A design method of tensile triangles and low transformation temperature weld metal for reduction of stress concentration and residual stress of welded joints

Stress concentration and residual stress have a significant influence on fatigue life of welded joints. In order to reduce the stress concentration of welded joints, a mathematical design method of tensile triangles (MTT) based on bionics was applied to weld shape design. Accordingly, the stress concentration of various weld beads in the corner boxing welded joint and the fillet welded T-joint was dissected using our in-house FEM software JWRIAN. It was found that there existed a large stress concentration in the conventional welded joints, whereas those welded joints with elongated weld bead were accompanied by a lower stress concentration, especially for elongated weld bead with MTT design. Furthermore, among the weld shapes of the corner boxing fillet welded joint, the rectangle shape of weld bead had the minimum stress concentration factor (1.05). For the fillet welded T-joint with MTT design, the stress concentration of weld toe decreased dramatically with the increase of the index of designed shape, but there was a minor difference of stress concentration at weld root between the weld beads with MTT design. In addition, application of low transformation temperature (LTT) weld metal utilizing martensitic transformation to the fillet welded T-joints can produce compressive residual stress at weld toe.