UNIVERSITY OF SAINT LOUIS

Tuguegarao City

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE

AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
Second Semester
A.Y. 2021-2022

CORRESPONDENCE LEARNING MODULE

CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design

Prepared by:

ENGR. ROLANDO A. BITAGUN JR., ME-CE

Reviewed by:

ENGR. WILLIAM M. VEGA, ME-CE

Program Chair/Department Head

Recommended by:

ENGR. VICTOR C. VILLALUZ, ME-EE

Academic Dean

Approved by:

EMMANUEL JAMES PATTAGUAN, Ph.D.

Vice President for Academics

CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design| 1

 CORRESPONDENCE LEARNING MODULE
CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design
AY 2021-2022

Lesson 6

Topic: Weld Connected Structural Steel Members.

Welded connections

Types of welds

Allowable strength of welds

Allowable strength of welded connections

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this module, you are expected to:

 Design weld connection to steel member.

 Draw weld symbol based on plans.
 Investigate the strength of welded connections concentrically or non-
eccentrically loaded.
 Apply the concept of different stresses to weld.

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Welded Connections

Welding is the process of joining materials (usually metals) by heating them to suitable temperatures
such that the materials coalesce into one material. There may or may not be pressure, and there may
or may not be filler material applied. Arc welding is the general term for the many processes that use
electrical energy in the form of an electric arc to generate heat necessary for welding.

The weldability of a steel is a measure of the ease of producing a crack-free and sound structural
joint. Some of the readily available structural steels are more suited to welding than others. Welding
procedures should be based on a steel’s chemistry instead of the published maximum alloy content,
since most mill runs are usually below the maximum alloy limits set by its specifications

Types of Welding:

1. Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) – one of the oldest, simplest and perhaps most versatile
type for welding structural steel. It is the least expensive arc welding process. It is often referred to as
the manual stick electrode process. Heating is accomplished by means of an electric arc between a
coated electrode and the materials being joined.

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2. Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) – a common arc welding process that involves the formation of
an arc between a continuously fed electrode and the workpiece. A blanket of powdered flux generates
a protective gas shield and a slag (and may also be used to add alloying elements to the weld pool)
which protects the weld zone.

3. Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) – an arc welding process in which the source of heat is an arc
formed between consumable metal electrode and the work piece with an externally supplied gaseous
shield of gas either inert such as argon and /or helium. The process can be semi-automatic or
automatic. A constant voltage, direct current power source is most commonly used with GMAW, but
constant current systems, as well as alternating current, can be used.

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4. Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) – a semi-automatic or automatic arc welding process. FCAW
requires a continuously-fed consumable tubular electrode containing a flux and a constant-voltage or,
less commonly, a constant-current welding power supply. An externally supplied shielding gas is
sometimes used, but often the flux itself is relied upon to generate the necessary protection from the
atmosphere, producing both gaseous protection and liquid slag protecting the weld. The process is
widely used in construction because of its high welding speed and portability.

5. Electrogas Welding (EGW) – a continuous vertical position arc welding process developed in
1961, in which an arc is struck between a consumable electrode and the workpiece. A shielding gas is
sometimes used, but pressure is not applied. In EGW, the heat of the welding arc causes the
electrode and workpieces to melt and flow into the cavity between the parts being welded. This
molten metal solidifies from the bottom up, joining the parts being welded together. The weld area is
protected from atmospheric contamination by a separate shielding gas, or by the gas produced by the
disintegration of a flux-cored electrode wire.

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6. Electroslag Welding (ESW) – a highly productive, single pass welding process for thick (greater
than 25 mm up to about 300 mm) materials in a vertical or close to vertical position. (ESW) is similar
to electrogas welding, but the main difference is the arc starts in a different location. An electric arc is
initially struck by wire that is fed into the desired weld location and then flux is added. Additional flux is
added until the molten slag, reaching the tip of the electrode, extinguishes the arc. The wire is then
continuously fed through a consumable guide tube (can oscillate if desired) into the surfaces of the
metal workpieces and the filler metal are then melted using the electrical resistance of the molten slag
to cause coalescence.

