Abstract
Numerically efficient and user-friendly modelling of component distortions is the key for enabling numerical design of thin-plate structures accounting for welding distortions. This especially concerns large structures, e.g., bridges or ship panels. The direct description of inherent strains is a method for introducing inherent strains into a commercial finite element solver. The presented version utilizes thermo-mechanical local modelling with 3D solid elements in Abaqus as a source for the inherent distortion fields. The resulting inherent strain fields are post-processed and subsequently applied to a low-fidelity component model utilizing 3D thin shell elements in Abaqus. The new direct description method of introducing the inherent strain fields for thin shell elements is presented in this paper, and it shows promising results.