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Vincent T. H. CHU

In welding design what are the different applications of square-groove, V-groove, U-groove and J-groove?

When the base metal is thin (i.e. 0.125” to 0.25”), square-groove can be adopted. Where welding is carried out from one side of the joint, a temporary backup strip can be used to ensure proper joint penetration and to avoid excessive leakage of metal though the joint.

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Convex fillet welds are sometimes used in welding. Why?

There are three types of fillet weld cross section profile, namely, flat, convex and concave. The convexity in convex fillet welds serve as reinforcement, which is believed to provide additional strength. However, care should be taken in not introducing excessive convexity to fillet welds.

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There is a general rule in fillet weld that “the leg should be equal to the thickness of metals.” Why?

Let’s take an example of 6mm thick plates to illustrate the rule. In case 12mm leg is adopted in the fillet weld, the weld volume would be 3-4 times more than required. It would result in waste of weld metal and welder’s time. Worse still, over-welding may weaken the structure and result in distortion owing to the formation of residue stress. As such, the resulting weld could support less stress than fillet weld with “the leg equal to the thickness of metals.”

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Why are insulating washers installed between steel bolts and connecting aluminium plates?

Corrosion of aluminium can be triggered by putting it in contact with another metal in the presence of water. This is known as bimetallic corrosion or galvanic corrosion. The mechanism of such corrosion is the formation of a cell in moist condition so that an electric current is generated to flow between the two metals in direct contact. The degree of corrosion is influenced by the nature of connecting metals, their electrode potential, their areas, conductivity of fluid etc.

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What is the behaviour of internal force in preloaded fasteners?

The force in a bolt in a bolted joint depends on the preloading force applied to it during the tightening operation. For instance, when the preloaded bolt is tightened with a certain force, the bolts’ internal force will not increase significantly if the external applied force on the bolted joint does not exceed the preloading force.

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Are washers necessary for proper operation of bolts?

“Fastener” is a general term used to describe something which is used as a restraint for holding things together or attaching them to other things.

The main physical distinction between screws and bolts is that screws are entirely full of threads while bolts contain shanks without threads. However, a better interpretation of the differences between the two is that bolts are always fitted with nuts. On the contrary, screws are normally used with tapped holes.

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What is the difference between normal bolts and high friction grip bolts?

High friction grip bolts are commonly used in structural steelwork. They normally consist of high tensile strength bolts and nuts with washers. The bolts are tightened to a shank tension so that the transverse load across the joint is resisted by the friction between the plated rather than the bolt shank’s shear strength.

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What is the difference between fasteners, bolts and screws?

Fastener is a general term to describe something which is used as a restraint for holding things together or attaching to other things.

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What are the advantages of using high strength friction grip (HSFG) bolts when compared with normal bolts?

HSFG bolts have the following advantages when compared with normal bolts :

(i) The performance of preloaded HSFG bolts under fatigue loading is good because the prestressed bolts are subjected to reduced stress range during each loading cycle when compared with unloaded bolts.

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Can dynamic pile test (PDA test) be used to replace pile load test for testing driven pile capacity?

The PDA system consists of two strain transducers and two accelerometers attached to opposite sides of the pile to measure the strain and acceleration in the pile. The force is computed by multiplying the measured signals from a pair of strain transducers attached near the top of the pile by the pile area and modulus. The velocity measurement is obtained by integrating signals from a pair of accelerometers also attached near the top of the pile.

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