Weld Design Spreadsheet

Welded Connection Design

Welds are used in many connections between steel members. Welds are used to connect steel members to base and cap plates, to connect fin plates to columns and end plates to beams. Fillet welds are also commonly used in any steel fabrication process.

The design of a fillet weld must ensure that the weld is strong enough to resist the design forces. The strength of the weld is dependant on the thickness or leg length of the weld and the effective length of the weld. Alternatively the weld can be designed to be full strength, or capable of transferring the full strength of the section.

Welded connections can also be used to transfer moments from beams into columns. Welded connections can be prefabricated in a factory or fabrication shop and delivered to site in one piece. This can speed the erection of the steel frame in some cases. The welding in these cases is also of high quality completed in controlled factory conditions

Weld Design Procedure

The CivilWeb Weld Design Spreadsheet includes 5 separate design sheets to include all commonly used weld designs and welded moment connection designs. This includes the following;

• Fillet Weld Design
• Welded Moment Connection Design
• Moment Connection with Compression Stiffeners
• Moment Connection with Tension Stiffeners
• Moment Connection with Compression & Tension Stiffeners

The first step in weld design is for the designer to input the weld details including steel grade, fillet weld leg length, effective weld length and the partial action factor used for welds. The spreadsheet then automatically calculates the effective throat thickness, design weld strength and the design transverse weld strength. The designer can use this information to design any fillet weld.

When designing a moment welded connection, the designer must first enter the details of the beam and column being connected. The spreadsheet comes pre-loaded with details of over 500 different I shaped columns and beams including UB, UC, UBP, HE, IPE, HD, HLZ, HL and HP sections. The CivilWeb Weld Design Spreadsheet also creates a dynamic drawing of the chosen I sections and shows the proposed welded joint which the designer can check to ensure the correct joint is being analysed.

Next the designer needs to enter the design loadings to be resisted by the moment welded connection. These design loadings can include bending moments and shear forces, as well as the partial action factors to be applied and the load transformation factor. The partial action factors within the welded connection design spreadsheet are set to suit the requirements of the Eurocode BS EN 1993-1-8. These factors can however be altered to suit alternative design standards if required.

Finally the designer needs to enter the weld details for the flange welds and the web welds. The CivilWeb Weld Design Spreadsheet now automatically completes all the calculations. Each result is presented to the user using a utilisation factor from 0 to 1 which shows the user exactly how well suited the proposed welded moment connection is compared with the design loadings. The results are also shown in either green or red so the designer can see straight away exactly where any deficiencies in the welded moment connection design are.

Where compression or tension stiffeners are required, the designer must also specify the details for these stiffeners including dimensions and steel grade.

The calculations undertaken automatically by the welded connection design spreadsheet include;

• Resistance of the Beam Flange in Tension
• Resistance of the Column Web in Tension
• Resistance of the Column Web in Compression
• Resistance of the Column Web in Shear
• Weld Resistances
• Calculations for any Compression or Tension Stiffeners

The CivilWeb Weld Design Spreadsheet also presents the results in a handy summary at the top of the page. This allows the designer to see instantly the effects of any alterations made to the design without scrolling up and down the page.

The spreadsheet also uses the calculations to create unique analysis graphs which can be used to optimise the welded moment connection design. The graphs show the user the effects of any alterations on the main design parameters including the flange weld leg length. This allows the designer to very quickly optimise the design, the graph shows exactly the leg length required to bring the design utilisation factors below 1.0, without completing any iterative calculations.

CivilWeb Weld Design Spreadsheet

The CivilWeb Weld Design Spreadsheet is an easy to use spreadsheet for the design of fillet welds and welded moment connections. The spreadsheet includes a total of 5 different spreadsheets covering fillet welds and all commonly used welded moment connections including compression and tension stiffeners. The spreadsheet includes unique design features and completes all the calculations in accordance with the Eurocode BS EN 1993-1-8 instantly. This combines to allow the designer to complete a fully optimise, fully compliant weld connection design in minutes without the need for any iterative calculations.

Buy the CivilWeb Weld Design Spreadsheet now for only £19.99.