Reducing stress concentration in welded joints by brazing

A method for reducing the stress concentration in welded joints is proposed. The method is based on depositing a brazed bead in the weld zone produced from material with a melting point and elasticity modulus lower than those of the parent material. It is shown that zinc is the most efficient material for producing these beads and reduces not only the level of maximum stresses in the joints by 27% in comparison with the currently available method based on the deposition of an additional bead with a coated electrode, but also increases the corrosion resistance of the joint and also reduces the thermal effect on the joint with an appropriate reduction of energy consumption. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.