• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.204-204
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• 2000

There are many weld defects such as surface crack, lack of fusion, and incomplete penetration(IP) in the butt joint weld of the existing steel bridges. The crack-like defects may significantly reduce the life of the structure. This paper presents the procedure and the results of the fatigue life assessment of the butt joints with weld defects in the existing steel girder bridge. The butt joint welds with incomplete penetration were instrumented with strain gages to determine the stress histogram under normal traffic. Based on the measured stress histogram the crack propagation analysis were performed for the fatigue life assessment. By using the suggested procedure and methodology, one can decide the time of periodic inspection and the necessity of repair of the butt joint welds with serious weld defects in the existing steel bridge. (Received October 1, 1999)

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2000

There are many weld defects such as surface crack, lack of fusion, and incomplete penetration (IP) in the butt joint weld of existing steel bridges. The crack-like defects may significantly reduce the fatigue life of the structure. This paper presents the procedure and the results of the fatigue life assessment of the butt joints with weld defects in the existing steel girder bridge. The butt joint welds with incomplete penetration were instrumented with strain gages to determine the stress histogram under normal traffic. Based on the measured stress histogram the crack propagation analysis were performed for the fatigue life assessment. By using the suggested procedure and methodology, one can decide the time of periodic inspection and the necessity of repair of the butt joint welds with serious weld defects in the existing steel bridge.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.101-107
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• 2003

Since stainless steel sheets have good mechanical properties, weldability, appearance and corrosion resistance, they are commonly used as one of the structural materials of the railroad cars or the commercial vehicles which are manufactured by the spat welding. Among the many kinds of spot welded lap joints, it can be found that multi-lap joints are employed in their body structure. But, fatigue strength of these joints is lower than that of base metal due to high stress concentration at the nugget edge of spot weld and is considerably influenced by welding conditions as well as the mechanical and geometrical factors. Thus, it is necessary to establish a reasonable and systematic design criterion for the long life design of the spot-welded body structures. In this paper, the stress distribution and deformation around the spot-welded multi-lap joints subjected to tensile shear load was numerically analyzed. Also, the $\Delta$P-Nf curve was obtained by fatigue tests. Using these results, $\Delta$P-Nf curves were rearranged in to the ${\Delta}{\sigma}$-Nf relation with the maximum stress at nugget edge of spot weld.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.51-69
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• 2016

A large number of welded steel moment-resisting framed (SMRF) structures failed due to brittle fracture induced by ductile fracture at beam-to-column connections during 1994 Northridge earthquake and 1995 Kobe (Hyogoken-Nanbu) earthquake. Extensive research efforts have been devoted to clarifying the mechanism of the observed failures and corresponding countermeasures to ensure more ductile design of welded SMRF structures, while limited research on the failure analysis of the ductile cracking was conducted due to lack of computational capacity and proper theoretical models. As the first step to solve this complicated problem, this paper aims to establish a straightforward procedure to simulate ductile cracking of welded joints under monotonic tension. There are two difficulties in achieving the aim of this study, including measurement of true stress-true strain data and ductile fracture parameters of different subzones in a welded joint, such as weld deposit, heat affected zone and the boundary between the two. Butt joints are employed in this study for their simple configuration. Both experimental and numerical studies on two types of butt joints are conducted. The validity of the proposed procedure is proved by comparison between the experimental and numerical results.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.68-75
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• 2005

The fatigue life of welded joints is associated with crack initiation and propagation life. Theses cannot be easily separated, since the definition of crack initiation is vague due to the initiation of multiple cracks that are distributed randomly along the weld toes. In this paper a method involving a notch strain and fracture mechanical approach, which considers the characteristics of welded joints, e.g. welding residual stress and statistical characteristics of multiple cracks, is proposed, in an attempt to reasonably estimate these fatigue lives. The fatigue crack initiation life was evaluated statistically, e.g. the probability of failure occurrence in 2.3, 50 and $97.7\%$, in which the cyclic response of the local stress/strain hi the vicinity of the weld toes and notch factors derived by the irregular shape of the weld bead are taken into account. The fatigue crack propagation life was simulated by using Monte-Carlo method in consideration of the Ad-factor and the mechanical behavior of mutual interaction/coalescence between two adjacent cracks. The estimated total fatigue life, $(N_T)_{P50\%}$, as a sum of crack initiation and propagation life under the probability of failure occurrence in $50\%$ showed a good agreement with the experimental results. The developed technique for fatigue lift estimation enables to provide a quantitative proportion of crack initiation and propagation life in the total fatigue life due to the nominal stress range, ${\Delta}S$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.14 no.5 s.60
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• pp.647-656
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• 2002

