Preliminary investigation on plate bending with multiple-line induction heating.

Plate forming is an essential procedure in shipbuilding, which will influence the dimensional accuracy and fabrication schedule. Due to the advantages of induction heating for plate forming such as precision controlling, high level of automation, an experimental investigation for plate forming with multiple linear induction heating was carried out at first. With advanced 25 kW induction heating equipment and additional water cooling system, thermal cycles of several examined points during plate forming with induction heating was measured, and the influence of moving speed of induction heating coil on highest temperature of examined points was also investigated. Applying different heating pattern, plate with 6 mm in thickness will buckle as saddle shape due to the multiple-line heating in longitudinal direction and its generated large enough compressive force. Moreover, thermal elastic plastic (TEP) FE and elastic FE computational approaches were proposed and employed. Predicted out-of-plane bending deformations both have good agreement with measurement. Elastic FE computation with bending moment caused by induction heating as input load has effective advantage and high accuracy comparing to conventional thermal elastic plastic FE computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]