AbstractAn experimental investigation of the residual stresses in three types of welded structural steel joint is presented. A total of twelve specimens was tested. In this investigation, the blind hole-drilling method of ASTM E837 was used–adapted and improvedfor determination of residual stresses.To accountfor the effect of local plasticity due to stress concentration near the drilled hole, new calibration coefficients were obtained by carrying out a series of calibration tests. Then, the residual stresses in the welded joints were determined using the new coefficients. The improved hole drilling method presented in this paper was found to be much less time consuming than the conventional sectioning (saw cutting) method for residual stress measurement. The final results obtained in this study showed good agreement with the residual stresses obtained by previous researchers using the sectioning method.MST/1486