Marine Structures 72 (2020) 102759

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Marine Structures
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/marstruc

A design method of tensile triangles and low transformation

temperature weld metal for reduction of stress concentration and
residual stress of welded joints
Zhongyuan Feng a, *, Thein Lin Aung a, Chendong Shao b, Fenggui Lu b,
Seiichiro Tsutsumi c, Ninshu Ma c, **
a
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
c
Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University, Osaka, 567-0047, Japan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Stress concentration and residual stress have a significant influence on fatigue life of welded
Stress concentration joints. In order to reduce the stress concentration of welded joints, a mathematical design method
Residual stress of tensile triangles (MTT) based on bionics was applied to weld shape design. Accordingly, the
Method of tensile triangles
stress concentration of various weld beads in the corner boxing welded joint and the fillet welded
Low transformation temperature weld metal
Martensitic transformation
T-joint was dissected using our in-house FEM software JWRIAN. It was found that there existed a
Interpass temperature 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.

1. Introduction

Marine structures constructed by welding are the prerequisite and basis for the development of marine resources [1]. However,
welded joints of these marine structures are prone to fatigue failure due to the harsh marine environment, such as wind wave, tide flow
and so on. How to improve the fatigue performance of welded joints and extend their service life has become an important issue
restricting the development and manufacturing of marine engineering structures.
In general, there are three primary factors affecting the fatigue behavior of welded joints, namely the types of loading, stress
concentration and residual stress [2]. Usually, the types of loading are directly dependent on the service condition. In most cases,
various welded structures have different geometries, and the stress concentration of the geometry have been attached great importance

* Corresponding author. Institute: Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 11-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka, 567-0047, Japan.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: feng@jwri.osaka-u.ac.jp (Z. Feng), ma.ninshu@jwri.osaka-u.ac.jp (N. Ma).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marstruc.2020.102759
Received 15 August 2019; Received in revised form 12 February 2020; Accepted 11 March 2020
0951-8339/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Feng et al. Marine Structures 72 (2020) 102759

Fig. 1. Effect of shape optimization on stress distribution in tree fork [7].

to. Hu et al. [3] performed a statistical analysis on stress concentration of butt welded joints taking into account weld toe angle, weld
width, weld reinforcement as well as misalignment. Oliveira et al. [4] assessed the fatigue strength of misaligned laser bead welded
T-joints through effective stress method. To our knowledge, welding defects can be induced during welding process due to improper
procedures, which is detrimental to the fatigue strength of welded joint. To investigate the effect of welding defects, Shen et al. [5]
analyzed the relationship between stress concentration and fatigue strength. Anyway, the best and simple way to lessen the stress
concentration is to construct the geometry with a proper design. For example, Taylor et al. [6] proposed a variable-radius notch
method to minimize the stress concentration of mechanical components. Nevertheless, application of this method to weld shape design
is inconvenient and impractical. In fact, much earlier Mattheck [7] in 2006 have devised a simple graphical method called method of
tensile triangles (MTT) for generating a variable radius curve. Despite its simplicity, little attention has been paid to fabricating the
weld bead with MTT design. Therefore, if properly applied, the MTT design can be a promising way to reduce stress concentration.
As aforementioned, residual stress also plays a significant role in the fatigue performance of welded joint. It is well known that
tensile residual stress can be induced in welded joints due to non-uniform temperature distribution and constraint. To mitigate the
harmful tensile residual stress, weld toe grinding, ultrasonic peening, post weld heat treatment, hammering and shot blasting have
been put into practice. However, these methods are time-consuming and uneconomical. With the development of materials science and
technology, recent studies have shown that the low transformation temperature (LTT) weld metal, which takes advantage of
martensitic transformation, can be utilized to change the welding residual stress distribution and improve the fatigue strength of
welded structures to a great extent [8–11]. In addition, researchers combined other method like TIG dressing with LTT welding wire to
modify the residual stress in welded joints, and also demonstrated the fatigue strength improvement of welded joints [12]. However,
application of LTT weld metals to welding engineering is still impractical due to the poor comprehensive properties of LTT weld metals,
especially their toughness. In order to optimize the toughness, Wu et al. [13] increased the volume fraction of retained austenite of LTT
weld metal, but the martensite start (Ms) temperature decreased accordingly, thus rendering the residual stress reduction insufficient.
According to Kromm et al. [14], both the Ms and martensite finish (Mf) temperatures, namely the transition temperature range, played
a pivotal role in residual stress reduction. Interestingly, it is worthwhile to mention that to overcome the shortcomings of LTT weld
metal, Shiga, et al. [15] put forward an original welding method named elongated bead weld method, which can extend the fatigue life
of welded joints to at least 4 times without deteriorating fracture toughness.
In this study, a number of novel weld shapes with MTT design were devised for corner boxing fillet welded joint and fillet welded T-
joint. Subsequently, the stress concentration of weld beads with different shapes was computed using our in-house FEM software
JWRIAN [16,17], and then compared with one another for verification of the advantages of MTT design. Afterwards, the LTT welding
material was applied to the weld beads with MTT design in order to minimize the harmful tensile residual stress in the fillet welded
T-joint.

