Principles of welding
1. INTRODUCTION
Welding offers a means of making continuous, load bearing, metallic joints between the components of a structure.
In structural work, a variety of welded joints are used. These can all be made up from the basic configurations shown in Figure 1, which are classified as follows:
- butt joints
- tee joints
- lap joints
- corner joints
As illustrated in Figure 2, a welded joint is made by fusing (melting) the steel plates or sections (the parent metal) along the line of the joint. The metal melted from each member at the joint unites in a pool of molten metal which bridges the interface. As the pool cools, molten metal at the fusion boundary solidifies, forming a solid bond with the parent metal (see Figure 3). When the solidification is complete, there is continuity of metal through the joint.
