WELDED CONNECTION

Welding processes
• Welding is one of the oldest and
reliable method of jointing.
• Welding is a method of connecting two
pieces of metal by heating to a plastic
or fluid state, so that fusion occurs.
• Electric energy is used as heating
source. Electric welding involve
passing either direct or alternating
current through electrode.
Welding processes…
• An arc is shorted on base metal by holding the electrode at short distance.
• With this ‘shorting’ of the circuit, a very large current flow take place, which melt the
electrode’s tip and the base metal in the vicinity of the arc. Which produce a temperature
of about 3300-5000*C
• The electron flow making the circuit ‘carries the molten electrode metal’ to the base metal
to built up the joint.
Welding processes…
• The different processes of arc welding that are used in structural steel applications are as follows:
1. Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW)
2. Submerged arc welding (SAW)
3. Gas-shielded metal arc welding (GMAW)
4. Flux core arc welding (FCAW)
5. Electro slag welding (ESW)
6. Stud welding (SW)
Welding processes…
2. Submerged arc welding (SAW)
Welding processes…
3. Gas-shielded metal arc welding (GMAW)
Welding processes…
4. Flux core arc welding (FCAW)
Welding processes…
5. Electro slag welding (ESW)
Welding processes…
6. Stud welding (SW)
Advantages of welding
1. Eliminates the holes in the member.
2. Offers airtight and watertight joint.
3. Enable direct transfer of stresses, less fabrication cost, time saving.
4. Welded structure are more rigid as compared to bolted joints.
5. This are aesthetic in appearance.
6. Its offer freedom to the designer in choosing section.
7. Practicable even for complicated shapes of joints.
8. Efficiency of a weld joint is more than bolted joint.
9. Stress concentration is considerably less.
10. The process of welding is silent compared to riveting and bolting
Disadvantages of welding
1. Require highly skilled labours.
2. The inspection of welding joint is difficult and expensive.
3. Equipment's are costly.
4. Welded connection are prone to cracking under fatigue loading.
5. The welding performed in the field is expensive than preformed in the shop.
6. Welding at the site may not be feasible due to lack of power supply.
Assumptions in the analysis of welded joints
1. The welds connecting the various parts are homogeneous, isotropic, and elastic elements.
2. The parts connected by the weld are rigid and their deformations are therefore, neglected.
3. Only stresses due to external loads are considered. Effects of residual stresses, stress
concentrations and shape of the welds are neglected.
Types of Weld
• The weld may be grouped into four types as follows:
1. Groove welds
2. Fillet welds
3. Slot welds
4. Plug welds
• Fillet welds is suitable for lap and T-joints and groove welds are suitable for butt, corner, and edge
joints.
Groove welds
• Groove weld are used to connect
structural members that are aligned in
the same plane.
• The groove has a slope of 30* - 60*.
• Edge preparation become necessary for
plates over 10mm thick for manual arc
welding, and over 16mm for automatic
welding.
• To ensure full penetration and a sound
weld, a back-up strip is provided at the
bottom of single-V/bevel/J or U
grooves.
Groove welds
• In case of double-V/bevel/J or U grooves weld,
a spacer may be provided.
• The root opening or gap, is provided for the
electrode to access the base of the joint.
• For semi-automatic or manual arc welding,
typical values of root gap and root face are 2-
3mm and 1-2 mm, and for submerged arc
welding, value of 0-2 mm and 4-6mm can be
used for root gap and root face.
• The groove is made of double-bevel or double-
v for plates of thickness more than 12mm, and
made of double-U or double-J for plate of
thickness more than 40mm.
• For plates between 12mm-40mm, single-J and
single-U groove may be used.
Design of Welds
• The following assumptions are usually made in the analysis of welded joints.
a) The welds connecting the various parts are homogenous, isotropic, and elastic.
b) The parts connected by the welds are rigid and their deformation is, therefore, neglected.
c) Only stresses due to external forces are considered. The effects of residual stresses, stress
concentrations, and the shape of the weld are neglected.
Design of Welds…
1. Groove welds.
a) For tension or compression normal to effective area and tension and compression parallel to the axis of the weld.
𝑓𝑦 𝐿𝑤 𝑡𝑒
𝑇𝑑𝑤 =
𝛾𝑚𝑤
Where,
𝑇𝑑𝑤 = The design strength of the weld in tension.
𝑓𝑦 = Smaller of yield stress of the weld and the parent metal in MPa.
𝑡𝑒 = Effective throat thickness of the weld in mm.
𝐿𝑤 = Effective length of weld in mm.
𝛾𝑚𝑤 = Partial safety factor taken as 1.25 for shop welding and as 1.5 for site welding.

b) For shear on effective area.