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Fig. 2. Schematic showing of computational design procedure of fillet weld shape with MTT design.

Table 1
Shape parameters and manufacturing methods for fillet weld using MTT.
n Angle hn Value an Value Sn Value Manufacturing method

0 45 h0 10 a0 10 S0 10 Arc Welding
1 45/21 h1 5 a1 7.07 S1 17.07
2 45/22 h2 2.5 a2 6.53 S2 23.60
3 45/23 h3 1.25 a3 6.41 S3 30.01 Metal Additive Manufacturing
4 45/24 h4 0.625 a4 6.38 S4 36.39
5 45/25 h5 0.3125 a5 6.37 S5 42.76
6 45/26 h6 0.15625 a6 6.37 S6 49.13
7 45/27 h7 0.078125 a7 6.37 S7 55.50 Plasma Spraying

2. Method of tensile triangles

The MTT proposed by Mattheck [18] was on the basis of the shape optimization of tree fork, as shown in Fig. 1. According to the
biological shape optimization, a simple graphical way of creating variable radius fillets can be seen in Fig. 2, which illustrates the
computational design procedure of geometric configuration of fillet weld shape with MTT. In practice, the spline curve can be
expressed via mathematical formula. Assuming that the distance between point 1 and line MN, and the length between point M and
point 2 are

D1,M ¼ h0 ¼ 10 mm, LM,2 ¼ a0 ¼ 10, respectively;

then the distance between point 3 and line MN, and the length between point 2 and point 4 are

D3,M ¼ h1 ¼ 10/21, L2,4 ¼ a1 ¼ 10 cos (45� /20), respectively;

then the distance between point 5 and line MN, and the length between point 4 and point 6 are

D5,M ¼ h2 ¼ 10/22, L4,6 ¼ a2 ¼ a1cos(45� /21), respectively;

⋮

then the distance between point 2nþ1 and line MN, and the length between point 2n and point 2nþ2 are

D2nþ1,M ¼ hn ¼ 10/2n, L2n,2nþ2 ¼ an ¼ an-1cos(45� /2n 1), respectively.

Finally, the total length between point M and point 2nþ2 is

Sn ¼ a0 þ a1 þ ⋯an 1 þ an (1)

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Fig. 3. Different weld shapes: (a) Conventional triangle shape; (b) MTT parabola shape; (c) MTT rectangle shape.

Fig. 4. Finite element models: (a) Schematic drawing of welded joint; (b) Without elongated weld bead; (c) Conventional triangle shape; (d) MTT
triangle shape with S4; (e) MTT rectangle shape with S4; (f) MTT rectangle shape with S5.

where n is the index of designed shape.

