• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.503-510
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• 2012

High performance, high strength steels were developed and used in steel structures recently. Since the newly developed high strength steels posses different toughness, weldability, yield strength ratio, etc. in compare with conventional structural steels, it is requred to investigate the applicability of the design strength of fillet weld specified in the existing design codes. The comparison of the design strengths of various codes from domestic and overseas shows quite a difference. Test results for fillet weld strengths were collected and statistically analysed. Each of yield strength, tensile strength of parent material and tensile strength of weld metal was selected as a main parameter for each estimation equation respectively. All the estimation equations yield almost same values for each type of steel regardless the type of main parameter selected. Considering the behaviour of fillet welded joints and for practical purposes, it is proposed that the equation with tensile strength of parent material is to be used in design codes. The comparison with the proposed nominal strengths of fillet welds shows that the existing design codes could lead to an uneconomical result for low strength steels and lie on an unsafe side for high strength steels.