A Simplified Transient Thermal Analysis of Resistance Spot Welding Process
In order to theoretically simulate the welding process of complex structure with large quantities of welding spots, a simplified method for analyzing a single spot welding should be developed firstly. In this paper, a 2D axisymmetric model of thermoelectric Finite Element Method (FEM) is developed to analyze the transient thermal behavior of Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) process using ANSYS. The determination of the contact resistance at the faying surface is moderately simplified to reduce the calculating time, while the temperature dependent material properties, phase change and convectional boundary conditions are taken into account for the improvement of the calculated accuracy. The thermal history of the whole process and temperature distributions for any position in the weldment is obtained through the analysis. The model can also predict the weld nugget size and the width of the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ).