Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Residual stresses in high strength steel welded box sections

M. Khan a,⁎, A. Paradowska b, B. Uy a, F. Mashiri c, Z. Tao c
a
Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
b
Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia
c
Institute for Infrastructure Engineering, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Induced residual tensile and compressive stresses generated by the fabrication process can cause premature
Received 13 April 2015 buckling and reduce the ultimate axial strength of welded steel box sections subjected to compressive loads.
Received in revised form 16 July 2015 Previous research pertaining to induced residual stresses has been restricted to box sections fabricated from
Accepted 27 August 2015
mild steel and 460 MPa high strength steel (HSS) using single pass welds or lightly welded sections. To date,
Available online 18 September 2015
very limited research has been undertaken to investigate the residual stresses in box sections fabricated from
Keywords:
690 MPa HSS plates. This paper investigates the induced residual stress distributions in square welded sections
High strength steel fabricated from 690 MPa HSS plates with single and multiple weld passes. The non-destructive neutron
Neutron diffraction method diffraction technique has been used to investigate the residual stresses in six test specimens: four specimens
Multi-pass weld fabricated from 5 mm HSS plates using single weld passes, and the other two specimens fabricated from
16 mm HSS plates using six weld passes. Experimental results suggest that the 16 mm thick heavily welded
sections exhibited higher tensile residual stresses than the 5 mm thick lightly welded sections, while the
compressive residual stresses of the heavily welded sections were similar to the compressive residual stresses
of the lightly welded sections. Considering the experimental results, a relationship between compressive residual
stresses and width to thickness ratio of the specimens is formulated. In addition, a residual stress distribution
model is proposed for lightly and heavily welded box sections.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction consequence of this influence on the strength reduction of a box section

HSS welded box columns are usually fabricated from quenched and
tempered HSS steel plates such as Australian manufactured HSS plates
or USA manufactured ASTM A514 HSS plates, and both the plates have
nominal yield strength of 690 MPa. Fabrication induces residual stresses
in a box section due to strain misfit as the weld material solidifies [1].
Previous research on box sections fabricated from ASTM A514 plates
suggested that the box sections could generate tensile residual stresses
as high as the yield stress at the junctions around the weld material.
Meanwhile, a constant compressive residual stress is generated in 80%
of the box section's base metal to balance the induced tensile residual
stresses [2].
The induced residual stress influences the local buckling of a box
column prior to reaching its yield stress; hence, local buckling can
reduce the column strength to some extent depending on the compact-
ness of the column section. When comparing the performance of box
sections fabricated from HSS and mild steel, as reported by Nishino
et al. [3], the influence on the strength reduction by compressive
residual stresses was less pronounced for box columns made from
A514 HSS plates than similar sections fabricated from mild steel. As a
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mahbub.khan@student.unsw.edu.au (M. Khan).
by residual stress, magnitudes and distributions of residual stress are
required to conduct analytical studies on large scale box columns, as
full-scale experimental models are often expensive to manufacture
and difficult to test to destruction. Therefore, there is always a need to
investigate residual stress patterns of fabricated columns such as
welded square sections.
Previous studies pertaining to the characteristics of residual stress
on 690 MPa HSS welded box sections have been limited to small
sections in column buckling or strength studies, which were mostly
based on 5 to 6 mm thick box sections fabricated with single pass
welds. Furthermore, previous research concerning residual stresses in
welded HSS box columns fabricated with single pass welds has been
predominantly restricted to magnitudes of the longitudinal compres-
sive residual stress.
Nishino et al. [3] first reported magnitudes of residual stress on HSS
welded box sections with width to thickness ratios (b/t) of 26 and 44
fabricated from 6.5 mm thick ASTM A514 steel plates. Likewise, Nishino
and Tall [2] continued with further residual stress measurements on
two more A514 steel box sections: a 6.35 mm thick box section with a
b/t of 24, and a 12.7 mm thick box section with a b/t of 20. In recent
studies, Rasmussen and Hancock [4] carried out similar residual stress
measurements on box columns fabricated from 690 MPa HSS plates;
the measurements included 5 mm thick box sections having b/t values

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2015.08.033
0143-974X/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
56 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64

of 16, 22 and 28. In addition, Rasmussen and Hancock [5] reported one Table 2
more box section having a b/t of 18. Furthermore, Uy [6] and Usami and Weld parameters.

