Weld Strength Documentation V 1707
Weld Strength Documentation V 1707
DOCUMENTATION
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Weld Strength - Documentation – v.170.7 -07-Feb-17
Table of Contents
Weld Strength toolbar .......................................................................................................................... 3
Weld Strength Help ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Weld Strength ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Background.......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Solution ............................................................................................................................................................... 3
News in version V170.7 ....................................................................................................................................... 3
ANSYS R18 Migration notes ................................................................................................................................ 3
Weld Strength Usage ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Weld analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 7
Results ............................................................................................................................................................. 9
Custom weld Codes ........................................................................................................................................... 15
Using external post processing ......................................................................................................................... 18
References ........................................................................................................................................ 20
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Technical Enhancements and Customer Support, TECS, is not included in the license. However, the user may
use this link to report any bugs or enhancement requests ansys@edrmedeso.com and make sure to include
“Weld Strength” in the subject line.
In the extension installation zip file there is a demo model “WeldStrengthDemos_V170.7.wbpz” with examples
used in this documentation as well as verification examples.
For information about element types used in the tools or other FEM details use the ANSYS online help [1].
Weld Strength
Background
Welded structures are common in heavy duty structures. Evaluation of a FE models according to weld codes
are a tedious and time consuming work involving extraction of section forces in local coordinate systems and
safety factor calculation or dimensioning of each weld throat thickness.
Solution
With the Weld Strength app you can easy identify your fillet or butt welds in the model, set the weld throat
thickness, select one (or all) load case and let the program do the strength safety factor calculation according
to Eurocode 3 [2]. You can also let the program calculate the minimum weld thickness.
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Table of valid weld geometries and their Type, Weld section and Reference Face
Shell model Shell model Solid model Solid model
(no weld elements) (weld elements) (weld elements) (no weld elements)
Type: Single sided Type: Single sided Type: Single sided Type: Single sided
Type: Double sided Type: Double sided Type: Single sided Type: Double sided
Type: Single sided Type: Single sided Type: Single sided Type: Single sided
Type: Single sided Type: Single sided Type: Single sided Type: Single sided
Type: Butt weld Type: Butt weld Type: Butt weld Type: Butt weld
Notes on Type: The “Type” relates to the number of welds that are connected to the “Weld section” selection
and not direct to the weld joint type whether it is a physical single or double sided weld joint. This simply sets
the scale factor for weld thickness to correctly evaluate the weld stress. A butt weld is always treated as a
“single sided” weld.
Notes on Weld Section: One special case is the double sided solid model without weld elements (row 2, 4th
column above). In this case you may select both edges (one from each side) connected to the same contact or
shared nodes in order to visualize the results in all places where there is a weld. You must still use Type:
“Double Sided” since the weld forces are evaluated from one common contact or shared face.
Notes on Reference Face: In case the weld is connected to a cylindrical face the cylindrical face must be the
reference face in order to evaluate the normal and parallel stress correct.
Notes on output control:
If you insert the Weld Strength object before solution the needed output control ”Nodal Forces” is set to “Yes”
(in Analysis Settings). If you insert the Weld Strength object after the analysis without including nodal forces
there will be no results and you have to re-run the analysis.
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5*a
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Weld analysis
The weld analysis is based on Eurocode 3 [2]. A uniform distribution of stress is assumed on the throat section
of the weld, leading to the normal stresses and shear stresses shown below.
= normal stress perpendicular to weld throat plane
//
= normal stress parallel to weld axis
= shear stress in plane, perpendicular to weld axis
The weld seam is assumed to have sufficient strength if both conditions below are fulfilled:
0.9 f u
Eqv 2 3 2 //2
fu
f uEqv and fu
w M 2 M2
Table 4.1 Eurocode 3 [2]. Data for fu valid for thickness < 40 mm.
Steel Grade Correlation factor W fu [MPa]
S235 0.80 360
S275 0.85 410
S355 0.90 470
S420 1.00 520
S460 1.00 540
For weld code “User” the equivalent weld stress is only compared with the nominal weld strength.
Eqv 2 3 2 //2 f u f uEqv
Additional weld codes based on component stresses from section forces can be defined in the preference file
“weldStrengthPref.py” in the installation folder, see section “Custom weld codes” for more information.
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To avoid the conservative approach for a critical fillet weld you may use the “Butt weld” instead to make sure
that the weld evaluation is in the specified weld. This requires weld elements so you can select the top side of
the weld to have the correct orientation of the critical section for the weld throat. The solid weld can be split
in halves to have the best estimation of the section forces (A) but it is also ok to use a single solid (B). The same
is also valid for a shell model (C).
A B C
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Results
The default result item is the “weld utilization factor”, Wuf, along the weld, i.e. how much of the weld capacity
that is used;
Eqv
Wuf max ,
f uEqv f u
If the weld min thickness is set to 0 then the minimum allowed thickness along the weld is calculated. The
initial thickness is set to 3 mm and increased by 1 mm until Wuf ≤ 1.0.
The minimum and maximum values can be assigned as an output parameter for parameter studies.
All results can be viewed with different averaging “Floating” or “Section”.
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There is no check of the plate thickness and a recommended maximum weld thickness.
The maximum allowed calculated weld thickness is limited to 25 mm. If the needed weld thickness is larger the
thickness is set to 99 mm indicating an un-converged weld calculation that is an indication of a poor design in
relation to the loads. If the weld thickness is much larger than the plate thickness the failure will occur in the
plate instead, hence a poor design.
It is recommended to update the model with respect to the proposed weld throat thickness since the stiffness
change may influence the force distribution and hence the weld evaluation as well as the nodal average that is
based on the weld thickness.
In the solution folder, a result summary text file for each result object is created with the same name as the
result object. See example below:
Static Structural
Fillet Weld Strength
Result time: 3
Weld Type: Single sided
Weld Code: Eurocode 3
Sect Id |Seqv_avg |Snorm_avg |Tpara_avg |Tnorm_avg |Wuf_avg |Wuf_max |a_min |FX (radial)|FY (parall)|FZ (axial)
|[MPa] |[MPa] |[MPa] |[MPa] |[-] |[-] |[mm] |[N] |[N] |[N]
-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------
176 204.6 79.4 84.4 79.4 0.530 0.625 30 6.6367e+05 2.0154e+06 2.0177e+06
199 278.0 93.7 127.1 93.7 0.720 0.994 30 1.2222e+06 4.9997e+06 3.9911e+06
178 212.7 86.8 84.8 86.8 0.551 0.648 30 9.0860e+05 2.0251e+06 2.0228e+06
Sect Id: Weld Section edge “reference_id”. (Use selection information on an edge with Beta options(*))
Seqv_avg: Average equivalent stress of the whole weld section, Eqv 2 3 2 //2
Snorm_avg: Average normal stress of the whole weld section,
Tpara_avg: Average parallel shear stress of the whole weld section, ||
Tnorm_avg: Average normal shear stress of the whole weld section,
Wuf_avg: Average weld utilization factor of the whole weld based on total load and weld area.
Wuf_max: Maximum weld utilization factor along the weld based on local moving average.
a_min: Calculated minimum needed weld throat thickness to fulfil Wuf < 1. This value is calculated
from the section average and may differ compared to the floating average thickness results.
FX: Shear force normal or radial to the weld section reference face (listed in solution unit, e.g. [N])
FY: Shear force parallel or tangential to the weld section (listed in solution unit, e.g. [N])
FZ: In plane axial force perpendicular to the weld section (listed in solution unit, e.g. [N])
Note: Mechanical may use another file name in some cases. The name “Fillet Weld Strength” is internally
known as “Fillet Weld Strength 1” so a second result named “Fillet Weld Strength 1” is internally known as
“Fillet Weld Strength 2” since they are based on the default name “Fillet Weld Strength”. To avoid this
confusion use underscore “_” to have the display name different from the internal default name, e.g. “Weld
Strength_1” and “Weld_Strength_2” etc. Even if the same results name is used on two result objects the
results file name also includes the internal object id number, e.g. “Fillet Weld Strength_1_118.txt”.
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(*)
Beta options are activated from Workbench Project page, Tools > Options…
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Verification
The valid weld sections according to the table above are verified and saved in the Workbench archive file,
“WeldStrengthDemos_R170.7.wbpz” in the system “Weld Cases”. The models are tested for pure shear force
and pure normal force loading.
It is worth mentioning that only in the simplest loading cases it is possible to get agreement with hand
calculation. If you have multiple welds around a bracket you cannot predict the distribution of forces by hand.
Also in case of modelled welds and combined loadings constraint forces may occur in the welds that is not
predicted by hand calculation, e.g. in a double sided fillet weld with only shear loading you may still get normal
stress due to the deformation of the structure.
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The shell models have the thickness offset inwards. The solid models use solid shell (SOLSH190) except for the
weld part itself.
The models are created in ascending complexity/quality where model 8 is the reference model.
