Welding

WISDOM:
Part One
BY DUANE K. MILLER, P.E.

Following the right principles

can lead to better welded connections and better projects.

WHAT MAKES FOR a good welded connection?

There are several principles that should be considered that can
put you on the path to designing stronger, more efficient and less
“stressed out” welds. Part One of this two-part article will illus-
trate seven of them.

Principle 1: A good welded connection is strong enough

to transfer all the applied loads through the connection
in an efficient manner.
If the connection is not strong enough, nothing else about it really
matters. The weld (or welds) that join the various steel pieces together
must be of a size and made with a welding material that will have suf-
ficient strength for the application. Welds are not always required to
duplicate the strength of the attached members, but must always be
able to transfer the applied loads passed through the connection.
To properly size a weld, it is essential to know what loads are
transferred through the connection. For transverse splices, this is
a relatively simple task. For longitudinal welds, it’s not so simple.

Figure 1 Figure 2
Duane K. Miller is manager of
Engineering Services with The Consider the four illustrations in Figures 1-4, with four
Lincoln Electric Company. longitudinal welds. The welded joints are essentially the
same, but the loads transferred through the connections dif-
fer significantly. Figure 1 assumes the box assembly functions
as a hanger and the tensile forces are uniformly distributed
across the whole cross section. The same assembly could be
a column and loaded in compression as shown in Figure 2.
These are examples of what AISC 360 Table J2.5 calls “ten-
sion or compression in parts joined parallel to a weld,” which
continues with the statement that such welds “need not be
considered in design.” For Figures 1 and 2, there is essentially
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 Figure 3  Figure 4 Figure 5

no load transferred across the joint, and thus the weld need only ing or tearing. Of the four examples cited, the first three have
hold the parts together. Shipping and handling loads will likely inefficient connections since a CJP is not justified.
create the greatest stresses these welds will ever need to transfer,
and CJP groove welds are likely unjustified in these situations. Principle 2: A good welded connection has a clear and
In Figure 3, the same assembly is now a beam subject to bending. direct load path.
The load transferred between the webs and flanges is horizontal (or Stresses in the member must “flow” from one member, through
longitudinal) shear, and the loading of concern is shear on the effec- the welds and into the attached member. With a good welded con-
tive area of the weld. The shear force transferred from web to flange nection, the load paths are clear and direct. Consider the exam-
is typically small, and minimum-sized PJP welds—even intermit- ple shown in Figure 5. The vertical load is transferred to the lug,
tent PJP welds—are often adequate to resist the transferred load. through the weld, through the flange and directly to the web. The
The example shown in Figure 4 uses the same general con- weld is uniformly loaded and the load path is clear and direct.
figuration of material in the joint area, but full tensile loads In contrast, consider the configuration shown in Figure 6.
applied though the hanging brackets are transferred through The load in the lug is transferred through the weld to the flange
the connections. This is a much different loading configuration but the flange is flexible. The load eventually flows to the web
as compared to the situations shown in Figures 1 through 3, yet but the weld is no longer uniformly loaded along the length.
the groove weld detail is the same. Depending on the magni- A pair of stiffeners, as shown in Figure 7, corrects for this
tude of the load and the length of the joint, a CJP groove weld situation. Here, the load path is clear—from the lug, though
may be required. A good welded connection is achieved when the weld, through the stiffened flange, into the stiffeners and
the load transferred through the connection is considered. ultimately to the parallel member (i.e., the web).
Principle 1 also calls for the welded connection to be “ef-
ficient.” Welds that are larger than necessary are not efficient. Principle 3: A good welded connection places welds in
The inefficiency is not just a matter of increased cost; larger- regions of low stress.
than-necessary welds introduce into the connection additional When possible and practical, welds should be placed in re-
residual stress and distortion and increase the chances of crack- gions of low stress. When this is done, welds are less critical.

