SECTION 7. Determining Weld Size 1. WHEN TO CALCULATE WELD SIZE Overwelding is one of the major factors of welding cost. Specifying the correct size of weld is the fist step in obtaining low-cost welding. This demands a simple method to figure the proper amount of weld to provide adequate strength for all types of connections. In strength connections, complete-penetration groove welds must be made all the way through the plate, Since a groove weld, properly made, has equal fr better strength than the plate, there is no need for caloulating the stress in the weld or attempting to determine its size. However, the size of a partial-pene- tration groove weld may sometimes be needed. When welding alloy steels, it is necessary to match the weld- metal strength to plate strength. This is primarily a matter of proper electrode selection and of welding procedures. ‘With fillet welds, it is possible to have too small 4 weld or too large a weld; therefore, it is necessary to determine the proper weld size. Strength of Welds Many engineers are not aware of the great reserve strength that welds have. Table 1 shows the recognized strength of various weld metals (by electrode desig- nation) and of various structural steels, Notice that the minimum yield strengths of the ordinary E60XX electrodes are over 50% higher than the corresponding minimum yield strengths of the AT, A373 and A36 structural steels for which they should be used. Since’ many’ E6OXX electrodes’ méét the specif. cations for E7OXX: classification,-they-have-about "75%: higher yield strength. thar’ the steel. ”, Subthteged-Are= Welds <:; AWS? aid AISC require ‘that the ‘haresclecthodet and » flux Bornbination used for sibrergeidare weldilg: shall be selected t0' produce ‘weld’ metal ‘having the tensile Properties listed.in“'Table*2, when’*deposited in a multiple-past, weld. 2. FILLET WELD SIZE’ The AWS has defined thie efféctive“throat area of i fillet weld to, be équal ta,the efedtive length of the weld times the effective throat. The effective throat is defined as the shortest distance from the root of the diagrammatic weld to the face. According to AWS the leg size of a fillet weld is measured by the largest right triangle which can be inscribed within the weld, Figure 1. This definition would allow unequallegged fillet welds, Figure 1(a). Another AWS definition stipulates the largest isosceles inscribed right triangle and would limit this to an equal-legged fillet weld, Figure 1(b) Unequal-legged fillet welds are sometimes used to get additional throat area, hence strength, when the Strengths Required of ‘Metals and Structural St (AWS AS.1 & ASTM A233) (as-welded condition) a ET 2 [eo ‘$5.00 67,000 2 Cee a } [aes ae oa} as vs | es a “| as a EP [ss 36,000 8.000, ° ‘Aaa 42,000, 63,000 | ra a FABLE 2-—Minimum Properties Required, of Automatic “Atco Welds ‘Submetge is-welded; tAWS'& AISC) (ai ‘multiple pass) £2000 46 £0,000 bet oh min 45.000 pa’ | eegaion in 2 ines. in ‘25sa! 1 fedoation ievarge, min. fox 70000 te 90.090 pst 50.000 fa oagation ir 2 taht in. = wae fedhation nore mins Be7.42 / Joint Design and Production Increosed effective thot = 1.2624 (6) Throot increased by 26% Area increosed by 100% Increosed effective throot = 1.2624 (b) Throat increased by 26% Area increased by 59% FIGURE 1 vertical leg of the weld cannot be increased, See Figure 2(a). Where space permits, a more efficient means of obtaining the same increase in throat area or strength is to increase both legs to maintain an equal-legged fillet weld with a smaller increase in weld metal, See Figure 2(b). ra (©) Equal-legged filler weld (©) Unequalled-legged filler weld FIGURE 2 One example of this would be the welding of channel shear attachments to beam flanges, Figure 3. Here the vertical leg of the fillet weld must be held to the thickness at the outer edge of the channel flange Additional strength must be obtained by increasing the horizontal leg of the fillet. ‘The effective length of the weld is defined as the length of the weld having full throat, Further, the AWS requires that all craters shall be filed to the full cross-section of the weld. ‘continuous fillet welds, this is no problem be- «he weldor will strike an arc for the next electrode on tue forward edge of the crater of the previous weld, then swing back into the crater to fil it, and then pro- ceed forward for the remainder of the weld. In this manner no crater will be left unilled In practically all cases of intermittent fillet welds, the required length of the weld is marked out on the, plate and the weldor starts welding at one mark and continues to weld until the rim of the weld crater Passes the other mark. In other words, the crater is beyond the required length of the intermittent fillet weld and is not counted, There may be some cases where the crater is filled and included in the weld length, This may be accom- lished by filling the crater, or by using a method of welding part