Fukumoto [7] reported the ratio of the compressive residual stress to Current (A) Voltage (V) Speed (mm/min) Weld passes
yield stress for box sections having b/t values of 20, 30 and 40 made mm thick specimens 112 18.4 135 1
from 5 and 6 mm thick 690 MPa HSS plates. mm thick specimens 260 32 600 6
In practice, box columns comprise much thicker plates and multiple
weld passes for each joint of box sections as opposed to the test speci-
mens described above. Therefore, the main research of interest herein 3. Residual stress measurement technique
involved whether the residual stress significantly varied between
thicker specimens (heavily welded sections fabricated with multi pass 3.1. Principle of neutron diffraction
welds) and thinner specimens (lightly welded sections fabricated with
single pass welds). The main outcome of this research would provide When an incident beam of neutrons interacts with atomic nuclei of a
a simplified method for calculating the magnitude and distribution of crystalline material such as steel, neutrons subsequently scatter in all
generated residual stresses for 690 MPa HSS box sections. directions, and some of these scattered neutrons in phase produce a
This paper reports on an investigation of residual stresses of box sec- diffracted beam [9]. This is also known as neutron diffraction (ND)
tions fabricated from HSS using the non-destructive neutron diffraction that occurs in accordance with Bragg's diffraction law as shown in
(ND) technique, which can measure residual stresses in the subsurface Fig. 1 (a), and Bragg's diffraction law can be expressed as:
and bulk through the depth of a steel plate. Residual stress measure-
ments herein were conducted at the weld material, the heat affected λ ¼ 2dhkl sinθ ð1Þ
zones and the base metal of box sections: 5 mm thick box sections fab-
ricated with single pass welds, and 16 mm thick box sections fabricated where λ is a wavelength of an incident neutron beam, 2θ is a
with six weld passes. diffracted angle and dhkl is the spacing between atomic planes also
This investigation aims to extrapolate information on the induced known as crystallographic lattice spacing as illustrated in Fig. 1 (a).
residual stress from the 16 mm thick sections to reflect on heavy welded
sections used in practice. It should be noted that the 16 mm thick
sections can be represented herein as heavily welded sections, as the
16 mm thick sections have six weld passes inducing maximum residual
stress at the weld region when compared with the 5 mm thick lightly
welded sections having only a single weld pass.

2. Preparation of test specimens

Residual stress measurements were carried out on six square sec-

tions in total: four sections were fabricated from 5 mm thick plates by
single pass welds, and the two other sections were fabricated from
16 mm thick plates by six weld passes as shown in Fig. 2 (b). The
5 mm thick square sections comprised b1/t values of 16, 21, 26, and
41; the other two 16 mm thick square sections comprised b1/t values
of 16 and 26 as listed in Table 1. Note that b1 is the plate width from
the weld centre.
All procedures relating to fabrication of the sections, such as inter-
pass/pre heat temperature, were based on a technical manual provided
by the steel producer. Adhering to AWS A5.28:ER110S-1 specification
on welding consumable, the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process
by 1.2 mm wire was implemented to fabricate the specimens [8].
According to the specification, the yield strength and the tensile
strength of the weld material could reach as high as 810 MPa and
910 MPa respectively.
Prior to the welding process, preheat was applied to all steel plates. A
single pass of weld was used along each fillet with one continuous run
to fabricate the 5 mm thick specimens. The 16 mm test specimens
comprised the application of inter-pass temperature for each weld
pass, root run, cap and filler. The weld parameters for 5 and 16 mm
thick specimens are listed in Table 2.

Table 1
Nominal dimension of test specimens.

Test specimens Width (b) Thickness(t) Length b1/t Weld details

(mm) (mm) (mm)

RS16single 75 5 285 16 Single pass

RS21single 100 5 360 21 Single pass
RS26single 125 5 435 26 Single pass
RS41single 200 5 660 41 Single pass
RS16multi 240 16 720 16 Six passes
RS26multi 400 16 1200 26 Six passes
Fig. 1. (a) Neutron diffraction and (b) Shift in diffraction peak as a result of residual stress.
 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64 57

