
including shipbuilding industry. Recent investigations in research and
development produced new welding technology for shipbuilding and heavy
industries [27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 351 : a combination of two welding
technologies (Laser + Arc). Both technologies have their own characteristics,
advantages and disadvantages as indicated above.
This new technology Hybrid-Laser appears very interesting and suitable for
shipbuilding and heavy industries :
High density energy (Laser source), deep and narrow penetration (Laser),
High welding speed and low distortion (Laser)
Large gaps and economic Energy (Arc)
Figure 11 presents a comparison of three weld seams realised by three welding
technologies in keeping on the same penetration depth and welding speed :

Fig. l l : Comparison of weld seam geometry obtained

by Laser, Arc (MIG) and Laser-MIG processes [33]

Various combined Hybrid-Laser processes have been created and tested in

laboratories in order to get higher efficiency and accuracy in fabrication (Meyer
Werf, Fraunhofer L T , Fraunhofer IWS, FORCE Institute, Fincantieri ):

Cl Hybrid-Laser TIG :
-+ Laser source = Nd:YAG or CO2
-+ Arc source = TIG ( Tunsgten Inert Gas)
Advantages : Thin plates ,high welding speed ,small fusion zone surface
Disadvantages : High cooling rate + Risk of solidification cracks

O Hybrid-Laser Plasma MIG: [35]

+ Laser source = CO2or Nd:YAG
+ Arc source = Plasma Arc MIG (Metal Inert Gas)
Advantages : Medium to thick plates ,One pass one side Butt weld,
Low cooling rate -+ minimized risk of solidification cracks.
Disadvantages : Rather efficient for butt weld joints
 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

R Hybrid-Laser MIGIMAG :
+ Laser source = CO2or Nd:YAG
+ Arc source = MIG (Metal Inert Gas) or MAG (Metal Activ Gas)
Advantages : Gap up to Imm, Enhancement of penetration and of heat
transfer to work piece: minimised risk of solidification cracks.
Disadvantages : Slightly reduced welding speed (lower than Laser speed)

0 Hybrid-Laser MIGIMAG :"HyDRA" 130,401

+Laser source = CO2 or Nd:YAG
+ Arc source = Double Arc MIG or MAG
Advantages : Gap up to 2mm, three heat sources -+ Stability of heat transfer to
work piece, Butt weld of plates of 5mm thick (one pass), High Efficiency (+33%),
High Quality of weld joints
Disadvantages : Efficient for Butt weld joints

Figures 12a and 12b show two V Butt welded joint cross-sections realised by
HyDRA welding process under two welding conditions [41]:

Fig. 12a : Max Gap Width = 2mm Fig. 12b : Max gap Width = 2mm
Filler Wire speed = 2 ~ 1 7 . 1d m i n Filler Wire Speed = 2x9 mlrnin
Welding Speed = 1.16 mlmin Welding Speed = 2.17(1.37) d m i n

5.2 Adaptation of the methodology to Hybrid-Laser welding process

5.2.1 Thermal zones

The principles of the methodology are also available for Hybrid-Laser process.
For iron-carbon steels, the limits of three thermal zones are defined by three well
known specific peak temperatures Tf ,T, T, (see Fig.2). The size of each thermal
zone depend on the power sources : Laser (CO2, Nd:YAG or DIODE), Arc
(TIG, MIG , MAG or Plasma), the welding speed, the gap value and the surface
absorption of two work-pieces to be welded.
Figures 13,14 show two Hybrid-Laser welded joints (T and Butt weld cross
sections) of plates 12mm thick within gap=lmm.
 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

- " '-%%RID WELlXNG -T-joint - (sn~ple.nu. 71) 1 !~ ~ ~ ~ ~ R ~ ; l l f ..T

$ ~ , ~ ( & ~

Fig.13 : Hybrid-Laser T welded joint Fig.14 : Hybrid-Laser Butt joint

(gap=lmm) W1 (gap=lmm) P 8 1

5.2.2 FE modelling

5.2.2a Hybrid-Laser fillet welded-joints (Figure 15)

!
Non Heat affected zone

Arc Fusion zone

Heat
-

I I I l I l l \ I l I 1
/ \ Laser Fusion zone
Fig.15 : Hybrid-Laser Fillet Weld Section FE model

5.2.213 Hybrid-Laser butt welded-joint (Figure 16)

Arc Fusion zone

\Laser Fusion zone

Fig. l 6 : Hybrid-Laser Butt Weld Section FE model

 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

6 Panel testing
6.1 FE 3D model

In the final phase of the R&D project of Principia Marine, a thin stiffened plate
panel in full scale, was executed in shipyard under real conditions of fabrication.
The panel composed of three 6mm thick plates of 17m and 15m length and of 2m
width each, is assembled first by Arc butt welding process (AS Tandem) and then
stiffened (by 4 HP 120x6) by Arc Fillet welding process (AS Twin-Arc) in
sequence (Figures 17, 18) :

l W 1
Discont~nuousFillet welds of 300mm length , 2400mm between ,
in sequence: 3 2 1
Welding direction : -+

Fig. 17 : Geometry of the Panel Test and Transverse Section

Vdx=0 Ady=O

Free edge

Figure 18:Definition of 6 separate zones (A,B,C,D,E,F) to be analysed in post-

treatment
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6.2 Panel deformation after welding

Two photographies 1 & 2 taken after welding assembly operations at the end of
the cooling cycle i.e. when all the temperatures in the Panel shut down at ambient
temperature and whence the panel did not change any more, present the real
deformation state of the Panel Testing.

Photo 1 : Deformed Panel on front side [By courtesy of CAT]

Photo 2 : Deformed Panel on free edge alongside [By courtesy of CAT]

 Transactions on the Built Environment vol 68, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

6.3 Result analyses and validation

The FE 3D model of Panel Testing has been built up according to the previous
Principia methodology with 523 684 solid elements, 692 900 nodes, 2 078 694
degrees of freedom, 6 boundary conditions. A linear thermo-elastic calculation
has been performed using FE software (PERMAS GmbH, Germany). Post-
processing of the result was rather long because of the big size of panel models
(zones A, B, C , D, E, and F). The stress analyses as indicated in 2.4 on these 6
zones confirmed well the buckling state reached in zone A (photo 2) and out-of-
buckling state in other zones (photo l ) .Figure 19 presents the distribution of
longitudinal compressive stresses due to welding effects occurred in zone A
where the lowest value ( 0 ) on free edge is higher than the effective buckling
limit (QC*), and as final results, the buckled deformation in wave-shape mode of
the free edge :
0 = 1-14.01 MPa > G,* = 1-5.01 MPa
1
0 measured = - 16.7 1 MPa

i-1
0 = - 14.0 MPa

Figure 19:Calculated longitudinal compressive stress distribution on top layer in

zone A (free edge) of the panel testing

The measured values of out-of-plane buckling displacements of the Panel at the

free edge (red curve) are presented in Fig.20 :

. .,. ..

Figure 20: Measured vertical displacement of the panel testing at 3 positions

alongside.
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7 Conclusion

The competitiveness of the yard needs to produce with more accuracy, reducing
the fabrication cost and improving quality. Ship fabrication passes by several
successive stages. One of them concerns all the assembly operations since the
preparation works of steel members such as separate plates, stiffeners etc by
successive tasks such as cutting, rolling, planing etc. before welding assembly
operation. The first welding assembly operation is to assemble these separate
plates and stiffeners together in large panels and then in 3D blocks together and
so on through superstructures.
During these fabrication operations, in practice, the accuracy should be achieved
on higher level tasks, if and only if, the accuracy is obtained and controlled at
lower levels. So, the accuracy must be insured at the first level task. This is well
the welding assembly operation of thin stiffened panels.
In shipbuilding, mechanisation or robotization is not yet already automated
because of, in great part, the inaccuracy in fabrication of ship structure members.
The other reason is that ship fabrication operations are generally "one-of-a-kind,
no operation is identified to another, at best they are similar to each other.
The scope has to do with the development of New Technologies and the
application of the necessary efficient tools such as the New welding processes
and the Principia numerical methodology presented in this paper for evaluating,
predicting and controlling the distortion level due to welding onto the ship
assembled structures and finally for the Integration of the Production activities
around the Product Model within forever Efficient welding processes.

Acknowledgement
Homage to Researcher and Shipbuilder for their effort for Innovation in
Technology and Industrial application issues. Thanks to the French Ministry of
Industry and Research and to French Shipyard CAT (Chantiers de 1'Atlantique).

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