way in from one end, breaking the arc and welding in from the other end, and then over- lapping in the central portion, thus’ eliminating any crater, Chonnel shear cttachment Unequaltegaed fillet weld FIGURE 3 The effective throat is defined as the shortest at tance between the root of the joint and the face of the lagrammatical weld. This would be a line from & toot of the joint and normal to the flat face, Figure + iThroat t) = 707 ws Moe FIGURE 4 For an equal-legged fillet weld, the throat is equal to .707 times the leg size (w): t= 17 e The allowable force on the fillet weld, 1” long is— wher llowable force on fillet weld, Ibs per linear ‘inch @ = leg size of filet weld, inches 7 = allowable shear stress on throat of weld, psi The AWS has set up several shear stress allow- ables for the throat of the fillet weld. These are shown in Tables 6 and 7 for the Building and Bridge fields, Minimum Weld Size (AWS Bldg Art 212(a)1, AWS Bridge Par 217(b), AISC L174) In joints connected only by fillet welds, the mini mum leg size shall correspond to Table 3. This is determined by the thickness of the thicker part joined, but does not have to exceed the thickness of the thinner part joined. The American Welding Society recognizes that um Weld Sizes for Thick ites (AWS) TABLE 3—Mi: Determining Weld Size / 7.4 thick plates offer greater restraint, and produce faster cooling rate for the welds. Table 3 is predicated on the theory that th Fequired minimum weld size will provide suffcier welding heat input into the plate to give the desire slow rate of cooling. This is not a complete answer to this problem for example, a plate thicker than 6” would xequize minimum weld size of %", yet in actual practise thi would be made in several passes. Each pass woul be equivalent to about a %4” fillet, and have the hea input of approximately & 41g” weld which may not be sufficient unless the plates are preheated, A partial solution to this problem would be the following: Since the first pass of the joint is the most critical, it should be made with low-hydrogen electrodes and a rather slow travel speed. Resulting superior weld physicals, weld contour, and maximum heat input pro- vide a good strong root bead. Maximum Effective Weld Size (AWS Bldg Art 212(a)2, AWS Bridge Par 217(c), AIS 1.17.5) Along the edge of material less than %” thick, the maximum effective leg size of fillet weld shall be equal to the plate thickness (t): [mate] 8 FIGURE 8 then ty 2% te” Spacing ond Size of Plug Welds (AWS Bldg Art 213, AWS Bridge Par 218, AISC Law LITA) wss’ (AWS Bldg Art 212(a)3, AISC 1.17.6) unless additional welding prevents transverse bending within the connection. “In addition, the effective length (L,) of an intermittent fllet weld shall not be less than 144” (AISC 1.177). Figure 17sz4d dz te + Ke” < hy Spacing and Size of Slot Welds Slt L WE te t+ Ke" SM ty s&s 24w % 22k rete 4. PARTIAL-PENETRATION GROOVE WELDS Partial-penetration groove welds are allowed in the building field, They have many applications; for ex. ample, field splices of columns, built-up box sections for truss chords, etc. For the V, J or U grooves made by manual welding, and all joints made by submerged-arc welding, it is assumed the bottom of the joint can be reached easly. So, the effective throat of the weld (t,) is equal to the actual throat of the prepared groove (t). See Figure 18. If a bevel groove is welded manually, itis assumed that the weldor may not quite reach the bottom of the groove. Therefore, AWS and AISC deduct %” from the prepared groove. Here the effective throat (t.) will equal the throat of the groove (t) minus %", See Figure 13(a). -—+———4—— E () Single J joint (0) Single bevel joint FIGURE 13, Tension applied parallel to the weld’s axis, or com- Pression in any direction, has the same allowable stress as the plate Determining Weld Size / FIGURE 12 ‘Tension applied transverse to the weld’s axis shear in any direction, has a reduced allowable str: equal to that for the throat of a corresponding & weld. Just as fillet welds have a minimum size for th plates because of fast cooling and greater restraint, artial-penevation groove welds have a minimum effi tive throat (t.) which should be used — fe we ye where: ty = thickness of thinner plate 5. TYPES OF WELDS a. Primary welds transmit the entire load at th Particular point where they are located. If the wek fails, the member fails. The weld must have the same property as the member at this point. In brief, the weld becomes the member at this point. b. Secondary welds simply hold the parts to- ‘gether, thus forming the member. In most cases, the forces on these welds are low. ©. Parallel welds have forces applied parallel to their axis. In the case of fillet welds, the throat is stressed only in shear, For an equal-legged fillet, the ‘maximum shear stress occurs on the 45° throat. d. Transverse welds have forces applied trans- versely or at right angles to their axis. In the case of fillet welds, the throat is stressed both in shear and in tension or compression, For an equal-legged fillet weld, the maximum shear stress occurs on the 67!4* throat, and the maximum normal stress occurs on the 22%4° throat.746 / Joint Design and Production TABLE 4—Determining Force on Weld ‘Type of Loading PRIMARY WELDS transmit entive load af this point | Fe ld fod elaing SECONDARY WELI hold section together iow 6. SIMPLE TENSILE, COMPRESSIVE OR SHEAR LOADS ON WELDS. 