The ND utilises the change in lattice spacing of a stressed material 3.2. Accuracy of the ND method
(dhkl) and a stress-free reference material (d0) to calculate residual
strain using Eq. (2), which is derived from Eq. (1). In accordance with The experimental uncertainties presented in this paper are derived
Bragg's diffraction law, the shift in diffraction peak, θhklΔ, between the using an error propagation method [11]. This approach calculates the ef-
stressed sample and the stress-free reference sample as illustrated in fect of uncertainties in the measured quantities of the calculated stress:
Fig. 1 (b) provides residual strain, ε, [1]. As a consequence, finding the the stressed and stress-free lattice spacing (dhkl and d0). There are a
position of the diffraction peak is the key to calculate residual stresses number of possible contributions to d0 and dhkl. The most easily quanti-
by the ND. fied is the error due to the uncertainty in the peak position. This source
of uncertainty is dependent on the counting time of the measurement
and is present in all lattice spacing measurements. Other sources of
εhkl ¼ dhkl −d0 =d0 ð2Þ
experimental uncertainty may also be present, including thermal,
grain size and texture effects [12] and [13].
Residual strain can be converted to residual stress in accordance The error propagation method was used in the calculation of the
with Hooke's law, which requires three principal directions of the strains and stresses. The experimental uncertainties presented in this
residual strain εhkl: transverse strain (εxx), perpendicular to the weld; report are derived using the error propagation method of the form [11]:
longitudinal strain (εyy), parallel to the weld; and normal strain (εzz), sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2
normal to the weld as shown in Fig. 2 (a). By adhering to Hooke's law, ∂z ∂z
Δz ¼ Δx þ Δy ð6Þ
the transverse residual stress (σxx), longitudinal residual stress (σyy) ∂x ∂y
and normal residual stress (σzz) can be expressed as [10]:
where z is a function of x and y; and Δx and Δy are the uncertainties
 
E211 ν 211
 of x and y.
σ xx ¼ εxx þ εxx þ εyy þ εzz ð3Þ Similarly, the uncertainty in the transverse strain component as an
ð1 þ ν211 Þ ð1−2ν 211 Þ
example, εxx, can be expressed as:
  sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
E211 ν 211
  2  2
σ yy ¼ εyy þ εxx þ εyy þ εzz ð4Þ ∂ε xx ∂ε xx
ð1 þ ν211 Þ ð1−2ν 211 Þ Δεxx ¼ Δdxx þ Δd0 : ð7Þ
∂dxx ∂d0
 
E211 ν211
 Eq. (7) can be rewritten using Eq. (1) as:
σ zz ¼ εzz þ εxx þ εyy þ εzz ð5Þ
ð1 þ ν211 Þ ð1−2ν211 Þ
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2
where modulus of elasticity, E211 = 223.8 GPa and Poisson's ratio, dxx Δdxx Δd0
Δεxx ¼ þ : ð8Þ
ν211 = 0.27. d0 dxx d0

Fig. 2. Test specimens: (a) dimensions and principal directions, (b) a schematic view of welding region of six weld passes, (c) direction of cutting a stress free specimen and (d) three stress
free specimens.
58
Finally, the uncertainty in a stress component, such as σxx, can be
derived as:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2  2 
∂σ xx ∂σ xx
Δσ xx ¼ Δεxx þ Δεyy þ
∂εxx ∂εyy
Eqs. (6) to (9) relate the uncertainty in the strain and stress calcula-
tions to the uncertainty in the original stressed and stress-free lattice
spacing, dhkl and d0, respectively.
3.3. Preparation of stress free specimens
As stress free samples are a requirement to determine residual
stresses by ND, an additional set of test specimens as listed in Table 1
was also fabricated to extract stress free reference samples from the
welded sections. In practice, such reference samples of 4 mm slice
were cut from the test specimens using electro discharge machine
releasing internal stresses as a result of welding, and this process does
not introduce any additional internal stresses from the cutting proce-
dure. The cuts were made in the perpendicular direction to the weld
or longitudinal direction as shown in Fig. 2 (c). The reason for the
cutting in this direction was to release induced residual stresses in the
longitudinal direction (y), which is always dominant in relation to
residual stress than other principal directions. The stress free reference
samples consisted of the welded material, the heat affected zone and
the base metal as shown in Fig. 2 (d).
4. Experimental programme
Neutron diffraction measurements of the test specimens including
d0 samples were undertaken using the Kowari strain scanner instru-
ment at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
(ANSTO). The strain scanner functions mainly by having an incident
slit, a detector slit and the computer controlled translational table,
which positions each measuring location of a specimen under study
within specified gauge volumes [14]. The gauge volume is an intersec-
tion between an incident beam and a diffracted beam as shown in
Fig. 1 (a), and measures an average strain within the volume.
1 × 1 × 1 mm3 and 3 × 3 × 3 mm3 gauge volumes were used to mea-
sure the residual stresses in the weld and base metal region through
5 mm and 16 mm thick specimens respectively as shown in Fig. 4. Resid-
ual stress measurements were undertaken in 3 principal directions:
longitudinal, transverse and normal as highlighted in Fig. 2 (a). Each
of the measuring locations required measurement time depending on
the orientation of the test specimens to achieve accuracy in the order
of 100 με. The residual stresses were measured in all three directions
at all critical locations to account for the variation in chemical composi-
tion around the weld regions and the heat affected zones.
4.1. Kowari strain scanner
The strain scanner extracted a constant 1.6 Å wavelength neutron
beam from the reactor as an incident beam through the incident slit to
strike the measuring locations of the test specimens as shown in
Fig. 3. According to Bragg's diffraction law, the detector slit positioned
at 2θ of 90° with respect to the incident slit to receive a diffracted
beam from a Fe (211) diffraction plane, which is a recommended dif-
fraction plane for steel material [15]. The diffraction plane Fe (211)
formed a cube or square shaped gauge volume and placed the gauge
volume within the test specimens. In addition, the diffraction plane
also has mechanical properties similar to the bulk values.
The detector continued collecting neutrons until the diffraction peak,
as illustrated in Fig. 1 (b), was achieved for each measuring point of the
test specimens. The Kowari Data Analysis software was used to determine
diffraction peak positions by statistical analysis of the raw experimental
M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64
diffraction data. As explained earlier, the change in the peak position
between the test specimens and the stress free specimens provided pa-
rameters to calculate residual strain for the test specimens using Eq. (2).
2
∂σ xx
Δεzz : ð9Þ 4.2. Virtual simulations of test specimens
∂εzz
Prior to the experiment, the sample preparation also included the
generation of three dimensional (3D) modelling of the test specimens
by using a co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) fitted with a laser
profile scanner and by defining fiducial points or reference points
using a CMM touch probe. Subsequently, the virtual laboratory in strain
scanning simulation software, SScanSS, was used to combine the data
files from the CMM and the fiducial points to generate 3D models of
the test specimens as shown in Fig. 3 (b) to (d), [16].
The measurement points were then defined at the location of interest
within the generated 3D models incorporating the Kowari strain scanner
interface. Furthermore, the test specimens were accurately located by
using previously defined fiducial points. This procedure ensured precise
spatial location of the gauge volume, when physically mounted to the
computer controlled translational table shown in Fig. 3 (a).
Virtual simulations of the test specimens were undertaken in
SScanSS, which produced control parameters that facilitated the physi-
cal experiments. The computer controlled translational table, as shown
in Fig. 3 (a), aligned the measuring locations of the test specimens to the
gauge volume to ensure that the incident beam impinged within the
measuring locations.
The current study focused on the longitudinal residual stress of the
