SEDL / STP / STP1296-EB / STP16235S

Ductile Tearing of Welded Structural Details

Gentilcore, ML
Research assistant, Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Dexter, RJ
Senior research engineer, Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Pages: 15    Published: Jan 1997

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Abstract

Experiments were conducted at room temperature on 16 full-scale welded structural members containing fatigue cracks. These I-section and box-section members were fabricated from HSLA-80 steel that exhibits upper-shelf behavior at room temperature. These members consistently reached at least the net-section collapse load and deformed to several times the yield-point displacement. The experiments were analyzed with a variety of ductilefracture models including the three levels in the British Standards Institute document PD 6493, a stable tearing analysis using finite-element analysis to calculate J, and a limit-load analysis. These models were studied in order to evaluate their usefulness and degree of conservatism relative to experimental results.