Types of Joints

1. Butt Joint – used mainly to join the ends of flat plates of the same or nearly the same thicknesses.
The principal advantage of this type of joint is to eliminate the eccentricity developed in single lap
joints. When used in conjunction with full penetration groove welds, butt joints minimize the size of a
connection and are usually more aesthetically pleasing than built-up joints.

2. Lap Joint – is the most common type and has two principal advantages. Ease of fitting, pieces
being joined do not require the preciseness in fabricating as do the other types of joints. Pieces can
be slightly shifted to accommodate minor errors in fabrication or to make adjustments in length. Ease
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of joining, the edges of the pieces being joined do not need special preparation and are usually,
sheared or flame cut. Lap joints utilize fillet welds and are therefore equally well suited to shop or field
welding.

3. Tee Joint – is used to fabricate built-up sections such as tees, I-shape, plate girders, bearing
stiffeners, hangers, brackets, etc. It permits sections to be built-up of flat plates that can be joined by
either fillet or groove weld.

4. Corner Joint – are used principally to form built-up rectangular box sections such as used for
columns and for beams required to resist high torsional forces.

5. Edge Joint – are generally not structural but are most frequently used to keep two or more plates
in a given plane or to maintain initial alignment.

Types of Welds

1. Groove Weld – a weld used to connect structural members that are aligned in the same plane.

2. Fillet Welds – a weld most widely used due to ease of fabrication, adaptability and overall
economy. They require less precision in the fitting up because of the overlapping of pieces, whereas
other weld types requires careful alignment with specific gap or what you call as root opening.

3. Slot Weld and Plug Weld – a weld used to transmit shear in a lap joint when the size of the
connection limits the length available for fillet and other edge welds. Slot and plug welds are also
useful in preventing overlapping parts from buckling.

CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design| 7

CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design| 8
Concentric Weld

The force acting on the steel member is acting along the center of weld

Stresses in Welded Connection

1. Stress in Tension

Yielding in Gross

Fracture in Net

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2. Shear in Weld

3. Block Shear Failure

1. Shear Yielding – Tension Rupture (0.6FyAgv < 0.6FuAnv)

𝑇𝑛 = 0.6𝐹𝑦 𝐴𝑔𝑣 + 𝐹𝑢 𝑈𝑏𝑠 𝐴𝑛𝑡

2. Shear Fracture – Tension Rupture (0.6FyAgv ≥ 0.6FuAnv)

𝑇𝑛 = 0.6𝐹𝑢 𝐴𝑛𝑣 + 𝐹𝑢 𝑈𝑏𝑠 𝐴𝑛𝑡

Where:

𝐴𝑔𝑣 − 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟

𝐴𝑛𝑣 − 𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟
𝐴𝑛𝑡 − 𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑈𝑏𝑠 − 𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝑈𝑏𝑠 = 1; 𝑇𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚
𝑈𝑏𝑠 = 0.5; 𝑇𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚

Note: Block Shear Failure in weld is always on the plate where the tension member is connected. The
failure always follows the path of weld.

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Eccentric Weld

The force acting on the steel member is not directly acting along the center of gravity of the weld. It is
located at a distance from the center of gravity called eccentricity “e”. One point along the weld will be
the critical point where the failure might occur.

Stresses in shear:

a. Stress on weld due to load alone

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 b. Stress on weld due to moment alone

c. Combined load and moment stress

Compare the direction both on the forces on every point along the weld due to load alone and
on moment alone, if they are of the same direction, then their x and y components should add, if they
are of different direction, the components should be subtracted.

Locate the most critical point along the weld which carries the largest force. You can locate it
by solving each bolt’s combined load and moment force or the bolt which will add both its load alone
and moment alone forces.

CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design| 12

Examples:

1. The weld connection having the size of weld equal to the steel plate thickness, uses E-60
electrode. The gusset plate and the steel plate connected to it has 8mm thickness, both having fy =
275 MPa and Fu = 400 MPa. Find P in tension, shear on weld and block shear. Use reduction
coefficient for net = 85% and allowable shear stress of 0.3Fu.