square sections, the longitudinal residual stress is generally a dominant
residual stress as opposed to other directional residual stresses [17].
Therefore, a higher spatial resolution gauge volume of 1 × 1 × 1 mm3
and 3 × 3 × 3 mm3 was applied to the 5 mm and 16 mm thick square
columns respectively in the longitudinal direction. An average measur-
ing time for scanning on each measuring location in the longitudinal di-
rection was 20 min for 5 mm thick sections and 13 min for 16 mm thick
sections. However, the geometry of the test specimens provided an op-
portunity to increase the experimental gauge volume to 1 × 1 × 20 mm3
and 3×3×20 mm3 to scan the 5 mm and 16 mm thick square sections
respectively in the transverse and normal direction; hence, the
measuring time decreased to 2 min and 4 min respectively.
5. Test results and discussion
The residual stress for each measuring location in this experiment
was calculated by applying Eq. (3) to (5). Residual stresses of the test
specimens were measured from the weld centre through the heat af-
fected zone to the base metal including through three internal depths
as shown in Fig. 4, where the measuring location numbering 0,0 corre-
sponds to the weld centre. The internal depths comprised 1 mm,
2.5 mm and 4 mm across from the external surface of the 5 mm thick
test specimens as illustrated in Fig. 4 (a). Likewise, the internal depths
of the 16 mm thick RS26multi test specimen were composed of 3 mm,
8 mm and 13 mm from the surface as illustrated in Fig. 4 (b).
Fig. 5 presented transverse, longitudinal and normal residual stress
distribution of RS21single. The experimental results from RS21single
clearly indicate that longitudinal residual stress is the dominant residual
stress, and the rest of the test specimens exhibited similar behaviour.
Therefore, the analysis herein has been focused on longitudinal residual
stress.
Fig. 6 presented longitudinal residual stress distributions and magni-
tudes of the test specimens that are listed in Table 1. Fig. 6 (a), (b),
(c) and (d) presented the test results of 5 mm thick test specimens;
Fig. 6 (e) and Fig. 6 (f) presented test results of 16 mm thick test
specimens.
Tensile residual stress (σRST) pertaining to each 5 mm thick test
specimen fabricated with single pass welds was derived by averaging
peak magnitudes of tensile residual stress (σRST) as shown in Fig. 7
 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64
Fig. 3. An overview of the experimental procedures:(a) neutron scanning of RS26multi in the longitudinal direction (y) by Kowari strain scanner, (b) simulation of the mesh model of
RS16single in the longitudinal direction, (c) simulation of the mesh model of RS16single in the transverse direction (x) and (d) simulation of the mesh model of RS16single in the normal
direction (z).
(a). Furthermore, the averaging was carried out due to the variation of
the magnitudes of tensile residual stress (σRST) at the peak zones across
the thickness of 1 mm, 2.5 mm and 4 mm from the 5 mm thick test
specimens as shown in Fig. 6 (a), (b), (c) and (d). Likewise, tensile resid-
ual stress (σRST) of the 16 mm thick test specimens fabricated using 6
weld passes was derived by averaging magnitudes of tensile residual
stress (σRST) at the weld region as shown in Fig. 7. Note that all residual
stresses herein are expressed as the ratio of the residual stress to the
nominal yield stress of HSS (σY).
In contrast with the 5 mm thick test specimens, the 16 mm thick
specimens generated tensile residual stress (σRST) as high as σY in the
base metal as shown in Figs. 6 (a) and 6 (f). However, some values of
tensile residual stress (σRST) within the vicinity of the weld material
reached as high as the ultimate weld strength. It should be noted that
these sudden kinks of tensile residual stress (σRST) shown in Fig. 6
(f) were localised at three measuring locations within the range of 5
to 10 mm from the weld centre.
Compressive residual stress (σRSC)’s distribution of the RS21single
test specimen was somewhat uniform along the base metal; however,
compressive residual stress (σRSC) seemed to peak at around 20 mm
from the weld centre as shown in Fig. 6 (b). Similarly, compressive re-
sidual stress (σRSC) of the RS16single test specimen induced a maximum
value at 20 mm from the weld centre, providing the same stress distri-
bution pattern as the RS21single. Therefore, the neutron scanning of the
RS26single and RS41single up to 20 mm along from the weld centre
were deemed reasonable to capture the maximum compressive residu-
al stress (σRSC) as shown in Fig. 6 (c) and (6) d.
59
Two categories of compressive residual stress (σRSC) were derived
from each test specimen including residual stresses from previous
studies as listed in the introduction. Category 1 comprised maximum
values of compressive residual stress (σRSC) concerning each test
specimen derived from the test results as shown in Fig. 8 (a); Category
2 comprised averaged peak values of compressive residual stress (σRSC)
as shown in Fig. 8 (b).
The induced tensile residual stress (σRSC) surrounding the weld re-
gion of the box sections results in forming compressive residual stress
(σRSC) in the base metal to produce self-equilibrating residual stress in
the box sections. The transition between the tensile residual stress
(σRST) zone and the compressive residual stress (σRSC) zone or neutral
axis, the location where residual stress is zero, can be utilised to quantify
the distribution of tensile residual stress (σRST). Fig. 6 demonstrated that
the distribution of tensile residual stress (σRST) is independent of a test
