The assessment of residual stresses in welded high strength steel box sections

Much work on the investigation of the magnitude and distribution of residual stresses in mild carbon steel sections have been made previously. However, limited efforts have been put on residual stress measurements of high strength steel sections. The differences of stress–strain curves and high-temperature material properties between the high strength steel and mild carbon steel demands a necessary study of the residual stresses in high strength steel welded sections. In the present study, three box columns fabricated from Q460 steel plates of 11 mm in thickness with different details were used for the examination. Both sectioning and hole-drilling methods are adopted for the measurement. The measured residual stress distributions of three different box sections are presented, and the corresponding simplified residual stress pattern is proposed. By comparing with the residual stress patterns for mild carbon steel, it is found that the box section fabricated from HSS plates has the lower compressive residual stress ratio. The differences in the measurement by using sectioning and hole-drilling methods are also compared.

► Residual stresses in welded high strength steel box sections were measured.
► Results obtained with sectioning method and hole-drilling method were compared.
► Simplified distribution of residual stresses was proposed.
► Stress depended calibration constants for hole-drilling method were presented.