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“T
HOSE WHO DO NOT STUDY ing shall be made continuous for went into the millions. All this
HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO the full length of the weld. All resulted from a mere butt weld
R E P E A T I T ,” warned joints in the steel backing shall that did not meet Code require-
George Santayana. These wise be complete joint penetration ments!
words speak to the engineering welded butt joints meeting all of In the case of longitudinal cor-
profession as much as to any the requirements of Section 5, ner welds in box girders, the
other field of human endeavor. Fabrication, of the Code.” In need for continuity of backing
To some extent, the Codes and practice, this provision is some- seems obvious. But the same
Standards that govern engineer- times ignored or overlooked requirements apply to intersect-
ing practice are really works of when fabricators fit segments of ing corners such as those found
history. For example, the AWS bars into the back of groove inside a box tube. For example,
D1.1 Structural the bottom chord
Welding Code – Steel of a truss is to be
is a consensus docu- made from TS12”x
ment that represents The cost of the repairs, 8”x 5/8 ”, and
the collective wisdom requires several
of designers, fabrica- modifications, and litigation butt splices with
tors, inspectors, edu- complete joint pen-
cators and consul- went into the millions. All etration groove
tants, acquired over welds. Fabricators
decades of experience this resulted from a mere tend to fit four
with welded fabrica- individual pieces
tion. It is not just a butt weld that did not meet of flat bar into the
book of good advice; it inside of one of the
is a book of require- Code requirements tubes, tack them
ments. Sometimes a in place with no
provision of the Code regard to produc-
is ignored, and there are no neg- preparations. ing 100% sound welds at the cor-
ative consequences. This can In one case involving long box ner intersections of the flat bars,
lead to complacency. In another girders, the corner welds were slip the mating tube over the
instance, however, failure to fitted with ½”x1” flat bars. The backing bar, and weld the tubu-
observe that same provision can bars came in 20’ lengths, so lar butt joint. This practice
lead to major problems, some- there was a natural butt splice places a severe notch at the root
times with dire results in terms every 20’. For whatever reason, of the butt weld at each of the
of human safety and/or financial the butt splices were only tack four corners. The corners hap-
consequences. welded or partial joint penetra- pen to be where local stresses
tion groove welded. Clearly, this are the highest.
TECHNIQUE did not satisfy the Code provi- Sometimes fabricators will
sion. One cold winter night, a form a continuous length of flat
Backing brittle fracture originated at an bar into the necessary backing,
The use of steel backing pro- unfused portion of a butt splice which leaves only one butt splice
vides our first example of the in one of the small backing bars to make. This is much better,
type of problem that may arise and propagated completely but still not acceptable. A vari-
when provisions of D1.1 are through the bottom flange and ety of alternate solutions were
portions of the webs of the box given in a paper entitled “Box-