specimen's width for a given plate thickness such as 5 and 16 mm
thick specimens. Based on the neutral axis from the test results, Fig. 7
(b) summarised the distribution of tensile residual stress (σRST) as the
ratio of the distributed area (ARST) of the tensile residual stress (σRST)
to the total cross sectional area (AT) of the test specimens.
5.1. Residual stress magnitude of heavily welded and lightly welded box
sections
While the thickness of heavy welded box sections in practice can be
as high as 50 mm thick fabricated with multiple weld passes, this paper
referred 16 mm specimens as heavily welded sections. The reason being
60 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64
Fig. 4. Two examples of the measuring locations derived from SScaneSS software of the
test specimens are presented with distributed points from the weld centre to the base
metal and through the thickness of steel plates: (a) lightly welded section: RS26single;
(b) heavily welded section: RS26multi.
Fig. 5. Residual stress distribution of the RS21single in transverse, longitudinal and normal
direction at the depth of 2.5 mm from the surface.
the 16 mm thick specimens were fabricated with multi-pass weld, as is
the case with actual heavily welded sections.
The design of such heavily welded box sections is currently extrapo-
lated mostly based on research of thinner box sections fabricated using
single pass welds. Therefore, it is necessary at least to investigate the
residual stress of heavily welded sections having multiple weld passes
in order to undertake finite element modelling of such large sections,
as the physical testing of such large specimens would be impractical
and expensive.
The approach taken herein involves investigating the difference
between the 5 mm thick specimens (single pass weld sections) and
the 16 mm thick specimens (multi-pass weld sections) as well as com-
paring the current findings with previous findings from heavily welded
H and box sections. Thereby, it is appropriate to classify 16 mm thick
specimens as heavy welded sections in the context of this paper.
As can be seen from Fig. 7 (a), magnitudes of tensile residual stress
(σRST) were relatively similar among the lightly welded specimens
such as single pass weld sections and among the 16 mm thick
specimens, providing an average tensile residual stress (σRST) of
0.72σY MPa and 1.07σY MPa respectively. The 16 mm thick specimens
exhibited higher values of tensile residual stress (σRST) due to being fab-
ricated with a higher heat input from 6 weld passes than that of the
lightly welded specimens. Magnitudes and distributions of tensile resid-
ual stress (σRST) dictate the formation of compressive residual stress
(σRSC) in the base metal to provide equilibrated residual stresses in
box sections. Furthermore, findings from the comparison between the
16 mm and the 5 mm thick specimens concerning the formation of
compressive residual stress (σRSC), both the sections have b/t values of
16 and 26, are discussed in the following:
1. Tensile residual stress (σRST) of the RS16single and RS26single was
distributed over approximately 29% and 22% of the total cross sectional
area respectively. In contrast, tensile residual stress (σRST) of the
RS16multi and RS26multi was distributed over 19% and 12% of the
total cross sectional area respectively as shown in Fig. 7 (b). These re-
sults indicate a reduction of tensile residual stress (σRST) area by 10%
in the case of 16 mm thick sections. This also suggests more area is
available in the base metal of the heavy welded sections to balance
tensile residual stress (σRST) forming less magnitudes of compressive
residual stress (σRSC) when compared with 5 mm thick test specimens.
2. However, the average corresponding compressive residual stress
(σRSC) of the RS16single and RS26single was 0.29σY MPa and
0.18σY MPa respectively, while the average compressive residual stress
(σRSC) of the RS16multi and RS26multi was 0.30σY MPa and 0.16σY MPa
respectively. These findings suggest that there is no significant differ-
ence between the 16 mm thick sections and the 5 mm thick sections
concerning the magnitudes of compressive residual stress (σRSC), as
the 16 mm thick sections induced higher compressive residual stress
(σRSC) than expected despite having more available area to balance
the tensile residual stress (σRST) forming lower compressive residual
stress (σRSC).
In contrast, Alpsten and Tall [18] revealed that heavily welded H sec-
tions and thick welded plates, whose thickness ranged from 38 mm to
89 mm, generated less compressive residual stress (σRSC) in the base
metal than lightly welded sections. The ratio of the weld area to the
base metal concerning the heavily welded sections was smaller than
that of the lightly welded sections. As a consequence of having a smaller
ratio of the weld area in the case of the heavily welded sections, the heat
input became lower as compared with the lightly welded sections.
Hence, magnitudes and distributions of tensile residual stress (σRST) in
the heavily welded sections were reduced. This in turn generated
lower magnitudes of compressive residual stress (σRSC) in the base
metal of the heavily welded sections. The reason why the 16 mm
thick specimens exhibited higher compressive residual stress (σRSC)
was due to the higher magnitude of tensile residual stress (σRST). In
addition, the ratio of the weld area of the 16 mm thick sections to the
base metal was equal to that of the 5 mm thick specimens. Therefore,
 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64 61

