Special all-round fillet weld for anchor rods of base-plate T-stub connections

Abstract

The eccentricity between connected steel parts and the anchor rods in base-plate T-stub connections makes base plates the weaker components in tension and compression. Additionally, the oversized holes in base plates lead to irregular placement of anchor rods, resulting in an unsymmetrical shear behavior. Thus, this paper aims to develop a special all-round fillet weld to connect the anchor rods beneath the base plate concentrically to the steel part, removing the base plate from the load-transferring chain. Accordingly, design criteria were first developed based on Eurocode's directional method considering all the potential failure modes. Next, results were validated by conducting experimental work. The digital image correlation technique (DIC) was also used to capture the strain distribution developed over the tested specimen till failure. Consequently, numerical analysis was carried out to investigate the fracture strength and the fracture angle and compare the special fillet weld with its equivalent standard one, which has the same weld volume. The results indicated that the proposed design criteria produced safe strength prediction for the developed special all-round fillet weld. Furthermore, the results revealed that using a special all-round fillet weld instead of the equivalent standard one can increase the strength by about 8% and improve the ductility of the weld. However, it decreases the stiffness of the weld by about 21%. The fracture surface occurred at $15°$ from the face of the anchor rod, which produced a higher strength than the predicted tensile strength calculated according to the theoretical throat plane.