Table 1 shows the shape parameters derived by MTT design and manufacturing methods for construction of the fillet weld.
Theoretically speaking, there is no restriction on the total length Sn. However, due to difficulty of size control, especially the thickness
control during fabrication, different manufacturing methods are therefore recommended to make the MTT shape practical. For
example, for an original weld leg length (h0 & a0) of 10 mm, when n is not more than 2, we can produce the weld bead by arc welding. If
n is between 3 and 6, the metal additive manufacturing should be employed to fabricating the thin layers of weld bead, because the
deposited layer thickness ranges between 0.1 to a few millimetres [19]. However, when n is bigger than 6, the plasma spraying
technique can be taken into consideration in that the minimum coating thickness can be as small as 50 μm [20]. According to previous
studyby C. Shiga et al., a 40 mm long elongated weld bead was sufficient to enhance the fatigue performance of boxing fillet welded
joints [15]. Hence, there is no need to create the MTT weld bead with a shape index more than 5.

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Fig. 5. Finite element simulation results: (a) Simulated condition; (b) Without elongated weld bead; (c) Conventional triangle shape; (d) MTT
triangle shape with S4; (e) MTT rectangle shape with S4; (f) MTT rectangle shape with S5.

Fig. 6. Computed stress Sy around the measured line.

3. Application of MTT to corner boxing fillet welded joint

To verify the effect of MTT design on reduction of stress concentration, three types of elongated weld beads, namely the con­
ventional triangle, the MTT triangle and the MTT rectangle shapes, were devised for corner boxing fillet welded joints, as shown in
Fig. 3. The conventional triangle shape was the same as that one designed by C. Shiga et al. [15]. As displayed in Fig. 4, five finite
element models including the original T-fillet welded joint without overlaying weld bead were established. All welded joints existed a
gap about 0.1 mm between the welded plates. Additionally, the hexahedral elements were used in the whole welded joints. Meanwhile,
the mesh size around the elongated weld bead was 2 mm, while coarser meshes were adopted for area away from the elongated weld
bead with a maximum value of 5 mm.
In order to compute the stress concentration factor of the finite element models, an external loading of 100 MPa in Y direction was
applied to these five finite element models, and the boundary condition were shown in Fig. 5 (a). The material of welded joints was the

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Table 2
Stress concentration factor of various welded joints.
Name Fillet weld Conventional triangle shape MTT triangle shape with S4 MTT rectangle shape with S4 MTT rectangle shape with S5

SCF 1.64 1.33 1.18 1.09 1.05

Fig. 7. Relationship between stress concentration factor and Sn.

Fig. 8. Stress Sy distribution computed by elastic FEM: (a) Without elongated weld bead; (b) Conventional triangle shape; (c) MTT triangle shape
with S4; (d) MTT rectangle shape with S4; (e) MTT rectangle shape with S5; (f) Enlarged drawing.

S235 steel. Afterwards, the stress state of these welded joints was computed by finite element method, and the simulation results can be
seen in Fig. 5(b)~(f). Moreover, to evaluate the simulation results, Fig. 6 shows the computed stress Sy around the front weld bead
contour, in which the stress concentration factor (SCF) of each finite element model can be calculated by the following formula:
SCF ¼ Smax =Sav (2)

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Fig. 9. Different welded joints with various loading condition: (a) &(b) cruciform welded joints; (c) &(d) fillet welded T-joints.

Fig. 10. Schematic drawing of fillet welded T-joint with MTT design.

where Smax is the maximum stress; Sav is 100 MPa.

The SCF of these five finite element models is present in Table 2. It was without doubt that the maximum SCF up to 1.64 was found
in welded joint without elongated weld bead, suggesting that the elongated weld bead can decrease stress concentration to a certain
degree. Compared with the elongated weld bead with conventional triangle shape, all the SCF of elongated weld beads with MTT
design were not more than 1.18. What’s more, it was noteworthy that even though the S4 (36.39 mm) of elongation weld bead with
MTT design was less than the length of 40 mm of that one with conventional triangle shape, the stress concentration of the former was
still lower than that of the latter, which fully demonstrated the art of MTT design. In addition, comparison of the SCF between different
weld shapes with MTT with S4, also threw light on that elongated weld bead with MTT rectangle shape enjoyed the lower stress
concentration. With the increase of length from S4 (36.39 mm) to S5 (49.13 mm), the SCF of elongated weld bead with MTT design
decreased further with the minimum value of 1.05. Meanwhile, Fig. 7 reveals the relationship between SCF and Sn of the elongated
weld bead with various weld shapes.
Fig. 8 shows the positions of the maximum stress, Sy, of these welded joint. For welded joint without elongated weld bead, the
maximum stress was found at the corner boxing weld toe, while the maximum stress of other welded joints shifted from weld toe to the
position adjacent to weld root. According to the research work by C. Shiga et al. [15], the most vulnerable position in elongated welded
joint during fatigue test was the weld toe. Hence, addition of elongated weld bead was beneficial to reduction of stress concentration at
weld toe.

