Abstract: Distributions of the residual stress of U-rib stiffened plates and influences of some factors such as width and thickness of plates were investigated by numerical analyses. A simplified calculation method of the residual stress of U-rib stiffened plates was proposed. The result shows that the width of plates has little influence on residual tension stress, but it has a major effect on residual compression stress. The residual stress distribution in plates and U-rib stiffeners was influenced by the ratio of thickness of plate and U-rib stiffeners. In the analyses of compression capacity of U-rib stiffened plates, the simplified distribution of welding residual stress can be used and the results were very close to that by the numerical simulation method.