A study was made of the residual stresses caused by weld shrinkage in a plate containing a central longitudinal weld. A theoretical analysis was developed in which the weld was treated as a moving concentrated heat source, through-thickness variations in temperature and stress being ignored. The equations were solved in finitedifference form and the stresses were computed at discrete stages during welding and cooling. Allowance was made for the variation of yield stress with temperature. Computed results were obtained for the bead-on-plate and butt welded cases.Residual stresses were measured in 40 flat plate specimens containing a central butt weld, with thicknesses ranging from 6 to 16 mm. The results led to proposed values for the factors H and C in the simple Moxham formula, which are in reasonable agreement with theoretical predictions.

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