Reduction of Welding Distortion for an Improved Assembly Process for Hatch Coaming Production

The alignment between the hatch coaming top surface and hatch cover is essential to maintain hatch cover water tightness and smooth mechanical operation. An improved assembly process for hatch coaming production is proposed, in which the complete hatch coaming is assembled on the shop floor and then lifted as one part, fitted, and welded to the deck. When this complete hatch coaming is assembled to a ship deck, an irregularly distributed gap is usually found between the lower side of the hatch coaming and the deck. Fitting and welding distortion, in particular longitudinal and transverse shrinkage, influence the dimensional accuracy and consequently the production schedule. In this research, welding pass sequence of a fillet welded joint is improved using thermal elastic plastic analysis and welding distortion of the hatch coaming top surface is predicted using elastic analysis. First, three specimens with different gaps that model the welded joint between the hatch coaming and deck were welded and the changed distance between the measuring equipment and the flange was measured. A three-dimensional thermal elastic plastic finite element analysis was carried out for the same specimens and the computed welding distortion was shown to have good agreement with the measurements. As a result of the possible significant influence of welding pass sequence on transverse shrinkage of a fillet welded joint, the influence of welding pass sequence is studied using the computational approach and improved welding pass sequences are proposed to reduce transverse shrinkage. Finally, elastic analysis using inherent longitudinal and transverse shrinkage deformations evaluated by thermal elastic plastic analysis is used to predict welding distortion of the hatch coaming. In this elastic analysis, the influence of different gaps at different locations between the hatch coaming and the deck is considered.