Pillai, Vipin SukumaraKolios, AthanasiosLie, Seng Tjhen2019-04-292019-04-292018-07-06Vipin Sukumara Pillai, Athanasios Kolios and Seng Tjhen Lie. Failure assessment of cracked uni-planar square hollow section T-, Y- and K-joints using the new BS 7910:2013+A1:2015. Archive of Applied Mechanics, May 2019, Volume 89, Issue 5, pp. 835–8450939-1533https://doi.org/10.1007/s00419-018-1423-5http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/14117This paper covers the validation of standard safety assessment procedure in the new BS 7910:2013+A1:2015 for cracked uni-planar square hollow section (SHS) T-, Y- and K-joints using the finite element analyses. The procedure is based on the failure assessment diagram (FAD) method. A completely new and robust finite element mesh generator is developed, and it is validated using the full-scale experimental test results. FAD curves are constructed using the elastic J-integral (J e Je ), the elastic-plastic J-integral (J ep Jep ) and the plastic collapse load (P c Pc ) values calculated using the 3D cracked models of the joints. The results reveal that the standard Option 1 FAD curve of the new BS code is not always safe in assessing the safety and integrity of cracked uni-planar SHS joints. Therefore, a penalty factor of 1.2 for plastic collapse load is recommended to move all the constructed Option 3 FAD curves above the standard Option 1 curve. The new Option 3 FAD curves are found to generate optimal solutions for cracked uni-planar SHS T-, Y- and K-joints.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Failure assessment diagramFinite element analysisSurface crackSquare hollow section jointsArticle