A comparison of structural hot-spot stress methods using different finite element techniques

In this paper, different methods have been used for the evaluation of structural hot-spot stress (SHSS) near rib-to-deck (RD) welded joint in orthotropic steel deck (OSD). The SHSS at this critical joint is calculated by means of finite element analyses (FEA) based software Siemens NX.12. Different meshing techniques and element sizes have been used for the determination of SHSS. Also, the effect of nodal averaging feature is studied on each mesh variation. Two types of governing stress are produced in the RD joint i.e. bending stress in deck-plate and membrane stress in rib-plate. From the application of four different SHSS evaluation methods on these two stress states limitations have been derived. In the comparison to other SHSS approaches, quadratic stress extrapolation (QSE) method shows better results for single element mesh and Dong’s through thickness stress linearization (TTSL) method stands-out in cubic-mesh technique as it shows consistency in the results irrespective of stress type, meshing technique and element size