Current static design guidance for hollow-section joints

The first edition of the International Institute of Welding (IIW) subcommission XV-E design recommendations on static strength of tubular joints was published in 1981. The second edition was published in 1989, which was the basis for the Cidect (International Committee for the Development and Study of Tubular Structures) design guides on the static strength of tubular joints in the early 1990s. Extensive research on tubular joints has been carried out all over the world in the last 20 years. There has hence been a need to update the current static design rules. This paper summarises the third edition of the IIW static design procedure for welded hollowsection joints. It also briefly describes the major changes made to the previous edition and the relevant research background in terms of validity ranges (yield stress), extension of recommendations (moment resistance and multiplanar joints), formulae harmonisation, chord stress function, overlap joints, and plate to tube joints. Two Cidect design guides were published recently, where the new (2009) IIW static design recommendations were adopted. The previous (1989) IIW static design recommendations still exist in many codes/guides. Explanation is given as to which codes/guides follow the IIW (1989) rules and which follow the IIW (2009) rules, and hence what the major differences are between them.