Load Carrying Capacities of Butt Welded Joints in High Strength Steels

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of yield strength of the filler material and weld metal penetration on the load carrying capacity of butt welded joints in high-strength steels (HSS) (i.e., grade S700 and S960). These joints are manufactured with three different filler materials (under-matching, matching, and over-matching) and full and partial weld metal penetrations. The load carrying capacities of these mentioned joints are evaluated with experiments and compared with the estimations by finite element analysis (FEA), and design rules in Eurocode3 and American Welding Society Code AWS D1.1. The results show that load carrying estimations by FEA, Eurocode3, and AWS D1.1 are in good agreement with the experiments. It is observed that the global load carrying capacity and ductility of the joints are affected by weld metal penetration and yield strengths of the base and filler materials. This influence is more pronounced in joints in S960 steel welded with under-matched filler material. Furthermore, the base plate material strength can be utilized in under-matched butt welded joints provided appropriate weld metal penetration and width is assured. Moreover, it is also found that the design rules in Eurocode3 (valid for design of welded joints in steels of grade up to S700) can be extended to designing of welds in S960 steels by the use of correlation factor of one.