Abstract
In the welded structures with thin wall, some initial distortions occur due to misalignment in assembling and thermal deformation during welding and so on. Considerably large amount of strain is induced at the distorted part by the additional bending stress to applies tensile stress. This large strain occasionally affects the fatigue strength, stress corrosion cracking and the others. Therefore, the rational determination of allowable amount of the initial distortion is considered very important.
One of the authors has previously reported a theoretical analysis based on the large deformation theory of plates and shells. This analysis was, however, applicable only to a simple shape of initial distortion. In the present paper, the authors widely extended the theoretical analysis, and consequently obtained the new calculating formulae of strain which were applicable to the arbitrary shape of initial distortion, and showed by numerical calculation that the difference of initial distortion shape has apparently the important influence on the amount of strain.