𝑓𝑦 𝐿𝑤 𝑡𝑒
𝑉𝑑𝑤 =
3 𝛾𝑚𝑤
Where,
𝑉𝑑𝑤 = The design strength of the weld in shear.
Fillet welds
• Fillet weld are widely used due to their economy, ease of fabrication, and adoptability at site.
• Unlike groove weld they require less precision in ‘fitting up’ two sections, due to the overlapping
of pieces.
• They do not require any edge preparation, they are cheaper than groove welds.
• Fillet weld are assumed to fail in shear.
• In connection, members generally intersect at right angles, but intersection angles between 60* and
120* can be used.
Design of Welds
• The following assumptions are usually made in the analysis of welded joints.
a) The welds connecting the various parts are homogenous, isotropic, and elastic.
b) The parts connected by the welds are rigid and their deformation is, therefore, neglected.
c) Only stresses due to external forces are considered. The effects of residual stresses, stress
concentrations, and the shape of the weld are neglected.
Design of Welds…
• Hence as per IS 800:2007 the design strength is given by
𝑃𝑑𝑤 = 𝐿𝑤 𝑡𝑒 𝑓𝑢 /( 3𝛾𝑚𝑤 )
𝑃𝑑𝑤 = 𝐿𝑤 𝐾𝑠𝑓𝑢 /( 3𝛾𝑚𝑤 )
Where,
𝑃𝑑𝑤 = Design strength of the filet weld
s = size of the weld
Slot and Plug welds
• Slot and plug weld are not used exclusively in steel construction.
• When it become impossible to use fillet welds or when the length of the fillet weld is limited, slot
and plug welds are used to supplement the fillet weld.
• Plug welds are occasionally used to fill up holes where temporary erection bolts have been placed
to align member prior to welding.
Slot and Plug welds
• They are assumed to fail in shear.
• The penetration of these welds into base metal is difficult to ascertain, the inspection of these welds
is also difficult.
• They are not used to connect members carrying tensile loads.
• Slot and plug welds are useful in preventing overlapping parts from buckling.
Types of Joints
• The five basic type of welded joints are:
1. Butt joints
2. Lap joints
3. T-joints
4. Corner joints
5. Edge joints
Butt Joints
• A butt joint is used to join the ends of flat plates of nearly equal thickness and by placing side by
side.
• This type of joint eliminates the eccentricity developed using lap joint.
Lap Joints
• Lap joints are most commonly used because of their ease of fitting and ease of jointing.
• Preparation of surface is not required.
• Lap joint utilize fillet weld (shop or field welding)
• The additional advantage of lap joint is that plates with different thickness can be joined without
any difficulty.
• The drawback of a lap joint is that it introduces some eccentricity of loads, unless a double lap joint
is used.
Tee Joints
• They are used to fabricate built-up sections such as T-shapes, I-shapes, plate girders, hangers,
brackets, and stiffeners, where two plate are joined at right angles.
• T-joints can be made by using either fillet or groove welds.
• The groove weld edge shapes used on T-joints are shown in figure.
Corner Joints
• This joints are used to form built-up rectangular box sections, Which may be used as columns or
beams to resist high torsional forces.
• Fillet weld and a few groove weld edge shapes for corner joints are shown in figure.
Edge Joints
• Edge joint are not used in structural engineering applications.
• They are used to keep two or more plates in a given plane.
Weld Symbols
• The standard weld symbols used on drawing for different types of are shown in table below.
 Weld Symbols…
Finish symbol Groove angle; included angle of countersink for plug weld
Contour symbol Root opening; depth of filling for plug and slot weld
F
Groove weld size A Length of weld

Depth of bevel; Size Or strength for R Pitch (centre-to-centre spacing) of weld

Certain welds Field weld symbol
Specification Process, or Weld-all-around symbol
S (E) {Side Other side} L-P
Other reference T Arrow connecting
{Both Arrow side} reference line to arrow
(N) Reference side member of joint or
Tail (may be omitted when line
reference is not used) arrow side of joint

Weld symbol Elements in this area remain as Number of spot, seam, stud, plug,
shown when tail and arrow are slot, or projection welds
reversed
Weld symbols shall be
contained within the length of
the reference line
Effective Area of Welds
• Effective area of a groove or fillet weld is the product of the effective throat dimension (te)
multiplied by the effective length of the weld.
1. Groove Weld:
Effective Area of Welds…
Effective Area of Welds
2. Fillet Weld:
• The effective throat dimension of a fillet weld is the shortest distance from the root to the face of
the weld.
Weld Specifications
1. Minimum Weld Size:
• Size of fillet should not be less than 3mm nor more than thickness of thinner part.

• Usually the weld size closer to the minimum size is selected. Large size welds require more than
one run of welding.
Weld Specifications…
2. Maximum Fillet weld size along edges:
a)

b)

c)
Weld Specifications…
3. Minimum effective length of fillet weld:
Weld Specifications…
3. Minimum effective length of fillet weld:
Weld Specifications…
4. Overlap:
• The overlap of plates to be fillet welded in a lap joint should not be less than 4 times the thickness
of the thinner part.
• The effective length of groove welds in butt joints is taken as the length of continuous full size
weld, but it should not be less than four times the size of the weld.
Weld Specifications…
5. Effective length of groove welds: