Internal stresses at the saddles of YT tubular joints with three different weld fillet shapes

Abstract

Abstract

The frozen-stress, photoelastic method was used to determine the elastic stresses along 16 lines through the chord at the saddles of YT tubular joints. Four 45–90 degree joints were simply supported at the ends of the chord and tension was applied to one brace only. The blend fillet at the intersection of the brace wall and chord wall outer surfaces was modelled as an idealised chamfer, a sharp corner, and a blended circular arc.

In the chord wall near the fillet, stress distributions show predominant chord wall bending with significant tension in the direction of the chord axis. The greatest stresses occur at the weld toe where the notch effect extends to one third of the chord wall thickness. There is no stress concentration at the internal brace/chord fillet. Surface stresses are presented as mean and bending values.