High-strength steel in steel bridges is the key to achieving cost-efficiency because it facilitates lightweight construction and rationalizes structure. The future of high-strength steel is bright, with its use projected to expand. As such, it is necessary to evaluate precisely various factors affecting the process of fabricating high-strength steel, i.e., welding heat, strain hardening, and weldability and performance of the welded joints. This study therefore performed the maximum hardness test and y-groove weld crack test using welding processes such as SAW, FCAW, and GMAW, in order to investigate the welding performance and characteristics of welded Joints or high-strength steel produced in Korea such as SM570, POSTEN60, and POSTEN80. In addition, a series of welding tests was carried out to estimate the tensile strength, bending characteristics, absorbed energy, and hardness in welded joints.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.1191-1198
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• 2015

In this paper, we develop simplified finite element (FE) models for butt-, lap- and T-welded joints by performing numerical and experimental experiments. Three-point bending tests of butt- and lap-welded specimens are performed to obtain the stiffness of the specimens and the strains at points near the welding beads. Similarly the stiffness and strains of T-welded specimen are measured by applying a point load at the end of the specimen. To develop simplified FE models, we consider the shape parameters of width, thickness and the angle of weld elements in the numerical simulations. The shape parameters of the simplified FE models are determined by building linear regression models for the experimental data sets.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.445-461
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• 2019

The ultrasonic guided wave-based technique has become one of the most promising methods in non-destructive evaluation and structural health monitoring, because of its advantages of large area inspection, evaluating inaccessible areas on the structure and high sensitivity to small damage. To further advance the development of damage detection technologies using ultrasonic guided waves for the inspection of welded components in structures, the transmission characteristics of the ultrasonic guided waves propagating through welded joints with various types of defects or damage in steel plates are studied and presented in this paper. A three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model considering the different material properties of the mild steel, high strength steel and austenitic stainless steel plates and their corresponding welded joints as well as the interaction condition of the steel plate and welded joint, is developed. The FE model is validated against analytical solutions and experimental results reported in the literature and is demonstrated to be capable of providing a reliable prediction on the features of ultrasonic guided wave propagating through steel plates with welded joints and interacting with defects. Mode conversion and scattering analysis of guided waves transmitted through the different types of weld defects in steel plates are performed by using the validated FE model. Parametric studies are undertaken to elucidate the effects of several basic parameters for various types of weld defects on the transmission performance of guided waves. The findings of this research can provide a better understanding of the transmission behaviour of ultrasonic guided waves propagating through welded joints with defects. The method could be used for improving the performance of guided wave damage detection methods.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1213-1219
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• 2012

A remote $CO_2$ laser system can rapidly change both the distance and the direction of the laser beam by moving a lens and rotating mirrors. It is then easy to weld complex patterns of weld lines. A conventional spot weld joint specimen and a remote $CO_2$ laser weld joint specimen with complex weld line patterns were prepared and tested both statically and dynamically. The relationships between the fatigue strength, i. e. the maximum cyclic force, and the fatigue life were obtained. The fatigue strength of the tested welded joints at two million cycles was found to be approximately 10% of the static strength. Furthermore, it was observed that the fatigue fracture mode changed with the level of the applied cyclic force. The fatigue crack origins were confirmed as the highest stress points found in the structural analysis. The maximum cyclic stress for different weld patterns converges as the fatigue life approaches two million cycles.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.570-576
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• 2018

In reinforced concrete structures, the joints of ordinary rebars are usually lap joints, which are bound by binding wires with rebars, and mechanical joints by couplers. In domestic design standards (concrete design code), welded lap joints are restricted for ordinary rebars, but overseas standards allow welded lap joints of ordinary rebars through pre-heating. This study investigated the domestic and international standards/criteria and evaluated the fracture strength by performing the tensile test on the lap welded joint of SD400 grade rebars, which is used the most in the construction sites. The weld length of the specimen for weld lap joints is based on the minimum weld length (8d) given in the KS standard (KS B ISO 17660-1). According to AWS D1.4, the preheating temperature was set to $150^{\circ}C$ for D19 and below, and $260^{\circ}C$ for D22 and above. In the test results, the tensile strength of rebars with welded lap joints exceeded the required strength (125% of the yield strength) according to the concrete design code. To analyze the effect of preheating, the tensile strength of the welded rebars after preheating was not significantly different from that of the welded rebars without preheating. The carbon equivalent content (Ceq) of the rebars used in the test was 0.45% or less. Under AWS D1.4, no preheating is required if the carbon equivalent is less than 0.45%. All specimens with a welded lap length of 8d failed by a bar fracture. The effect of preheating was confirmed to be insignificant due to the low carbon equivalent of the rebar.