Effect of welding on the tensile behavior of high strength steel T-stub joints - Part 1: Experimental and analytical study

Abstract

In this study, experiments were conducted to study the tensile behavior of 10 T-stub joints made of emerging structural steel including reheated, high strength steel S690, normal strength steel S440 and S385. The results are further validated against the developed yield line approach and the design load carrying capacity equations provided by EC3. It is found that the behavior of the T-stub joints made of S385 and S440 agree well with the analytical approach and the load carrying capacities can be conservatively predicted by EC3. However, although the S690 shows superior load carrying capacities than the S440 and S385, the results are obviously lower than the anticipation of the analytical approach and the prediction by EC3. In addition, the ductility of the S690 specimens is much worse than that of the S440 and S385 specimens, which may result in more brittle failure modes.