Tension:

Yielding in Gross
𝑃 = 𝑓𝑦 𝐴𝑔
𝑃 = 275𝑀𝑃𝑎(120𝑚𝑚)(8𝑚𝑚)
𝑃 = 264𝑘𝑁

Fracture in Net
𝑃 = 𝐹𝑢 𝐴𝑒
𝑃 = 400𝑀𝑃𝑎(0.85)(120𝑚𝑚)(8𝑚𝑚)
𝑃 = 326.4𝑘𝑁

Shear on weld:

E-60 electrode has a shear strength of 60ksi (60 kips per square inch)

𝑃 6.9𝑀𝑃𝑎 𝑃
𝑓𝑣 = ; (0.3)(60𝑘𝑠𝑖) =
𝐴 1𝑘𝑠𝑖 (0.707)(8𝑚𝑚)(90𝑚𝑚 + 120𝑚𝑚 + 90𝑚𝑚)

𝑃 = 210.74 𝑘𝑁

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Block Shear:

Check if shear yields or fractures, tension always fractures.

𝑁
0.6 (275 ) [(2)(90𝑚𝑚)(8𝑚𝑚)] = 237600 𝑁
𝑚𝑚2

𝑁
0.6 (400 ) [(2)(90𝑚𝑚)(8𝑚𝑚)] = 345600 𝑁
𝑚𝑚2

0.6𝐹𝑦 𝐴𝑔𝑣 < 0.6𝐹𝑢 𝐴𝑛𝑣

Shear Yielding – Tension Rupture (0.6FyAgv < 0.6FuAnv)

𝑃 = 0.6𝐹𝑦 𝐴𝑔𝑣 + 𝐹𝑢 𝑈𝑏𝑠 𝐴𝑛𝑡

𝑁
𝑃 = 237600 𝑁 + (400 ) (1.0)(120𝑚𝑚)(8𝑚𝑚)
𝑚𝑚2

𝑃 = 612.6𝑘𝑁

2. A 9mm steel plate is welded as shown. If the weld thickness is the same as the thickness of the
steel plate, solve for:

a. Shear stress due to Load Alone

b. Most critical point
c. Shear stress due to Moment
d. Maximum Shear Stress

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Shear stress due to load alone:

5
83𝑘𝑁 ( )
√34 = 296.55𝑁/𝑚𝑚
𝑃𝐿𝑋 =
240𝑚𝑚
3
83𝑘𝑁 ( )
√34
𝑃𝐿𝑌 = = 177.93𝑁/𝑚𝑚
240𝑚𝑚
83𝑘𝑁
𝑃𝐿 = = 345.83𝑁/𝑚𝑚 𝑜𝑟 𝑃𝐿 = √(296.55𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2 + (177.93𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2
240𝑚𝑚

345.83𝑁/𝑚𝑚
𝑓𝐿 = = 54.35𝑀𝑃𝑎
0.707(9𝑚𝑚)

Shear stress due to moment alone:

3 120𝑚𝑚 5 100𝑚𝑚
𝑀𝑐.𝑔 = 83𝑘𝑁 ( ) (95𝑚𝑚 + ) − 83𝑘𝑁 ( )( ) = 3,060,32.25 𝑁. 𝑚𝑚
√34 2 √34 2

𝐿2 2 2
(120𝑚𝑚)2
𝐽𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑑 = ∑ 𝐿 ∗ ( + 𝑥 + 𝑦 ) = 2 ∗ (120𝑚𝑚 ( + 02 + 50𝑚𝑚2 )) = 888,000 𝑚𝑚³
12 12

3,060,32.25 𝑁. 𝑚𝑚(50𝑚𝑚)
𝑃𝑀𝑋 = = 172.32 𝑁/𝑚𝑚
888,000 𝑚𝑚³

3,060,32.25 𝑁. 𝑚𝑚(60𝑚𝑚)
𝑃𝑀𝑌 = = 206.78 𝑁/𝑚𝑚
888,000𝑚𝑚²

The value of Pmx and Pmy is only for the point provided, all the other points have different value of x
and y distance from c.g.

