Numerical simulation of welded joint with multiple various defects

The paper presents continuation of extensive work on determining the behaviour of welded joints in the presence of multiple various types of defects, a problem that is not sufficiently covered by existing standards, such as EN ISO 5817 series. The research involves the development of numerical models, based on real geometries of welded joints made of typical structural steel S235JR, along with experimental tests that would verify the models, and provide additional insight into the behaviour of the welded structure under such unusual conditions. For this purpose, welding defects most likely to occur in practice are selected, and a number of their combinations is produced intentionally in welded plates. The goal of the numerical models is to determine the most critical locations in terms of stresses, and to analyse their integrity in the presence of cracks. While the experiments did validate the majority of numerically obtained results, there are certain unexpected differences. This provides the authors with additional goals of determining why these differences occur. For this purpose, additional destructive tests are performed, revealing the cause behind the disagreement between real and numerical results, while also confirming authors' suspicions.