allowable undercut

By anthony966 Date 07-28-2005 16:44

I am looking at building specifications for welding a base plate on a column for a substation that tells me that 1/32” undercut is allowed for every 12” of weld length on the structure. My question is does AWS code d1.1 allows this much undercut.

By jon20013 (*****)

Date 07-28-2005 17:09

Yes (and in some instances even more) EXCEPT in the instance of cyclically loaded primary members when the weld is transverse to tensile stress; for those cases, undercut of 0.01 in. (0.25mm) is the maximum.

By swnorris (****)

Date 07-28-2005 17:59

anthony966,

Actually, the building specification you're looking at is a little more lenient on the "1/32 undercut allowed for every 12" than D1.1 is. D1.1 allows NO undercut greater than 1/32" for material less than 1" thick. The "for every 12" isn't a factor except that undercut is not to exceed 1/16" for any accumulated length up to 2" in any 12". In materials greater than or equal to 1" thick, undercut is not to exceed 1/16" for any length of weld.

By anthony966 Date 07-28-2005 19:18

I have misstated my interpretation of this specification. It reads (Base Plate to Column Welds and Beam to Column Connecting Plate Welds: There shall be no undercutting in excess of 1/100 inch with the exception that a 1/32 inch undercut is allowed for two(2) inches in any twelve inches of weld length). It says nothing about thickness of material. I do not have a copy of the code, but I think this is lenient.