THE SPECIFICATION OF POST-WELDING DISTORTION TOLERANCES FOR STIFFENED PLATES IN COMPRESSION

The paper discusses the possibility of specifying tolerances for post-welding distortions of plates which would be both simple to check and directly related to the weakening effect of these distortions on compressive strength. The discussion is based on a statistical treatment of a large number of full-scale measurements of the size and shape of distortions, as well as numerical analyses of the compressive strength of plates. A simple tolerance specification is suggested together with the corresponding buckling mode component to be used in the design Code for longitudinal compression. Order from BSRA as No. 49,758.