DANotes: Welded joints: Introduction Page 1 of 5

WELDED JOINTS

The strongest and most common method of permanently joining steel components
together is by welding. Of the many welding techniques available, arc welding is the
most important since it is adaptable to various manufacturing environments and is
relatively cheap.

In arc welding an electric arc at the extremity of a travelling consumable electrode

maintains a pool of molten metal in which the components and electrode material
coalesce, forming a homogeneous whole (ideally) when the pool later resolidifies. But
no joint can be perfect, and it is the designer's job to allow for practicalities and to
ensure that the joint is adequate and economical.
The materials of components and electrode must be compatible from the point of view
of strength, ductility and metallurgy - this last being most important in view of thermal
effects arising from the usual uncontrolled localised cooling. The various Codes lay
down electrodes which should be used for given steels - AS 1554 eg. cites electrode
classification E41xx as first preference and E48xx as second, when welding steel grades
250 through 350 - the number in the classification being one tenth of the deposited
weld metal's ultimate tensile strength (MPa).

The form of a welded joint is dictated largely by the layout

of the joined components; the two most common forms
are the butt and fillet joints illustrated.

A butt weld aims usually for full penetration with no

voids in the completed joint, so edge preparation to allow electrode insertion is
required for all but the thinnest weldable components. Inhomogeneities may be
minimised by double welding (ie. welding from both sides as sketched), by ultrasonic
examination with subsequent repair if necessary, or by other means. In non-critical
applications, correctly fashioned butt joints carried out by competent welders are often
taken to be just as strong as the joined components - that is, provided the electrode is
correctly chosen and the welding technique is satisfactory then joint safety does not
have to be separately addressed. But the occurrence of imperfections in potentially
hazardous joints must be recognised and allowed for in design, as will be seen later in
the context of Pressure Vessels.

The majority of the deposited material in a fillet weld lies

outside the silhouette of the joined members; penetration is
not complete and a crack is inherent. The weakening
effect of cracks are examined under Fracture
Mechanics, but it is immediately obvious that the geometric singularity at the end of
a crack could not be more extreme and so severe stress concentration in the fillet is

http://staffhome.ecm.uwa.edu.au/~00052817/DANotes/welds/fillets/fillets.html 12/26/2016
DANotes: Welded joints: Introduction Page 2 of 5

inevitable. Fillet welds with their intrinsic cracks are never specified if fatigue loading is
substantial.

While the dimensions of a butt joint are governed in the main

by the thickness of the joined components, the size of a fillet
weld is not limited by component thickness except for reasons
of heat transfer and resulting weld quality. But
do either of the two fillets illustrated here
look practicable ?
The weld cross-section is idealised as a 45o fillet whose size is
characterised by the dimension w - only welds of constant size are
considered here. The locus of fillet centroids (or roots, approximately)
traces out the weld run of length L. The run may be continuous or discontinuous.
Since the run's shape is dictated largely by the joined components, the only means of
varying the load capacity for a given electrode material is to vary the size w.

Successful welds depend as much on practical issues as on on theory. It is not the

present intention to dwell on practicalities - the reader is referred instead to the
Bibliography for advice on practical necessities. AWRA Technical Note #8
illustrates many important considerations and is required
background to the serious design of welded joints.
However there is one simple issue which should be
appreciated at the outset - the cost of a weld is
approximately proportional to the amount of electrode
used, other things being equal. The welds on the right here
are obviously more expensive than those on the left - but
by how much in relative terms ?

So, the size of a fillet weld must be sufficiently large for safety, without being so large
that unnecessary expense is incurred. Clearly a rational design procedure for such
joints is needed - one based upon the steps already identified : resolution of
indeterminacies, load building blocks, stress resolution and implementation of an
appropriate failure theory. The derivation and application of such a procedure is the
main thrust of this chapter.

Fillet welded joints

A typical fillet welded joint is illustrated. It connects two
components, one of which is conveniently regarded as the
loaded member - as all loads on it are known - the other is
the support or reaction member. Clearly the loads are
transmitted through the joint before being absorbed in

http://staffhome.ecm.uwa.edu.au/~00052817/DANotes/welds/fillets/fillets.html 12/26/2016
DANotes: Welded joints: Introduction Page 3 of 5

the support.
A run may be three -dimensional however the majority of practical runs are two
-dimensional and lie in a weld plane like the cantilever's joint here. We consider only
such two -dimensional runs, the centroids of which must also lie in the weld plane. It is
convenient to erect a Cartesian system at the centroid G, and to designate the x-y
plane as the weld plane as shown at ( a) below.

