T Y P ES A N D C A U S E S O F

NO N - PE R F O R M A N CE A N D
FAILURE
DESIGN DEFICIENCIES
• Gross design deficiencies may occasionally occur when a design assumption is not valid. An
example was the nodal point supports of the Hartford Coliseum space frame.
• Lack of fusion can result in unanticipated crack growth and premature failure.
• Similar conditions have been observed when seal welds were used.
• Seal weld is defines as “any weld designed primarily to provide a specific degree of tight-ness
against leakage.”

• Details and connections are the most frequent source of failure or poor performance in
structural systems.
• Brittle fracture of welded steel moment frame (WSMF) connections during the Northridge
earthquake in 1994 are a related problem where low-toughness material, in this case the groove
weld metal became the principal reason for essentially elastic fractures of the connections.

• In this case the discontinuities were the steel backing bars that were used at the column face
and provided an unfused edge lack of fusion condition perpendicular to the bending stresses in
the beam flanges.
• This initial geometric condition provides an edge crack equal to the backing bar thickness and
any lack of fusion (LOF) at the weld root.

• The stress intensity for this condition can be estimated as:

•WHERE:
 

• σ is the sum of the dead load stress, residual tensile stress, and live load stress in the beam
flange.
 LACK OF FUSION SEAL WELD

CONNECTION FAILURE CRACKS AT BOX PIER CAP

FABRICATION AND ERECTION ERRORS
• For most structure, the connections of structural components to each other are frequently the
places where discontinuities are most common, stresses are the highest, and, therefore, the
structure is most failure-prone.

• Failures of welded connections results most often because the weld contain discontinuities of
such a type and size that fatigue and/or brittle fractures can occur rather than because of
metallurgical deficiencies in the joint.
• The discontinuities in welds that do result in brittle fracture or fatigue failures are cracks, lack
of penetration, and lack of fusion.

• The most common type of cracking experienced in structural weldments is hydrogen-induced

underbead or cold cracks.

• The most commonly employed preventive measure to avoid these cracks is to make sure the
joint is free of moisture and grease and to use adequate preheat prior to welding.
• The International Institute of Welding (IIW) has developed a predictive equation that indicates
the susceptibility of a given steel to hydrogen-induced cracking:

•Where:
 

• is the carbon equivalent

• C, Mn, Cr, are the percentages of the alloy elements in steel
• A steel with a carbon equivalent of 0.45 percent or more is typically susceptible to hydrogen-
induced cracking, and some preheat prior to welding is indicated.

• Typically, many fabricators apply some preheat to all joints to ensure that the joints are at least
dry prior to welding.

• Another important factor in preventing hydrogen-induced cracking is proper care of welding

electrodes and other consumables, i.e., using low hydrogen electrodes and fluxes and making
sure the manufacturers’ recommendations about keeping them moisture-free to ensure their
low-hydrogen characteristics are followed.
• Another possible cause of fatigue and brittle fracture in weldments is lack of fusion in the joint.
This usually results from either poor welding procedures or poor execution, and typically it
leaves a crack like unfused plane in the joint.

• Experience indicates that one of the common causes of lack of fusion (and other defects that
can lead to fractures) is the use of backing bars to form the root of the weld bead in joints
welded from one side, especially if they are not subsequently removed and the root repaired.

• Backing bars left in place are a common initiator of both fatigue and brittle fracture because
they contain both lack of fusion discontinuities and cracks.
• Experience indicates that one of the more common causes of the fatigue failure of bridges,
transportation vehicles, power transmission equipment, and many other structures subjected
to cyclical loading is inadequate design of welded details, not inadequate welding.

• Inadequate welding may also be a cause, so careful evaluation of welded joints experiencing
fatigue cracking is necessary to identify the true cause.

• Mechanical connections may be a cause of structural failure, but brittle fractures from this
source are rare. Bolted or riveted joint failures are usually associated with inadequate design.
But bolt failures due to fatigue cracking at thread roots or bolt holes does occur in long –life
service.
• While structures are designed for service, they must usually go through an erection process
during which they experience types of loading that they will not see in service.

• Failure during erection is most often due to inadequate care in the calculation of stresses on
the members erected or the supports used in the process. Many failures are due to poorly
designed temporary welds, lifting lugs, and restraining members.

• Proper design for erection and proper attention to welding or bolting of these “temporary”
structures as well as control their composition and properties are mandatory for failure
prevention.
• The Hyatt- Regency Skywalk in Kansas City, has been attributed to failure of a connection, the
design of which was design of which was changed during shop fabrication.
SERVICE AND REPAIR ERRORS
• Repair of structures already in place, while sometimes necessary, is another potential source of
structural failures.