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Fig. 11. Schematic drawing of simulation models: (a) Shape without MTT design; (b) Shape with 1st MTT design; (c) Shape with 2nd MTT design.

4. Application of MTT and LTT welding material to fillet welded T-joints

4.1. Stress concentration of fillet welded T-joints

It is well known that in welding engineering, cruciform welded joint and fillet welded T-joint are the common welded joints, which
can be further divided into two types, namely the non-load-carrying and the load-carrying, as illustrated in Fig. 9. Regarding the load-
carrying welded joints, weld toe or root is usually accompanied by large stress concentration. Hence, it is necessary to make efforts to
minimize the stress concentration of these critical positions.
As aforementioned, the MTT should be an efficient and practical way to decrease the stress concentration. Accordingly, in this
study, the first and the second indices of designed MTT shapes were proposed to fabricate the elongated weld bead of the load-carrying
fillet welded T-joint. Fig. 10 displays the schematic drawing of the load-carrying fillet welded T-joint, in which an external loading of
100 MPa was applied to the top end of the gusset plate, just like the loading condition shown in Fig. 9(d). Afterwards, using the same
S235 steel, the stress concentration of simulation models presented in Fig. 11 was computed by FEM software JWRIAN.
The distribution and concentration of stress y (Sy) and stress z (Sz) computed by elastic FEM are shown in Fig. 12. It can be
concluded that there was no stress concentration in the y direction as Sy was smaller than 100 MPa. On the contrary, large stress
concentration was induced in the z direction (loading direction). Accordingly, large stress concentration located at the weld toe of fillet
welded T-joint without MTT design, while those with MTT design showed an inverse trend. Meanwhile, the higher the index of
designed MTT shape was, the lower the stress concentration became at weld toe. To quantitatively demonstrate the effect of MTT
design, the stress Sz along the red curve on weld bead, as shown in Fig. 13 (a), was measured for comparison of stress concentration
among different welded joints. As can be seen in Fig. 13(b), lower stress was generated at the bottom weld toe. However, with the
distance increasing, the stress ascended dramatically for welded joint without MTT design, and the SCF was more than 1.9. For welded
joint with 1st MTT design, stress along the red curve increased as well, but its SCF was less than 1.6. With regard to welded joint with
2nd MTT design, it was clear that the larger stress concentration shifted to the weld bead, rather than the weld toe, leading to the SCF of
weld toe lower than 1.2. Since large stress concentration can be induced at weld root, it is necessary to evaluate the stress at weld root.
As shown in Fig. 13(c) and (d), stress concentration at weld root in welded joint without MTT design was bigger than those with MTT
design, whereas there was a minor difference between welded joints with MTT design.

4.2. Residual stress in fillet welded T-joints

Although MTT design can significantly decrease the stress concentration at weld toe or root, addition of one or more weld beads to
fillet welded T-joint will definitely change the residual stress distribution in welded joint. Usually, if the additive weld bead utilizes the
conventional welding materials, the tensile residual stress will increase further due to more heat input. Fortunately, the LTT welding
materials enable the tensile residual stress to become small or even turn into compressive residual stress. Considering the merits of LTT
welding material, the elongated weld bead with MTT design can use this kind of welding material.