Fig. 6. Longitudinal residual stress results of the test specimens at various depths from the surface, and a proposed model of residual stress distributions for the test specimens. Note that in
the y axis, positive values represent tensile residual stress; negative values represent compressive residual stress.

this could have led the 16 mm thick sections to induce higher tensile
residual stress (σRST) as a result of the higher heat input.
Past measurements conducted by Nishino and Tall [2] as shown in
Figs. 7 (a) and 8 (b), on the 12.7 mm thick section having a b1/t value
of 20, was compared with the current RS21single having a similar b1/t
value of 21. While the 12.7 mm section exhibited compressive residual
stress (σRSC) of 0.16σY MPa, RS21single exhibited compressive residual
stress (σRSC) of 0.23σY MPa, indicating that the 12.7 mm thick section
exhibited less σRSC than the 5 mm thick section by 0.07σY MPa. This
finding supports the conclusion made by Alpsten and Tall [18] on heavily
welded mild steel sections, which induce less compressive residual
stress (σRSC) as compared to lightly welded sections. Furthermore,
this finding is in contrast with the findings on the 16 mm thick sections,
which provided similar magnitudes of compressive residual stress
(σRSC) as the lightly welded 5 mm thick sections. The only explanation
for this is that the 12.7 mm thick specimen, which was not as heavily
welded as the 16 mm thick test specimen, induced lower tensile resid-
ual stress (σRST) than the 16 mm thick specimens as shown in Fig. 7 (a).
62 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64
Fig. 7. Magnitudes and distributions of tensile residual stress (σRST) derived from present
and previous test results: (a) comparison between σRST/σY and width to thickness ratio b1/t;
(b) comparison between proportion of total cross sectional area distributed by tensile
residual stress (ARST/ATotal) and width to thickness ratio b1/t.
As has been discussed above, the previous results from heavily
welded H and box sections indicate that there is a general trend of
decreasing influence of induced residual stress as the sections become
heavier or larger [18]. Also, the magnitudes of induced residual stress
away from the weld area and heat affected zone, i.e. compressive
residual stresses, are lower for heavily welded sections than lightly
welded sections. As a consequence, the present 16 mm thick sections
fabricated with multi pass weld will provide slightly conservative
predictions than larger or heavily welded box sections, which comprise
thicker plates than 16 mm and multiple weld passes. Therefore, any
prediction from the current investigation is slightly conservative and
reliable for large size welded box sections or heavily welded box
sections.
The implications from the above analysis are that heavily welded
box sections used in practice can induce tensile residual stress (σRST)
as high as σY due to multi-pass welds. And it is evident from Fig. 8
(b) that compressive residual stress (σRSC) of the heavily welded
sections tend not to exceed beyond compressive residual stress (σRSC)
generated from the lightly welded sections. Furthermore, it can also
be seen by investigating the maximum compressive residual stress
(σRSC) in Fig. 8 (a), where maximum values of compressive residual
stress (σRSC) show very little difference between single pass and six
Fig. 8. Magnitudes of compressive residual stress (σRSC) derived from the present and the
past test results: (a) comparison between average magnitudes of compressive residual
stress (σRSC) and width to thickness ratio b1/t; (b) comparison between maximum
magnitudes of compressive residual stress (σRSC) and width to thickness ratio b1/t.
pass welded sections. As a consequence of the maximum compressive
residual stress (σRSC) having no significant difference between the
heavily and lightly welded sections, compressive residual stress (σRSC)
of heavy welded sections can be extrapolated from b1/t value of 16 to
45 in accordance with test results from lightly welded 5 mm and
6.35 mm thick sections as shown in Fig. 8 (b).
Magnitudes of compressive residual stress (σRSC) are highly correlat-
ed with b1/t values including all box sections regardless of plate thick-
ness and weld passes. Therefore, a non linear thread line was drawn
on Fig. 8 (b) by ensuring conservative consideration as most of the
previous magnitudes of compressive residual stress (σRSC) were lower
than the current test results. The equation for the thread line calculating
compressive residual stress (σRSC) for both the heavily and lightly
welded sections can be expressed as:
n o
−0:924
σ RSC ¼ 3:6607ðb1 =t Þ σY ð10Þ
where b1 is the width of a plate from the weld centre; t is the
thickness of the plate as shown in Fig. 9.
 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64
Fig. 9. Simplified version of residual stress distribution.
5.2. Proposed residual stress distribution model
Experimental results clearly demonstrated the complexity of the re-
sidual stress distributions in the test specimens such as the variations in
the residual stress distributions as shown in Fig. 6. While formulating an
exact replica of the experimental stress distributions is not feasible, the
experimental residual stress distributions can be transformed into
equivalent rectangular stress blocks (using the tendon force method)
as introduced by [19]. The rectangular stress block provides an equilib-
rium residual stress: an area of tensile residual stress block, 2bttσRST,
must equal an area of compressive residual stress block, (b1 − 2bt)tσRSC,
as shown in Fig. 9. The neutral axis bt or the tensile width from the weld