1 4 simple tensile, compressive or shear load, the siven load is divided by the length of the weld to arrive at the applied unit force, Ibs per linear inch of weld. From this force, the proper leg size of fillet weld ‘or throat of groove weld may be found. 7. BENDING OR TWISTING LOADS ON WELDS The problem here is to determine the properties of the welded connection in order to check the stress in the weld without frst knowing its leg size. Some design texts suggest assuming a certain weld-leg size and then calculating the stress in the weld to see if it is over. stressed or understressed. If the result is too far off then the weld-leg size is readjusted. This has the following disadvantages: 1. Some decision must be made as to what throat Section is going to be used to determine the property of the weld. Usually some objection can be raised to any throat section chosen, 2. The resulting stresses must be combined and, ‘or several types of loading, this can be rather com, dicated. In contrast, the following is a simple method to termine the correct amount of welding required ot _juate strength. This is a method in which we wood is treated as a line, having no area, but a definite Iength and outlifie: hig method has the fol- lowing advantages; 1. It is not necessary -to consider throat areas be- cause only a line is consttlered, 2 Properties of the welded connection are easily found from a table without knowing. weld-leg size. 3, Forces are considited. on a unit Tength of weld instead of stresses, thus eliminating the knotty prob- lem of combining strasses, . 4. It is true that the stress distribution within a fillet weld is complex, dug to eccentricity of the ap. plied force, shape of the:Bllet, notch effect of the root, etc; however, these dame cofditiots-exist in the actual fillet welds tested and have been -recorded’ as a unit force per unit length of weld, of the weld : -% jJastead of trying. to determine''the stress on the weld (this cannot ke dost unless the weld size is known), the problem Becomes a much simpler one of determining the force on the weld, 5 ! 1 ad ih ting load is py ns T[— the welded df comection ‘. treated as T a ine (no area) FIG. 14 Treating weld as a line, By inserting the property of the welded connec- tion treated as a litie.into the standard design formula used for that particular type of load (see Table 4), the force on the weld may be found in terms of Ibs per linear inch of weld. Example: Bending Standard design formula|Same formula used for weld (bending stress) | (treating weld as a line) M _ Ibs M _ Ibs sige tees | f= = BF fonNormally the use of these standard design formulas results in a unit stress, psi; however, when the weld is treated as a line, these formulas result in @ force on the weld, Ibs per linear inch. For secondary welds, the weld is not treated as a line, but standard design formulas are used to find the force on the weld, Ibs per linear inch. In problems involving bending or twisting loads Table 5 is used to determine properties of the weld treated as a line. Tt contains the section modulus (Sy), for bending, and polar moment of inertia (Ju), for twisting, of some 13 typical welded connections with the weld treated as a line. For any given connection, two dimensions are needed, width (b) and depth (d). Section modulus (S-) is used for welds subject to bending loads, and polar moment of inertia (Jw) for twisting loads. + Section moduli (Sw) from these formulas are for maximum force at the top as well as the bottom portions of the welded connections. For the unsymmetrical con- nections shown in this table, maximum bending force is at the bottom. If there is more than one force applied to the weld, these are found and combined. All forces which are combined (vectorially added) must occur at the same position in the welded joint. Determining Weld Size by Using Allowobles Weld size is obtained by dividing the resulting force ‘on the weld found above, by the allowable strength of the particular type of weld used (fillet or groove), obtained from Tables 6 and 7 (steady loads) or Tables 8 and 9 (fatigue loads), “lf there are two forces at right angles to each other, the resultant is equal to the square root of the sunt of the sqiiares of these two forces. Vie +e]... If there are three forces, each at right angles to each other, the resultant is equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the three forces. seeeee (8) f= Vittiethe ‘One important