4.2.1. Experiment
To demonstrate the art of LTT welding material, as depicted in Fig. 14, three load-carrying fillet welded T-joints were fabricated.
The dimensions of these welded joints were the same as those showed in Fig. 10. Accordingly, using the E5015 electrode, two S235
steel plates were welded together by shielded metal arc welding to fabricate the conventional fillet welded T-joints. Afterwards, the
10Cr–10Ni LTT powder was deposited to the conventional fillet welded T-joints to fabricate the MTT weld beads by means of metal
additive manufacturing. The chemical composition and microstructure of LTT weld metal are given in Table 3. The welding and
additive manufacturing parameters and sequence are summarized in Table 4 and Fig. 15, respectively. After electrolytic polishing,
residual stress measurement in the fillet welded T-joints was conducted using X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. In order to obtain the
transient thermal expansion coefficient of LTT weld metal, the dilatometry test was conducted via Formaster test. Solid cylindrical
samples with dimension of ϕ3.0 � 10 mm was heated from room temperature up to 1350 � C at a heating rate of 10 � C/s, held for 2s,
followed by continuous cooling to ambient temperature at a cooling rate of 20 � C/s.

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Fig. 12. Distribution and concentration of Sy and Sz by elastic FEM: (a) & (d) Shape without MTT design; (b) & (e) Shape with 1st MTT design; (c) &
(f) Shape with 2nd MTT design.

4.2.2. Finite element simulation of residual stress in fillet welded T-joints

To calculate the residual stress, an uncoupled thermal elastic-plastic approach was adopted. In other words, the temperature
transients of welded joint were computed firstly and then employed as thermal loads to the elastic-plastic models. Accordingly, the
governing equation for transient heat transfer analysis can be expressed by
∂T
ρc ðx; y; z; tÞ ¼ r⋅!
q ðx; y; z; tÞ þ Qðx; y; z; tÞ (3)
∂t

where ρ is the density; c is the specific heat; T is the temperature; !

q is the heat flux vector; Q is the internal heat generation rate; x, y
and z are the coordinates; t is the time; and r is the spatial gradient operator.

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Fig. 13. Comparison of stress Sz distribution and stress concentration among different welded joints: (a) & (c) Measured line; (b) & (e) Stress
distribution along red line. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of
this article.)

Fig. 14. Three load-carrying fillet welded T-joints: (a) Shape without MTT design; (b) Shape with 1st MTT design; (c) Shape with 2nd MTT design.

Table 3
Chemical composition and microstructure of LTT weld metal (wt-%).
Name C Cr Ni Mn Si Microstructure

LTT 0.048 10.52 9.46 0.57 0.26 Martensite þ 10% Retained austenite

In addition, the conventional von Mises’ elastoplastic flow theory was taken into account in the finite element analysis, which can
be expressed as follow:

ε ¼ εe þ εp þ εth þ εtr (4)

where εe ; εp ; εth and ​ εtr are elastic strain, plastic strain, thermal strain and transformation plastic strain, respectively.

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Table 4
Welding and additive manufacturing parameters for weld beads.
Methods Weld passes Material Current (A) Voltage (V) Speed (cm/min)

Shielded metal arc welding 1 E5015 210 22 240

2 E5015 210 22 240
3 E5015 210 22 240
4 E5015 210 22 240

Methods Weld passes Material Laser power (kW) Powder feeding rate (g/min) Scanning speed (mm/s)

Metal additive manufacturing 5 LTT 3.0 16 4.0

6 LTT 3.0 16 4.0
7 LTT 3.0 16 4.0
8 LTT 3.0 16 4.0

Fig. 15. Welding and additive manufacturing sequence of weld beads: (a) Shape without MTT design; (b) Shape with 1st MTT design; (c) Shape
with 2nd MTT design.

Fig. 16. Boundary conditions for finite element analysis.

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Fig. 17. Dilatometry test of LTT weld metal: (a) Dilatometric curve; (b) Transient thermal expansion coefficient.

Fig. 18. Material properties of LTT weld metal: (a) Thermal properties; (b) Flow curves.

