Modelling resistance welding of thermoplastic composites with a nanocomposite heating element

2020 ◽  
pp. 002199832095705
Author(s):  
David Brassard ◽  
Martine Dubé ◽  
Jason R Tavares

Electrically conductive nanocomposite heating elements are being developed as a complement to traditional carbon fibre or stainless steel heating elements in resistance welding of thermoplastic composites. Here we present the development of a finite element model of the resistance welding process with these new heating elements, from which we establish a process window for high quality welded joints. The finite element model results were validated experimentally and a lap shear strength improvement of 28% is reported relative to previously published results. Fractography analysis of the broken joints revealed a thin-layer cohesive failure mode due to the brittleness of the nanocomposite heating elements.

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2560
Author(s):  
Guowei Zhang ◽  
Ting Lin ◽  
Ling Luo ◽  
Boming Zhang ◽  
Yuao Qu ◽  
...  

Thermoplastic composites (TPCs) are promising materials for aerospace, transportation, shipbuilding, and civil use owing to their lightweight, rapid prototyping, reprocessing, and environmental recycling advantages. The connection assemblies of TPCs components are crucial to their application; compared with traditional mechanical joints and adhesive connections, fusion connections are more promising, particularly resistance welding. This study aims to investigate the effects of process control parameters, including welding current, time, and pressure, for optimization of resistance welding based on glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (GF/PP) TPCs and a stainless-steel mesh heating element. A self-designed resistance-welding equipment suitable for the resistance welding process of GF/PP TPCs was manufactured. GF/PP laminates are fabricated using a hot press, and their mechanical properties were evaluated. The resistance distribution of the heating elements was assessed to conform with a normal distribution. Tensile shear experiments were designed and conducted using the Taguchi method to evaluate and predict process factor effects on the lap shear strength (LSS) of GF/PP based on signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and analysis of variance. The results show that current is the main factor affecting resistance welding quality. The optimal process parameters are a current of 12.5 A, pressure of 2.5 MPa, and time of 540 s. The experimental LSS under the optimized parameters is 12.186 MPa, which has a 6.76% error compared with the result predicted based on the S/N.


Author(s):  
S.-F. Ling ◽  
X. Li ◽  
Z. Sun

Ultrasonic welding is one of the most popular techniques for joining thermoplastics and plays an important role in MEMS applications such as fabrication and packaging of MEMS devices. In this paper, an attempt was made to further understand the heating mechanism during ultrasonic welding. Firstly, the equation governing heat generation was derived assuming adiabatic heating. A thermal equivalent circuit model was also developed to describe the heat transfer process from the joint interface into the surroundings, and the governing equation of temperature distribution in the welding sample was deduced. Finite element method was then engaged to solve these equations to reveal the transient heating behaviour. Lastly, temperatures of the joint interface and the point adjacent to the joint were measured. The temperatures of the point adjacent to the joint calculated from finite element model are matched well with the experimental results. Based on the correlation, the temperature distributions of welding samples can be derived from the finite element model. Since the new developed model can be used to obtain the dynamic temperature distributions of welding samples during ultrasonic welding, the model provides an effective way for detailed understanding of the thermal behaviours and monitoring of the ultrasonic welding process.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4816
Author(s):  
Maria Grazia Romano ◽  
Michele Guida ◽  
Francesco Marulo ◽  
Michela Giugliano Auricchio ◽  
Salvatore Russo

Structural adhesives play an important role in aerospace manufacturing, since they provide fewer points of stress concentration compared to faster joints. The importance of adhesives in aerospace is increasing significantly because composites are being adopted to reduce weight and manufacturing costs. Furthermore, adhesive joints are also studied to determine the crashworthiness of airframe structure, where the main task for the adhesive is not to dissipate the impact energy, but to keep joint integrity so that the impact energy can be consumed by plastic work. Starting from an extensive campaign of experimental tests, a finite element model and a methodology are implemented to develop an accurate adhesive model in a single lap shear configuration. A single lap joint finite element model is built by MSC Apex, defining two specimens of composite material connected to each other by means of an adhesive; by the Digimat multi-scale modeling solution, the composite material is treated; and finally, by MSC’s Marc, the adhesive material is characterized as a cohesive applying the Cohesive Zone Modeling theory. The objective was to determine an appropriate methodology to predict interlaminar crack growth in composite laminates, defining the mixed mode traction separation law variability in function of the cohesive energy (Gc), the ratio between the shear strength τ and the tensile strength σ (β1), and the critical opening displacement υc.


2020 ◽  
pp. short39-1-short39-7
Author(s):  
Andrey Kirichek ◽  
Sergey Barinov ◽  
Alexandr Yashin

The aim of the paper is to obtain a unified finite element model of a complex process, which makes it possible to obtain visual information related to the influence of the welding process parameters on the results of the process of wave strain hardening of the weld material. Modeling of sequentially executed technological processes of different physical nature - welding and hardening, makes it possible to obtain more general and objective visual information about the process as a whole. Modeling in the Ansys software package is performed in stages, with the output of an earlier stage of modeling acting as the input data of the subsequent stage. At the first stage, the problem of visualizing the process of forming a weld is solved with the possibility of calculating temperature fields, stress and strain fields during heating and cooling of the welded workpiece. At the second stage, the calculated data is imported into the finite element model of processing welds with a deformation wave. A finite element model makes it possible to build microhardness maps for selected (dangerous) sections and visually monitor the change in stresses and strains in welded workpieces, depending on the technological modes of hardening by a deformation wave. The obtained visual information allows for a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the result of a complex process, which contributes to an increase in the bearing capacity and performance of the product as a whole.