advantage to this method, in addi- tion to its simplicity, is that no new formulas must be used, nothing new must be leamed. Assume an engineer has just designed a beam, For strength he has used.the standard formula o = M/S. Substituting the load on the beam (M) and the property of the beam ($) into this formula, he has found the bending stress (cr). Now, he substitutes the property of the Determining Weld Size / 7.4. TABLE 5—Properties of Weld Treated as Line weld, treating it as a line (S,.), obtained from Table 5, into the same formula. Using the same load (M), f = M/Sm, he thus finds the force on the weld (f} Per linear inch. The weld size is then found by di- viding the force on the weld by the allowable feece, Applying System to Any Welded Cannection 1. Find the position on the welded connection where the combination of forces will be maximum. There may be more than one which should be con, sidered. 2 Find the value of each of the forces on the welded connection at this point. (a) Use Table 4 for the standard design formula to find the force on the weld. (b) Use Table 5 to find the property of the weld treated as a line, 3. Combine (vectorielly) all of the forces on the weld at this point 4. Determine the required weld size by dividing this resultant value by the allowable force in Tables 8, 7, 8, or 9,7.4.8 / Joint Design and Production TABLE 6—Allowables for Welds—Build (AWS Bldg & AISC) Tipe of weld Sem Stel Eecrade Alobie Copa Tenion Wis S| Wado Sat Fenton cero Tome os th Groom Wwette—|tee nati, ata | 0 or Sawa AY, Ab, AS | 0 or Bad Seen Poms | aaa, anee—| 0 twidonen | ey + = 13.400 pu shor on wR ow Sava se oat ort 7a 70 wr Sawa eerton for tm 18800 px Groove Weld nan, azar | lewtycogen tl, Azer on saw wenion pyatol | 9, : race sea 436, A973 | $0 or sah : conpresion on Dae mame smears [ace or azar | a0 or saw Wis, Raa | a or BAT wast, ates | EO aripdagen |] 7 = 400 oo ts sheor om 7 or SAW 4 = 9650 « tb/in pie tive x £70 or SAI bit sf wa 70 or SAW 76 0 «542 | a van wast, aay | 0 bowbyionen %, th, a2 eelanntsePet | 110 w tin Theor on en Some ot fr filer wold Sestobl naae #870 or SAW could be ed, bt mould net neat allowable TABLE 7—Allowables for We is—Bridges (AWS Bridge) Tyee of wold Siew Sal Tecrade ‘Alorae Waa ‘$660 or SAW. conus . a6 Sk Fevetetton compreasion > Pe £60 lowhydrogen | Some ot IB. Groove Welds aheor 36 > I thie or SAW.1 ana 70 towhydcaen becianl or SAW? a $860 Wl 6 or 84 += 12400 ps na6 SF tek = fate shear sn = FE Towigdgen] 8855 tin ‘ie sic ae > 1 wi | 9 ening T= 1700 pH at), a2 20 lewbndonen 7 an 1 = 10,400 th/in = Pig shear on iS thie | $840 oF Sawer ond Since = 1240 so 7 738 > 1 thick | an Towaysiogon Maa" or Sa * weldoble A242 £70 or SAW. could be used, but would not increctecllowableProblem 1 Determine the size of bracket shown in Figure Ibs. required fillet weld for the 15, to carry a load of 18,000 Determining Weld Size / 7.4- Step 1: FIND PROPERTIES OF \WELD, TREA1 ING IT AS A LINE (use Table 5). 0° 18,000les FIGURE 15 BrNote Exceed ar BE pi But nor exceed we r Sate Metal Compression Connected By Welds fut Weld In Tension um Wid Compression ust Weld in Shese Fils Welds oS tag Sie Adopted from AVIS Bridge Spacfcaions.—K = min/mox compre ses fr nebo, lowable unt Yeates for memer74-10 / Joint Design and Production ‘Step 2: FIND THE VARIOUS FORCES ON WELD, INSERTING PROPERTIES OF WELD FOUND fteisting (vertical component) ABOVE (see Table 4). 4. ] 7 Sy 15800 — > see eeesaeeee (Tb) This same formula may be expressed in terms of allowable unit force (Ibs/linear inch) for a fillet wel for E60 welds or SAW-1 for E70 welds or SAW-2 f So ¥11200 — For the same given applied normal stress (a), the greatest applied shear stress (7) on the throat of @ groove weld or filet weld (and holding the maximum normal stress resulting from these combined stresses within the allowable of « = .60 a) is— TS V0 o,)¥ — (800,) 7 Formulas #7 and #8 are expressed in table form, as in Table 11. The general relationship of these formulas is illustrated by the graph, Figure 29. ++ -(8b)74-22 / Joint Design and Production r= [15800 = ate a 10.80 wf 11,2002 — € 10.609 wold, kipsin Applied shear stress (z) on throot of oF on particl-penetro Allowable face (f} on 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 2 Applied normal stress (6) parallel to weld, ksi 2 FIG. 29 Relationship of Formulas #8 and #9; see Table 11, page 19.L Spec. No. 4-B-11 Reissued: 01-31-88 Revised: 08-07-00 fe Introduction General Comments A these subjects. [ihe use of the note "Weld per Design Standard 18", or similar words on our Ideco drawings will be interpreted as having the same meaning as “All welding to be per Spec. 4B-11," When a weld procedure specification cannot be identified for a specific weld, then Engineering and Quality will jointly develop the Fequired welding procedure specification, Manufacturing is responsible for issuing the welding procedure specification called for on the drawing, af