Figure 6 Figure 7

 Modern STEEL CONSTRUCTION

 Figure 8 Figure 9

Further, this often leads to economy since the welds are typi- plane between the back side of the steel and the top surface of
cally smaller in size. the steel backing, but this interface does not create a stress raiser
Splices in continuous girders, for example, can be placed at since it is parallel to the direction of applied stress.
inflection points along the length of the member. For cyclically Discontinuous steel backing can also introduce problematic
loaded structures, the termination of coverplates constitutes a stress raisers, as shown in Figure 12. The unfused interface be-
low stress range detail; extending the coverplate into a region tween the segments of backing creates a planar discontinuity. If
of lower stress may make the detail acceptable. the box is loaded in bending, tensile stresses at the interface will
Figure 8 illustrates another example: The thicker part (and prob- be locally amplified. To mitigate this problem, the segments of
ably more heavily loaded member) is the discontinuous member, backing can be joined together with CJP welds before being
and the resultant welds must be large in size to transfer the loads applied to the joint, eliminating the stress raiser. The problem
through the connection. In Figure 9, the thinner member is discon- is eliminated if continuous backing is used.
tinuous, permitting the use of smaller welds to transfer the load.
Principle 5: A good welded connection is
Principle 4: A good welded connection does not not constrained.
introduce stress raisers. When joints are welded, the hot, expanded weld metal and
Certain welds and welded details may introduce stress rais- hot base metal surrounding the weld are required to shrink when
ers into the connection. For example, left-in-place steel backing this region cools. As the weld metal cools, the surrounding cooler
may introduce a stress raiser. Consider the CJP groove weld in (and unexpanded) base metal resists the shrinkage stresses im-
the T-joint shown in Figure 10. The naturally-occurring planar posed by the weld, causing the weld metal to yield. The yielding
interface between the edge of the steel backing and the face of continues until the shrinkage stresses imposed by the weld are
the vertical member creates a stress raiser. To eliminate this stress resisted by the surrounding base metal. Equilibrium is achieved
raiser, AISC 358 requires the backing to be removed in many when the residual stresses in the weld are at essentially the same
of the prequalified seismic connections. However, not all left-in- level as the resisting stresses in the base metal, resulting in re-
place steel backing creates a stress raiser. Consider the butt joint sidual stresses that are approximately equal to the yield strength
shown in Figure 11. There is a naturally occurring lack-of-fusion of the materials involved.

Figure 10 Figure 11

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 Figure 12

When the members being welded are

free to move or flex, the residual stresses
are relaxed by the movement. When mem-
bers are rigid and cannot move, residual
stresses increase. Under severe restraint,
normally ductile weld metal or base metal
may crack instead of yielding.
Tri-axial residual stresses are the most
harmful and may cause normally ductile
steel and welds to crack. Generously sized
weld access holes and large snipes assist in
precluding the buildup of residual stresses
at the intersection of welds from the differ-
ent orthogonal directions.

Principle 6: A good welded connection

does not subject the weld to bending.
To understand this principle, it is first
necessary to understand what it does not
mean. It is certainly acceptable to make a
plate girder with longitudinal welds and
subject the girder to bending. Principle 6
discourages loading that would bend the
weld about its longitudinal axis, as shown
in Figure 13; such loading concentrates

Figure 13

 Modern STEEL CONSTRUCTION

 Figure 14 Figure 15

Figure 16 Figure 17

strains at weld toes and roots. Stiffeners can be applied to elimi- egory B. It is at the toe of transverse fillet welds at the ends of
nate this bending (Figure 14) and in some cases, the orientation coverplates that fatigue cracks will initiate. Also, various weld
of the member can be changed so the weld is loaded in shear discontinuities are concentrated at weld toes, such as undercut,
(Figure 15). overlap and underbead cracking.
For these reasons, it is wise to “watch your toes and remem-
Principle 7: A good welded connection protects the ber your roots.” Welded connection details should be examined
toes and roots of the welds. to make sure that neither the toes nor roots will be problematic.
Weld toes and roots can create stress concentrations and a good Principle 7 is directly related to principle 4 and it is important
welded connection protects these vulnerable regions. The root of to remember that stress raisers are only important when there
a single-sided PJP groove weld is left unprotected when loaded in is a perpendicular force (or component of force) to the geomet-
tension, as shown in Figure 18. A double-sided PJP (as shown in ric feature. The roots and toes of longitudinal fillet welds on
Figure 19) groove weld provides adequate protection of the root in plate girders subject to bending loads do not have stresses that
many static applications. For cyclically loaded connections, failure are concentrated at these geometric discontinuities.  ■
of the double-sided joint will eventually initiate at the root.
In addition to the stress concentration created by weld roots, Part Two of this article will appear in the November issue and
weld toes can similarly create stress raisers—albeit typically to a will list an additional seven welding principles. Both parts are
lesser level than severe root problems. In fatigue sensitive appli- based on the 2015 NASCC: The Steel Conference presentation
cations, removal of the reinforcement on transverse CJP groove N1 “Welded Connections: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,”
welds improves the fatigue resistance from Category C to Cat- available at www.aisc.org/2015nascconline.

Figure 18 Figure 19

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