Metals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitao Luo ◽  
Tingke Wu ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
Fengqun Zhao ◽  
Haonan Wang ◽  
...  

Friction stir welding (FSW) material flow has an important influence on weld formation. The finite element model of the FSW process was established. The axial force and the spindle torque of the welding process were collected through experiments. The feasibility of the finite element model was verified by a data comparison. The temperature field of the welding process was analyzed hierarchically. It was found that the temperature on the advancing side is about 20 °C higher than that on the retreating side near the welding seam, but that the temperature difference between the two sides of the middle and lower layers was decreased. The particle tracking technique was used to study the material flow law in different areas of the weld seam. The results showed that part of the material inside the tool pin was squeezed to the bottom of the workpiece. The material on the upper surface tends to move downward under the influence of the shoulder extrusion, while the material on the lower part moves spirally upward under the influence of the tool pin. The material flow amount of the advancing side is higher than that of the retreating side. The law of material flow reveals the possible causes of the welding defects. It was found that the abnormal flow of materials at a low rotation speed and high welding speed is prone to holes and crack defects. The forming reasons and material flow differences in different regions are studied through the microstructure of the joint cross section. The feasibility of a finite element modeling and simulation analysis is further verified.


Author(s):  
Gurinder Singh Brar

Welding is a reliable and efficient joining process in which the coalescence of metals is achieved by fusion. Welding is carried out with a very complex thermal cycle which results in irreversible elastic-plastic deformation and residual stresses in and around fusion zone and heat affected zone (HAZ). A residual stress due to welding arises from the differential heating of the plates due to the weld heat source. Residual stresses may be an advantage or disadvantage in structural components depending on their nature and magnitude. The beneficial effect of these compressive stresses have been widely used in industry as these are believed to increase fatigue strength of the component and reduce stress corrosion cracking and brittle fracture. But due to the presence of residual stresses in and around the weld zone the strength and life of the component is also reduced. To understand the behavior of residual stresses, two 10 mm thick Fe410WC mild steel plates are butt welded using the Metal Active Gas (MAG) process. An experimental method (X-ray diffraction) and numerical analysis (finite element analysis) were then carried out to calculate the residual stress values in the welded plates. Three types of V-butt weld joint — two-pass, three-pass and four-pass were considered in this study. In multi-pass welding operation the residual stress pattern developed in the material changes with each weld pass. In X-ray diffraction method, the residual stresses were derived from the elastic strain measurements using a Young’s modulus value of 210 GPa and Poisson’s ratio of 0.3. Finite element method based, SolidWorks software was used to develop coupled thermal-mechanical three dimension finite element model. The finite element model was evaluated for the transient temperatures and residual stresses during welding. Also variations of the physical and mechanical properties of material with the temperature were taken into account. The numerical results for peak transverse residual stresses attained in the welded plates for two-pass, three-pass and four-pass welded joint were 67.7 N/mm2, 58.6 N/mm2, and 48.1 N/mm2 respectively. The peak temperature attained during welding process comes out to be 970°C for two-pass weld, 820.8°C for three-pass weld and 651.9°C for four-pass weld. It can be concluded that due to increase in the number of passes during welding process or deposition weld beads, the residual stresses and temperature distribution decrease. Also, the results obtained by finite element method agree well with those from experimental X-ray diffraction method.


Author(s):  
Yaomin Lin ◽  
Chad Eichele ◽  
Frank G. Shi

The welding-induced-alignment-distortion (WIAD) is a serious issue in fiber-optic packaging using laser welding, which may significantly affect the packaging yield. An elimination or minimization of WIAD is expected to be possible if the welding process and other packaging parameters can be optimized. This work attempts to evaluate the contribution of laser welding sequence to the WIAD for butterfly laser diode packages. A realistic physics based laser welding model incorporating the spatial and temporal characteristic of laser beam and thermophysical material properties and absorptivity was developed and incorporated in the 3-D finite element model for the thermal induced stresses/strains and the resulting fiber alignment distortion as a function of welding sequence. An experiment study was conducted and the results agreed well with the finite element model in the way welding sequence affects WIAD. Both numerical simulation and experimental investigation suggest that WIAD reduction can be significant if an appropriate welding sequence is employed in the packaging of butterfly laser diode packages.


2014 ◽  
Vol 941-944 ◽  
pp. 2007-2011
Author(s):  
Cai Ping Liang ◽  
Yong Bing Li

An incremental and thermal electro-mechanical coupled finite element model has been presented in this study for predicting spot nugget size, gap between workpieces, and thermal expansion displacement during spot welding process. Approximate temperature dependent material properties, including physical and mechanical properties, have been considered. The spot nugget shape and the thermal expansion displacement were obtained by simulation. The solutions showed that the displacement of workpieces was directly related to the quality of solder joints and can be as a monitoring parameter of spot weld quality. These calculations provide a theoretical reference for nugget quality monitoring and forecasting by electrode expansion displacements.


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