Three simulation models present in Fig. 11 were utilized for residual stress computation. The boundary conditions for finite
element analysis are displayed in Fig. 16. Considering the lower dilution rate for laser deposition (<5%), dilution effect was neglected
in the finite element simulation. In addition, the simulation parameters were the same as the experiment, but the welding efficiency
was assumed to be 0.75. As can be seen in Fig. 17(a), the Ac1 and Ac3 temperatures of LTT alloys were 650 � C and 685 � C, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Ms temperature was 140 � C, while the Mf temperature was below ambient temperature, producing an expansion strain
of 0.54%.
As depicted in Fig. 18 (a), the thermal properties were derived from some published papers as a reference [21–23]. In addition, the
Young’s modulus and yield strength at ambient temperature were obtained by tensile test. Due to lack of temperature-dependent yield
strength and microstructural sensitivity of LTT alloys, a modified Johnson-Cook model was proposed to predict the high temperature
tensile properties. The form of the original Johnson-Cook model can be expressed as:
� �� � �m �
ε_ T Tref
σ ¼ ðA þ Bεn Þ 1 þ C ln 1 (5)
ε_ 0 Tm Tref

where σ is the Von mises flow stress; A is the yield stress at reference strain rate and reference temperature; B is the coefficient of strain;
ε is the equivalent plastic strain; n is the strain hardening exponent; C and m are the Johnson-Cook model parameters which represent
the strengthening coefficient of strain rate and the thermal softening coefficient, respectively. ε_ is the stain rate; ε_ 0 is the reference
strain rate; T is the deformation temperature; Tm is the melting temperature; and Tref is the reference temperature.
It has been reported that the original Johnson-Cook constitutive equation is not suitable for the complex rheological behavior of
some materials because of microstructural sensitivity [24]. Due to the microstructural characteristic of LTT weld metal, the retained
austenite deformed firstly, and then the martensite ensued. Therefore, a modified Johnson-Cook model was proposed with the
following form:

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Fig. 19. Residual stress Sy and SZ of three fillet welded T-joints: (a) & (d) Shape without MTT design; (b) & (e) Shape with 1st MTT design; (c) &(f)
Shape with 2nd MTT design.

� � �m �
� T Tref
σ ¼ A þ B1 ε þ B2 ε2 þ B3 ε3 þ B4 ε4 1 (6)
Tm Tref

where B1, B2, B3 and B4 are the modified Johnson-Cook parameters; the meaning of σ , A, ε,T, Tm, Tref and m are the same as that of the
original Johnson-Cook model.
In the modified Johnson-Cook model, we did not consider the strain rate hardening term. The Tm and Tref were assumed to be 1450

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Fig. 20. Residual stress Sy and Sz distribution along red line: (a) & (d) Measured line; (b) & (e) Sy distribution; (c) & (f) Sz distribution. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

�
C and 25 � C, respectively. While m was set to be 0.8 in accordance with the AISI 420 martensitic stainless steel [25]. Based on the
experimental data at room temperature, the remaining parameters can be obtained by the four-order polynomial fitting. Finally, the
modified Johnson-Cook model can be written as:
� � �0:8 �
� T 25
σ ¼ 442 þ 40383ε 1067870ε2 þ 14103500ε3 73021300ε4 1 ​ ðε � 6:6%Þ (7)
1425

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Fig. 21. Temperature and residual stress Sy and Sz as a function of time at weld toes: (a) & (d) Selected nodes; (b) & (e) weld toe1; (c) & (f)
weld toe2.

Regarding the modified Johnson-Cook model, it should be noted that if ε was bigger than 6.6%, the corresponding σ were derived
from extension line. In addition, the martensite would transform into austenite completely when temperature exceeded Ac3 (685 � C),
for which the flow stress at temperature exceeding Ac3 was calculated by a thermodynamic software. Fig. 18(b) displays the
temperature-dependent mechanical properties of LTT weld metal. According to Y. Vincent et al. [26], if the transformation-induced
plasticity and the hardening recovery were taken into account, there was a small difference between experimental results and nu­
merical simulations, regardless of the kind of hardening assumed. Apart from this, due to the lack of experimental data for kinematic
hardening model, the isotropic hardening model was therefore applied to the residual stress computation.

