Stress Concentration Factors for Butt-Welded Plates Subjected to Tensile, Bending and Shearing Loads

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.