Methodology for Eurocode-Based Verification of Welded Joints using ANSYS

Abstract

Welded joints play a critical role in structural engineering, and the accurate prediction of their behaviour is essential to ensure overall safety and performance. The reliability of such joints is typically verified using Eurocode provisions, where the forces acting on each weld under loading are compared with allowable stress limits. Although FEM based structural design software are available for assessing numerous welds on complex geometries, these tools become too costly and often impractical for an organisation to buy for one time use. In contrast, ANSYS is a widely accessible finite element platform that can be utilised effectively for weld assessment. This study presents a hybrid analytical-FEM based methodology for evaluating the strength of the welds. A fillet-welded T-joint in steel structure is modelled in ANSYS and its adequacy is verified using the design rules specified in Eurocode 3. The stresses computed from the finite element method were found to be considerably lower than the allowable design limits, confirming that the selected weld configuration provides sufficient resistance under the applied tensile load. The results demonstrate that explicit weld modelling combined with Eurocode based verification offers a reliable, cost-effective, and practical framework for assessing welded connections within ANSYS Mechanical. The methodology can be extended to different materials and other welded joint configurations in structural applications.