To verify and dimension the steel connection, the welds verifications must be performed. The weld verification will be detailed for a "Moment End Plate" connection similar to the one in the figure. This joint connects an HEA 400 section column and an HEA 220 section beam. The connection is subjected to three efforts: a 20kN axial force, a 10kN share force and a 30kNm bending moment. A plate is welded on the beam end and this plate is connected to the column by four bolts. This example will treat the welds between the end plate and the beam.
The weld between the plate and the beam consists of three parts: "End plate at web", "End plate - flange top" and "End plate - Flange bottom". For each of these parts the user can define a weld thickness. If the "All around for end plate" option is selected the weld will be considered continuous on the beam section perimeter and it will have a single thickness, equal to the one entered for "End plate at web".
This example uses an "All around for end plate" weld, with a 6mm thickness:
The section dimensions and the real weld shape are presented in the following pictures:
Because in most cases the structural design engineer is not able to control all the welding process, and cannot be sure that the welds have the same thickness over the entire length, in order to ensure safer calculations, only the straight part of the weld will be considered in the calculations. The effective lengths of each of these weld beads is considered to be the straight portion of the weld, from which will be excluded, from each end, a portion equal to the weld thickness.
The weld verification is divided into two parts: verifications between beam flange and end plate and verifications between beam web and end plate. The weld verification contains length conditions, thickness conditions and resistance verifications.
The weld between the beam flange and the end plate is composed from three weld beads.
The weld minimum length and thickness conditions are imposed for the weld bead with the smallest effective length (in this case 76.5mm).
The resistance verifications for the weld between the beam flange and the end plate are made considering a single weld bead having the length equal to the sum of all three weld beads composing it (in this case 208mm+76.5mm+76.5mm=361mm).
The weld between the beam web and the end plate is composed from two identical weld beads, on both sides of the beam web. The effective length of the web bead is equal to the straight part of the beam web from which will be excluded a part equal to the weld thickness from each end.
In this case the minimum weld thickness and length conditions are imposed for one of the two weld beads (in this case 140mm).
The resistance verification for this element is made considering two equal length welds.