A bending load adds shear and normal forces on the welds. The two pipes with welds (7 and 8) has slightly
lower deformation since the welds adds stiffness to the structure. The other pipes have identical deformation
and hence stiffness.
The Weld Strength result shows that the pipes without welds has almost identical results and the two pipe
with welds has slightly different results.
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The average weld utilization factor, WUF, for each segment of the weld are plotted in the graph below.
Using a shared nodal method will over predict the forces for each segment since the end node forces of each
segment will be included in the two neighboring segments, see Pipe 1-4 and 6 -7. Using a face to face contact
element will only include forces from elements attached to the segment, one quad contact element can’t be
shared between to edge segments. Comparing pipe 5 and 8 shows that the weld itself change the force
distribution between the weld segments. The number of elements along the weld has a bigger impact on the
results for shared node models compared to the contact element models.
Load Case 01
0.3 5 1
6
0.2 Pipe 3: Shell (no weld), edge to face mesh connection (nodal)
0.05
0
1 2 3 4
Weld Id 5 6 7 8
Known Issues/limitations
Virtual topology or External Model geometry cannot be used as input to weld section or reference face
due to faceted geometry.
There is no check of the angle between the plates. The fillet weld is analyzed as if it has perpendicular
connecting plates studying the section forces at 45° measured from the reference face.
Bending moment over the weld is not considered. A weld (especially single sided) should never be
designed to carry bending moment.
Do not use the same section edge for both a fillet weld and a butt weld. This should be impossible in
reality but the GUI cannot detect this error. The reaction forces may be listed in different coordinate
systems and the evaluation will be wrong for one of the welds.
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The weld codes are defined using a Python dictionary where the user can add key words and expressions to
define the dimensional weld strength and weld stress used in the evaluation. The expressions must be valid
Python syntax, see steps 1 to 5 below.
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weldSeqv Eqv
WFZ 2 3 WFX 2 WFY 2
and weldSn
WFZ
sec tArea sec tArea
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5. In Eurocode 3 the critical section for a Fillet weld is rotated 45 degrees around the weld section edge
why the weld stress expression must contain a coordinate transformation. Note: You may use the local
forces to define weld results in any section.
weldCodes['Eurocode 3'].Add('Fillet weld',{}) (line 48)
weldCodes['Eurocode 3']['Fillet weld'].Add('weldSeqv','max((0.5*(WFX - WFZ)**2 + 3*(0.5*(WFX + WFZ)**2 +
WFY**2))**0.5,(0.5*(WFX + WFZ)**2 + 3*(0.5*(WFX - WFZ)**2 + WFY**2))**0.5)/sectArea')
weldCodes['Eurocode 3']['Fillet weld'].Add('weldSn','max(abs(0.707107*(WFZ-WFX)),abs(0.707107*(WFZ+WFX)))/sectArea')
weldCodes['Eurocode 3']['Fillet weld'].Add('weldTp','abs(WFY/sectArea)')
weldCodes['Eurocode 3']['Fillet weld'].Add('weldTn','weldSn')
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The corresponding listing can be made in Mechanical by creating “User Defined Results” for the weld section
nodes with expression “ENFOX”, “ENFOY” and “ENFOZ” in a local coordinate system and export to text files.
The local coordinate system, “RSYS”, has origin at the Weld Section edge start point, Y axis along the edge, X
axis normal to the Reference Face and Z axis in-plane of the Reference Face. For cylindrical faces origin is at the
radial center point, X axis is radial, Y axis is tangential, and Z axis is axial.
weld_sect_n[edge Id].lis Node coodinates for the Weld Section edge in the local coordinate system “RSYS”
weld_n[edge Id].lis Node coordinates related to the Weld section, “SectionNodes”
weld_f[edge Id]_Set[NSET].lis Nodal forces for the Weld section at result set number “NSET” in coordinate
system “RSYS”. The set number, NSET, is the incremental number from all available result sets, not the load
step or time. Corresponding MAPDL command: “SET, , , , , , ,NSET”
The “edge Id” is the “REFERENCE_ID” found in the “Selection Information” for the edge.
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A comparison of the results from the User Defined Results and the Weld Strength app are found to be
identical. These example files are found in the demo project “WeldStrengthDemos_V170.7” folder
“user_files/ExternalPostProcessing”
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References
[1] ANSYS Help R17 online documentation
[2] EN 1993-1-8 (2005) (English): Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures - Part 1-8: Design of joints
[Authority: The European Union Per Regulation 305/2011, Directive 98/34/EC, Directive 2004/18/EC]
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