𝑃𝑀 = √(172.32 𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2 + (206.78 𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2 = 269.17𝑁/𝑚𝑚

269.17𝑁/𝑚𝑚
𝑓𝑀 = = 42.3𝑀𝑃𝑎
(0.707)(9𝑚𝑚)

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Combined load and moment:

With the figure, we can clearly see that the directions for each Pm is different for each corner point.
Load alone forces are parallel with each other and are only pointing on a single direction, against the
force acting on the plate. To get the maximum shear capacity of weld, they are to be added together
(load alone and moment alone), take note that if they are of different direction, they will subtract
instead.

A single point within the weld carries the largest load which will be known as the most critical point. In
this case, the bottom-right corner would have the highest load since both the forces of load alone and
moment alone are of the same direction which will lead to addition of components. Since it carries the
largest stress, it is the critical point.

𝑃𝐿+𝑀 = √(296.55𝑁/𝑚𝑚 + 172.32𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2 + (177.93𝑁/𝑚𝑚 + 206.78𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2

𝑃𝐿+𝑀 = 606.5𝑁/𝑚𝑚

606.5𝑁/𝑚𝑚
𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 = = 95.32𝑀𝑃𝑎
(0.707)(9𝑚𝑚)

CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design| 16

3. For the given figure shown, the fillet welds used has a size of 8mm which is the same as the
thickness of the plate. Determine the maximum shear stress.

For the centroid of the weld, we will get the

moments of each linear weld from a
reference line, let the leftmost vertical weld
be the moment reference. Neutral Axis:
Length x Centroid

400𝑥̅ = 100𝑚𝑚 (0) + (2)(150𝑚𝑚)(75𝑚𝑚)

𝑥̅ = 56.25𝑚𝑚

𝑦̅ = 50𝑚𝑚

Load alone:

1 2
200𝑁 ( ) 200𝑁 ( )
√5 √5
𝑃𝐿𝑋 = = 0.224𝑁/𝑚𝑚 ; 𝑃𝐿𝑌 = = 0.447𝑁/𝑚𝑚
400𝑚𝑚 400𝑚𝑚

Moment alone:

2 1
𝑀𝑐.𝑔 = 200𝑁 ( ) (230𝑚𝑚 − 56.25𝑚𝑚) − 200𝑁 ( ) (50𝑚𝑚) = 26,609.21 𝑁. 𝑚𝑚
√5 √5

(150𝑚𝑚)2
𝐽𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑑 = 2 ∗ (150𝑚𝑚 ( + (75𝑚𝑚 − 56.25𝑚𝑚)2 + 50𝑚𝑚2 ))
12
(100𝑚𝑚)2
+ 100𝑚𝑚 ( + (56.25𝑚𝑚)2 + 02 )
12

𝐿2
∑ 𝐿 ∗ ( + 𝑥 2 + 𝑦 2 ) = 1,817,708.33 𝑚𝑚³
12

By checking each bolt, the single bolt nearest from the load is the critical.

26,609.21𝑁. 𝑚𝑚 (50𝑚𝑚)
𝑃𝑀𝑋 = = 0.732 𝑁/𝑚𝑚
1,817,708.33𝑚𝑚³

26,609.21𝑁. 𝑚𝑚 (150𝑚𝑚 − 56.25𝑚𝑚)

𝑃𝑀𝑌 = = 1.37 𝑁/𝑚𝑚
1,817,708.33𝑚𝑚³
Combined load and moment:

𝑃𝐿+𝑀 = √(0.224𝑁/𝑚𝑚 + 0.732𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2 + (0.447𝑁/𝑚𝑚 + 1.37𝑁/𝑚𝑚)2

CVIL 1114 – Principles of Steel Design| 17
 𝑃𝐿+𝑀 = 2.05𝑁/𝑚𝑚

2.05𝑁/𝑚𝑚
𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 = = 0.362𝑀𝑃𝑎
0.707(8𝑚𝑚)

REFERENCES

Textbooks

L. Spiegel, G. Limbrunner. Applied Structural Steel Design, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

J. McCormac, S. Csernak. Structural Steel Design. England: Pearson Education Limited, c2012.

Online Reference

Welded Connection Introduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgu1ZripS5U Last Retrieved: March 13, 2021

Eccentrically Loaded Weld Connection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wepiNFym5s Last retrieved: March 13, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmP8S6UiyMc Last retrieved: March 13, 2021

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