4.2.3. Analysis of residual stress in fillet welded T-joint

The computed residual stress Sy and Sz of the three fillet welded T-joints can be seen in Fig. 19. It was evident that large tensile
residual stress was induced in the conventional welded joint without MTT design, especially in the y direction. After addition of LTT
weld bead, as shown in Fig. 19(b), (c), (e) & (f), compressive residual stress Sy and Sz were produced in welded joints with MTT design,

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Fig. 22. Mid-section residual stress Sy and Sz of three fillet welded T-joints: (a) & (d) Shape without MTT design; (b) & (e) Shape with 1st MTT
design; (c) &(f) Shape with 2nd MTT design.

and the residual stress distribution was similar between welded joints with MTT design.
As shown in Fig. 20, the residual stress Sy and SZ were also investigated on weld bead and at weld root along the red line. Fig. 20(b)
and (c) reveals that the conventional weld bead was accompanied by a large tensile residual stress Sy and Sz up to 446 MPa and 70

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Fig. 23. Temperature and residual stress Sz as a function of time at weld toe and root: (a) & (d) Selected nodes; (b) & (e) Sy distribution; (c) & (f) Sz
distribution.

MPa, respectively, at the upper weld toe. Conversely, with the distance increasing, the residual stress in welded joints with MTT design
decreased drastically, and it changed from tensile state to compressive one. Additionally, both weld beads enjoyed the lowest
compressive residual stress Sy and Sz lower than 1000MPa. Moreover, welded joint with 2nd MTT design had a lower compressive
residual stress Sy and Sz at the upper weld toe compared with that with 1st MTT design. According to previous studies by Miki [27] and
Mohri [28], addition of LTT weld bead to the conventional welded joint can produce a beneficial compressive residual stress of about
100 MPa at weld toe, which verified the effect of LTT weld metal on residual stress reduction in this study. With regard to residual
stress at welded root, as shown in Fig. 20(e) and (f), the residual stress at weld root arose with the increase of MTT design order. The
reason for this phenomenon was due to stress and bending moment equilibrium.
It has been investigated by Yamamoto [29] that the finished LTT weld bead would undergo a reheat when other LTT weld beads
were being fabricated, resulting in compressive residual stress reduction. In order to assess the effect of reheat on residual stress,
Fig. 21 presents the thermal cycle and the change of Sy and Sz of two specified nodes at the mid-section LTT weld toes. It can be seen
from Fig. 21(b) that in welded joint with 1st MTT design, when the LTT weld bead was subject to reheat from time 80s–100s, the

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Fig. 24. Computed and measured residual stress Sz of three fillet welded T-joints: (a) Computed residual stress; (b) Shape without MTT design; (c)
Shape with 1st MTT design; (d) Shape with 2nd MTT design.

residual stress at the weld toe1 increased gradually. However, when the temperature was below the Ms temperature (140 � C), the
residual stress decreased again.
Additionally, lower compressive residual stress Sz was generated in comparison with Sy. Moreover, there was no distinct difference
of residual stress between weld toe1 and weld toe2 in the welded joint with 1st MTT design, as illustrated in Fig. 21(b) and (c). For
welded joint with 2nd MTT design, as depicted in Fig. 21(e), the LTT weld bead went through two reheat processes, and the change of
the residual stress followed the same trend as aforementioned. Apart from that, it can be observed that the Sy and Sz distribution of
welded joint with 2nd MTT design were similar to those with 1st MTT design, but the values were lower than the latter. Likewise, as
shown in Fig. 21(e) and (f), there was a minor difference of residual stress between weld toe1 and weld toe2 in the welded joint with
2nd MTT design. Accordingly, Ramjaun [30] had shed light on the mechanism of the effect of reheat that interpass temperature would
affect the residual stress development of welded joint. When interpass temperature was higher than the Ms temperature, the whole
multipass weld zone would transform as a single entity from austenite to martensite, thus leading to an optimum compressive residual
stress in welded joint. Otherwise, the previous accumulation of thermal-induced strain wound play a pivotal role in elevating residual
stress. Hence, selection of the interpass temperature for LTT weld metal should take into account the Ms temperature.
The mid-section residual stress Sy and Sz distribution of three simulation models are displayed in Fig. 22. For welded joint without
MTT design, large tensile stress occurred in the conventional weld beads, as shown in Fig. 22 (a) & (d). After addition of LTT weld
beads, as depicted in Fig. 22 (b) & (e), the residual stress of the conventional weld beads became small, but the residual stress of the
gusset plate adjacent to the LTT weld beads arose in order to balance the compressive residual stress produced by LTT weld bead.
Furthermore, with more LTT weld beads deposited on the welded joint, it was evident in Fig. 22 (c) & (f) that the residual stress of those
regions close to the LTT weld metal increased further, thus elevating the residual stress at weld root to a certain degree. In addition, the
asymmetrical residual stress distribution can be attributed to the welding sequence of weld beads. To illustrate the residual stress
development in welded joint, Fig. 23 shows the thermal cycle and the change of residual stress of two specified nodes at the LTT weld
toe and weld root. As shown in Fig. 23(b) and (c), when temperature dropped below the Ms temperature (140 � C) at 100s in the welded
joint with 1st MTT design, the martensitic transformation led to residual stress Sy and Sz reduction at weld toe. Nevertheless, due to
stress and bending moment equilibrium, the corresponding residual stress Sy and Sz at weld root increased gradually until cooling to
ambient temperature. Similarly, for welded joint with 2nd MTT design, when temperature was below the Ms temperature (140 � C) at
225s, the change of the residual stress Sy and Sz at weld toe and weld root followed the same trend as above mentioned. As