In general the resultant load on the joint is a force F = [ Fx Fy Fz ]' through the
centroid of the linear run, together with a moment M = [ Mx My Mz ]' whose
components are given by the RH Rule, ( b). For the cantilever above, this resultant
would be found by moving the sole
force to act through the centroid, and
introducing the moment
corresponding to the force multiplied
by the distance transverse to the
force's line of action between the point
of load application and the centroid.

This load is equilibrated by a force distributed along the length L of the run as
indicated in ( c). By virtue of the stresses in the weld, each element of run L
contributes an elemental force q.L towards equilibrium. q is a force intensity ; it is
a vector force -per -unit -length and except in simple cases varies in magnitude and
direction around the run.
Conceptually, force intensity is not too different from stress, which is a force -per -unit
-area, that is F = q L = A. Force intensity is also similar to the bending moment
in a beam: both are stress resultants - of stresses in the weld throat and in the beam's
cross-section respectively - and both vary in general along a linear path - the weld run
and the beam axis.

For the majority of beams the bending moment is easily found in terms of the loads
using statics. In the case of a fillet weld however, correlating the intensity q with the
load F, M is less straightforward since the arrangement is statically indeterminate.
Two techniques for this correlation (having the same theoretical foundation) are
presented below. The first traditional approach is based on recasting the building
block stress equations for bending etc. in terms of force intensity rather than of stress.
This approach though simple has limitations which in some situations requires the
more general second technique, the unified approach.

Geometric properties of lines

It is useful to review the concepts of centroids and second moments of linear though
not necessarily straight runs, ie. of lines rather than of areas. Two dimensions

http://staffhome.ecm.uwa.edu.au/~00052817/DANotes/welds/fillets/fillets.html 12/26/2016
DANotes: Welded joints: Introduction Page 4 of 5

only are detailed, however the underlying concepts may be extended to three
dimensions.

The geometry of the planar line ABC shown here is known.

The line's centroid is found by first erecting any convenient (X,Y) Cartesian system in
the plane, then applying first moments (Varignon's Theorem) to all line elements L.
The centroid's abscissa XG may be defined in alternative ways :
( i) = X more usually seen as XG = ( X L )/L or, collecting
XG L
L terms
( X - XG ) = or, shifting the Cartesian origin to the centroid and setting
0
L x = X-XG
=
x L 0 which in the limit becomes L x dL = 0

that is, the centroid is that point about which the first moment of
length vanishes.

Extending this argument to three dimensions leads to the conclusion that the centroid
is that unique point for which all components of first moments vanish : x.L = 0,
y.L = 0, z.L = 0 or, in brief r L --> L r dL = 0 where r = [ x y z ]'. The
above run ABC lies in the z = 0 plane.

The sum-of-increments approach is extended to higher moments, thus the second

moment of a line about a defined axis is :
Iaxis = over all elements { ( length L of each element ) * ( the element's distance from
axis )2 }

--> L ( distance of dL from axis )2 dL

Integral forms are suitable for continuous line segments for which the geometry f
(x,y,z) = 0 is known; discrete forms are suitable in conjunction with the Parallel Axes
Theorem for a line made up of a number of segments whose individual centroids and
second moments are known from tables for example, or from the useful results of
Tutorial Problem 6.

http://staffhome.ecm.uwa.edu.au/~00052817/DANotes/welds/fillets/fillets.html 12/26/2016
DANotes: Welded joints: Introduction Page 5 of 5

Properties of some common run geometries are tabulated here; it should be noted that :
O [ second moment of length ] = length * distance2 = length3.

It is apparent that the process of finding centroids and second moments of lines is
identical to that for areas - essentially it's a matter merely of interchanging L and A
in the appropriate formulae.

| Notes contents | chapter index | top of page | next |

Copyright 1999-2005 Douglas Wright

last updated May 2005

http://staffhome.ecm.uwa.edu.au/~00052817/DANotes/welds/fillets/fillets.html 12/26/2016