Rational Design of Fillet Weld Groups

Rational methods of analysis and design of fillet weld groups are presented. Concise statements of current elastic limiting stress procedures are used to provide information in the form of design charts. Experimental and theoretical studies of ultimate load behavior are described, and empirical constitutive laws are used to generate ultimate load charts predicting the static strength of a wide range of fillet welds carrying in-plane moment and shear. There appears to be excellent supportive evidence for the accuracy of the ultimate load model, and there would appear to be the basic of a more rational approach to fillet weld design. The insensitivity of the model to details of the coupon-modeling behavior is important and suggests the possibilty of fairly easy extension into areas where significantly larger leg lengths are required.