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aforementioned, lower compressive residual stress Sy and Sz were produced in welded joint with 2nd MTT design, thus resulting in
relatively high residual stress Sy and Sz at weld root. Despite the increase of residual stress at weld root, previous studies [15,31–33]
have pointed out that the LTT weld metals can significantly enhance the fatigue strength of welded joints, even though the failure
fracture location shifts from weld toe to weld root. Therefore, application of LTT welding materials with MTT design for fabrication of
welded joint is practical and acceptable.
To verify the computed residual stress, it is necessary to measure the residual stress in welded joint. Due to the shape of fillet welded
T-joint, measurement of residual stress Sy adjacent to weld toe was rather difficult by means of XRD technique. Therefore, the
comparison of residual stress Sz between finite element results and experiment is conducted and displayed in Fig. 24. The computed
residual stress Sz along the red line is shown in Fig. 24 (a). In addition, the computed and the measured residual stress Sz of three fillet
welded T-joints are plotted in Fig.24 (b)~(d), respectively. It can be clearly seen in Fig. 24 (b) that the tensile Sz was induced at the
weld toe without MTT design. In welded joints with MTT design, as shown in 24 (c) & (d), a compressive Sz was produced around weld
toe, and then converted into tensile one with the distance increasing. Moreover, as can be seen in Fig. 24 (b)~(d), the computed
residual stress was in good agreement with the measured residual stress around weld toe. The compressive residual stress Sz measured
away from weld toe, as shown in Fig. 24 (b), was the initial stress which may be produced by rolling process of steel plate [34–36].
Based on the residual stress distribution in welded joint, there was no doubt that LTT weld metal can significantly produce a
compressive residual stress around weld toe.

5. Conclusions

In order to reduce the stress concentration and tensile residual stress in welded joints, the MTT and the LTT welding material were
applied to fabrication of welded joints. Accordingly, comparison of stress concentration between different weld shapes in corner
boxing fillet welded joint and fillet welded T-joint was made. In addition, effect of LTT welding material on residual stress distribution
in fillet welded T-joints was investigated. Based on the aforementioned analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1) A design method of tensile triangles (MTT) based on the shape optimization of natural tree fork can be easily expressed using
mathematical formula, and put into practice.
2) Application of MTT design to corner boxing fillet welded joint can significantly reduce the stress concentration at the elongated
bead toe, especially for the MTT rectangle shape.
3) Application of MTT design to fillet welded T-joint can dramatically decrease both the stress concentration at weld toe and weld
root.
4) The LTT welding materials produced lower compressive residual stress in the fillet welded T-joins, especially at the weld toe.

Declaration of competing interest

None.

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