Static strength assessment of a carbon steel S235 non-load-carrying fillet weld

There are several guidelines and standards for assessing the load capacity of welds in terms of static loading. The individual procedures – among other things – differ in the limit state considered, the characteristic stress calculation, the material data used and the critical region’s location. Therefore, they lead to different allowable limit loads. The question naturally arises as follows: What is the most accurate calculation? This paper offers an answer to this question for the case of a non-load-carrying weld specimen made of S235JRG2. The specimen under investigation was subjected to the static strength assessment via ČSN 05 0120, Eurocode 3, AWS D1.1/D1.1M:2020, AISC, FKM and the FEMFAT software. Subsequently, an experiment was carried out for a given geometry and a combination of base and weld materials. The methods best correlating with the experiment were uncovered. The rupture of the specimen did not occur near the notches of the weld seam but in the region of the largest plastic deformation. This was also confirmed by a finite element analysis.