The flexural vibration of welded rectangular plates

A theoretical and experimental study of the effect of weld runs on the flexural vibrational characteristics of the common structural element, the rectangular plate, is described. A finite difference technique is utilized for the determination of the in-plane residual stress pattern due to the weld(s) and the Rayleigh-Ritz method, with beam characteristic functions, is used for the out-of-plane vibration analysis. The theoretical approach presented is applicable to rectangular plates of any practical aspect ratio, having any combination of out-of-plane boundary conditions for which beam functions may reasonably be used and subject to one or more weld runs parallel to any edge. Theoretical and experimental results for a number of specific plates are presented, demonstrating the effects of welding on the plate vibration and the capability and accuracy of the analytical approach in predicting these effects. Included is a study of the effect of using the full residual stress pattern as derived from the finite difference analysis, the effect of neglecting certain stress components and the effect of using simplified stress patterns developed primarily for the stress and buckling analysis of long plates.