Abstract
This paper deals with the analysis of stress concentration at the weld toe of a Double-V and a Single-V butt-welded joints subjected to tensile, bending and shearing loads. For each geometrical and loading case accurate close form stress concentration factor formula based on more than 3.3 thousand finite element method solutions were obtained. The percentage error of the formulas is lower than 2.5% for a wide range of values of geometrical parameters including weld toe radius, weld width, plate thickness and weld toe angle. The limiting case, in which the weld toe radius tends to zero is also considered. In the cases of shearing loads, a plane model based on thermal analogy was developed. The whole analysis was performed assuming that a circular arc represents the shape of the excess weld metal. Presented solutions may be used in computer aided fatigue assessment of structural elements.
Highlights
Welded joints are one the most commonly used types of connection
After performing extended numerical finite element method (FEM) modelling including about 20,000 cases, six approximating formulas for stress concentration factors (SCFs)’s covering both geometrical types of butt-welded joints and three independent loading modes were derived
The accuracy of the formulas is better than 97.5%, while the ranges of applications for the toe radius ρ, weld width L, plate thickness t and weld toe angle θ, are: 0 < ρ/L ≤ 2, 0 ≤ L/t ≤ 2 and 0 ≤ θ ≤ π/2 covering all geometrical situations occurring in engineering applications including the limiting case, when the weld toe radius ρ tends to zero
Summary
Welded joints are one the most commonly used types of connection. Years of development in production technology have increased such qualities as—improved tightness, low cost and shorter fabrication times. Fatigue crack growth is a basic phenomenon occurring in welded structures subjected to variable loading where the fatigue propagation rate may depend on the crack length, weld geometry and accompanying residual stress field [1,2,3,4,5]. In such cases the fracture mechanics approach based on the stress intensity factor concept proves to be very convenient. An experimental method useful for determining the stress intensity factors for real welded structures has been presented by Chung et al [6]
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