Constraint correction of high strength steel: Selection of test specimens and application of direct calculations

This study presents a practical procedure for application of constraint correction of high strength steels and its weldments. Tests have been carried out on single edge notch bend (SENB) specimens with shallow and deep notch and SENT (single edge notch tensile) specimen with shallow notch, to cover the constraint effect. The yield strength of the material was 700 MPa. In order to apply the results on real structures it is crucial that the constraint correction procedures are made available to designers. The procedures must be easy to perform, have high accuracy and low costs. In order to meet these requirements the concept of linespring has been applied for performing direct calculations of components.