• There is apparently a perception on the part of many engineers that repairs to correct corrosion
problems or in-service-cracking, or modifications to improve access, or to install new capacity,
are of such a minor nature that no special care is required.

• For older structures made of steels having low weldability, welded repairs or additions are
particularly troublesome.
• Example of this type are hangers for pipes or cables added to bridge members, welds made to
steels of poor weldability to replace corrosion-damaged members, weld plugging of misdrilled
or punched holes, and replacement bolts not properly tightened.

• Weld cracking also occurs because the repair weld is made in a now fairly rigid structure, which
requires greater care and skill in welding and higher welding preheat than the original shop
weld.
DETERIORATION FAILURE
• Loss of section and in some cases fatigue cracking and fracture are examples of corrosion-
induced deterioration that can ultimately damaged or destroy structures.

• One example is the collapse happens a decade ago

of a major span in the Mianus River Bridge due to
corrosion.
• Corrosion by itself may lead to failure conditions, but it can also promote, through section of
loss or pitting and grooving, fatigue crack initiation and growth that can cause failures.

• Because most corrosion conditions are time-dependent, this is one failure mode that can
usually be controlled by inspection and correction as it occurs.

• Since corrosion is an electrochemical process of a complex nature, it is difficult to describe

briefly all the possible causes of corrosion in structures.

• For many structures, the primary corrosion mode is general atmospheric corrosion, and for
steel products this occurs by rusting. Rust is the product of reactions of iron and steel with
oxygen and moisture.
• Typically rust proceeds relatively slowly unless additional chemical continuants, such as ions
from sodium chloride or other salts, are present to accelerate the process.

• The classical solution to this type of corrosion in structures is to create a barrier layer between
the corroding solution and the steel surface, usually by painting.

• There are some conditions under which corrosion in structures cannot be as easily assessed,
typically where corrosion occurs in crevices and less accessible locations.

• Sometimes corrosion products that form in these confined spaces can fill the space and can
exert considerable mechanical force, separating members, cracking fasteners, and including
mechanical failures.
• Another form of corrosion that occurs in structures is stress corrosion, and it is characterized
by cracking phenomena rather than by general or even localized section loss. (Higher-strength
alloy steels, yield strengths greater than 100ksi)

• In at least one case, inappropriate use of common 18 chromium, 8 nickel (sometimes referred
to as “18-8’) stainless steel led to a significant structural failure.

• The intended philosophy was to provide a material that would resist general corrosion as a
tunnel hanger; however, the material selected was stress-corrosion sensitive in chloride
environments, creating dangerous potential cracking.
• Stress corrosion cracking has also been observed in high-strength steel fasteners and other
products that have exceeded specified hardness levels for atmospheric corrosion or corrosion
in other more aggressive environments.

• The failure of the Silver Bridge in West Virginia in 1969

with substantial loss of life was, in part, as attributed to
stress corrosion cracking in a material of very low
fracture toughness.
• Stress corrosion has also been identified as one of the causes of cracking of wires in
suspension bridge main cables which have experienced long-time service.

• The general deterioration of the galvanized coating through water intrusion in the cables has
apparently created electrochemical processes that lead to pitting corrosion, general corrosion,
and stress corrosion of the wires.

• A system of corrosion protection widely employed in some structures is sacrificial protection.

• Attachment of metal anodes to ship hulls or pipelines is another system of corrosion protection
R EP AIR O F D A M A G ED
STR U C TU R E S
REPAIR OF DAMAGED STRUCTURES
• The method of repairing a cracked element will depend on the nature of the damage and
geometric change that has resulted from crack.

• When providing emergency and temporary repairs, care needs to be taken so that useful
information from the damaged element is not destroyed.

• When cracks are found in an element as a result of fatigue, the web or flange may still be
carrying a load. Often it is desirable to drill holes at the crack tips in order to minimize further
crack extension and to avoid undesirable fracture of the section.
• Drilling holes are often a temporary retrofit pending development of a permanent repair.
• A temporary repair was achieved after first making a detailed inspection and identifying
cracked copes, and then grinding out these cracks and the flame-cut copes. The removal of the
embedded cracks provided assurance that the connection would not prematurely fail prior to
the installation of bolted splices to ensure structural integrity.

• Permanent repairs were achieved by installing bolted web and flange shear splices.