centre can be derived by equilibrating 2bttσRST with (b1 − 2bt)tσRSC in
the following:
b1 σ RSC
bt ¼ : ð11Þ
2ðσ RST þ σ RSC Þ
Whether the equivalent rectangular stress block represents the
current and previous experimental residual stress distribution can be
validated by comparing the experimental ARST/ATotal with the simplified
ARST/ATotal as shown in Fig. 7 (b). The simplified ARST/ATotal was calculated
for the test specimens by applying Eq. (11) using the values of σRST and
σRSC from Figs. 7 (a) and 8 (b) respectively. Considering all test
specimens in Fig. 7 (b), It is noted that the difference between the
experimental ARST/ATotal and the simplified ARST/ATotal is within 1% on
average. This finding further reinforces the adequacy of the rectangular
stress block method to ensure reflecting the characteristics of residual
stress distributions in a conservative manner.
In accordance with the equilibrium condition, Dwight and Moxham
[19] calculated the bt based on welding parameters and the temperature
distribution, and the corresponding σRSC was derived by assuming
tensile residual stress (σRST) to be σY. Similarly, Wang et al. [20] proposed
a simplified model to calculate the bt of 450 MPa welded box sections by
implementing measured magnitudes of tensile residual stress (σRST) and
compressive residual stress (σRSC) rather than the weld parameters and
the assumed tensile residual stress (σRST). The former method is being
used herein distributing residual stress, which is based on the equivalent
rectangular stress block by using the established tensile residual stress
(σRST) and compressive residual stress (σRSC).
63
Tensile residual stress (σRST) of the heavily welded sections
and lightly welded sections can be taken as an averaged value of
1.07σY MPa and 0.72σY MPa respectively as calculated in the previous
section. This is due to the magnitudes of tensile residual stress (σRST)
being relatively constant among the 5 and 16 mm thick sections respec-
tively regardless of b1/t values as shown in Fig. 7 (a). Furthermore, mag-
nitudes of compressive residual stress (σRSC) can be calculated from
Eq. (10) for both heavily welded sections and lightly welded sections.
In accordance with Eq. (11) and the presented information, a
proposed residual distribution model for each specimen is plotted on
the experimental results in Fig. 6. Fig. 6 (a) through 6 (d) pertain to
the lightly welded box sections; Fig. 6 (e) through Fig. 6 (f) pertain to
the heavily welded box sections. It should be noted that the tensile
width or bt somewhat reflects the experimental behaviour as demon-
strated in Fig. 6.
6. Conclusions
The non-destructive ND technique was successfully used to evaluate
the residual stress distributions in HSS welded box sections. The
purpose of the present research was to investigate the relationship
between commonly fabricated lightly welded sections for test purposes
and heavily weld sections used in practice. Based on the presented test
results and analyses, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. Tensile residual stresses were similar among the lightly welded
specimens and among the heavily welded 16 mm thick test specimens,
inducing an average of 0.72σY MPa and 1.07σY MPa respectively. The
induced higher tensile residual stress in the 16 mm thick sections, as a
result of 6 weld passes, has contributed to the formation of higher
compression residual stress than expected in accordance with previous
literature.
2. Heavily welded box sections used in practice fabricated from
690 HSS plates by multi-pass welds could exhibit similar magnitudes
of compressive residual stress of commonly fabricated lightly welded
specimens. Furthermore, the compressive residual stresses from the
current results, 0.3σY MPa to 0.1σY MPa depending on the b1/t values,
are higher than previously reported data.
3. The compressive residual stress of lightly welded test specimens
correlated significantly with b1/t values ranging from 16 to 45 including
the past test specimens. Since the magnitudes of compressive residual
stress of 5 mm and 16 mm thick sections did not significantly differ
from each other, the compressive residual stress of heavily welded
sections can be estimated according to lightly welded sections ranging
from b1/t values of 16 to 45.
4. After having established the magnitudes of residual stress of the
heavily and lightly welded sections, a residual stress distribution
model was proposed based on an equilibrium rectangular block. The
proposed model distributed the established residual stress of heavily
and lightly welded sections reliably to reflect the complex experimental
characteristics of residual stress.
Results on residual stresses in heavily welded box sections used in
practice could be improved further by undertaking similar experiments
on specimens thicker than the presented specimens by fabricating with
50 mm thick or thicker plates. The investigation would provide informa-
tion on whether magnitudes and distributions of residual stress are
different from the present test result obtained from 16 mm thick sections.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge that this investigation was
supported by a Bragg Institute Instrument Beam Proposal 2456 and
2911 and an Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP
120101944. Neutron diffraction experiments were undertaken at the
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)
using the Kowari strain scanner instrument.
64 M. Khan et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 116 (2016) 55–64
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