Strength of three-sheet spot welds with critical nugget sizes in tensile shear, cross tension, peel and fatigue tests

Plug failures have been observed in three-sheet spot welds, where the weld nugget did not penetrate into the outer sheet. Such solid-state bonds were found to be formed as a result of high contact pressure and temperature during welding. The strength of single spot welds was studied in a three-sheet combination (0.61 mm DX54 on two 1.21 mm DP600) with nugget penetrations into the thin sheet below 40%. The static strength was evaluated by tensile shear, cross tension and mechanized peel testing, and fatigue tests were carried out in tensile shear configuration at 30 Hz and mean load of 2 kN. It was found that loading of the specimens in tensile shear, mechanized peel and cross tension tests leads to a plug failure and a ductile fracture of the thin sheet. The weld strength is not correlated with the nugget penetration into the thin sheet but is determined by the area of the bonded interface, instead, as shown by peel and cross tension tests. Fatigue tests revealed that the specimens break by a plug failure. The failure mechanism was found to be ductile for the highest load range after approximately 33 000 cycles. At lower load ranges, evidence of a crack was found in the DX54 sheet, leading to higher stress concentration and subsequent ductile fracture. It was estimated that a load range of 940 N leads to failure after approximately 106 cycles.

Static Strength Analysis and Experimental Research of Clinched Joints By Two-strokes Flattening Clinching Method

Clinching technology is widely used to join sheet materials in manufacturing fields, especially in automotive lightweight applications. However, the clinched joints have a weak static strength and high protuberance, which influence the application of the clinching technology. In order to improve the static strength and decrease the protuberance height of clinched joint, a new method to join aluminum alloy sheet materials with two-strokes flattening clinching (TFC) was investigated in this paper. The tension-shear strength, cross-tension strength, energy absorption and failure modes of clinched joint and TFC joint were investigated. Furthermore, the stiffness and the hardening exponent of the joints under different experimental tests were studied. The results indicated that the mechanical behaviors of the joints were optimal when the forming force was 35 kN. The maximum cross-tension and tension-shear strength of TFC joint were increased by 514 N and 1145 N on average compared with the initial clinched joint. The main failure modes of the joints were the neck fracture mode under the tension-shearing and cross-tension test. In addition, the stiffness and hardening exponent explained the variation of the mechanical properties of the joints under different forming forces.

Study on the Effect of Heat Treatment on Microstructures and High Temperature Mechanical Properties of Welding Spots of Hot Stamped Ultra-High Strength Steel Patchwork Blanks

Insufficient strength of welding spots is a common problem in the hot stamping process of ultra-high strength steel patchwork blanks (UHSSP). In this paper, the welding spots of 22MnB5 boron steel with thicknesses of 1.2 and 1.5 mm were austenitized and then air-cooled to 650–850 °C for high temperature tensile shear tests and high temperature cross-tension tests, respectively. To study the mechanical properties of the welding spots at room temperature after heat treatment, the austenitized welding spots were quenched in cold water to room temperature, and microhardness tests and microstructure observations were performed. The results indicated that compared to the original welding spots, the heat-affected softening zone disappeared after heat treatment, and the hardness values of the fusion zone, heat-affected zone and base material were basically the same, at about 500 HV. After heat treatment, the welding spots were mainly martensite. With the increase in deformation temperature, the peak loads of the tensile shear and the cross tension of the welding spots decreased. At 750 °C, the peak loads of the welding spots decreased less, energy absorption was larger, and the welding spots had the comprehensive mechanical properties of strength and ductility.

Microstructure and Mechanical Performance of Resistance Spot Welded Martensitic Advanced High Strength Steel

Resistance spot welded 1.2 mm (t)-thick 1400 MPa martensitic steel (MS1400) samples are fabricated and their microstructure, mechanical properties are investigated thoroughly. The mechanical performance and failure modes exhibit a strong dependence on weld-nugget size. The pull-out failure mode for MS1400 steel resistance spot welds does not follow the conventional weld-nugget size recommendation criteria of 4t0.5. Significant softening was observed due to dual phase microstructure of ferrite and martensite in the inter-critical heat affected zone (HAZ) and tempered martensite (TM) structure in sub-critical HAZ. However, the upper-critical HAZ exhibits obvious higher hardness than the nugget zone (NZ). In addition, the mechanical properties show that the cross-tension strength (CTS) is about one quarter of the tension-shear strength (TSS) of MS1400 weld joints, whilst the absorbed energy of cross-tension and tension-shear are almost identical.

Fatigue behaviour of material-adapted fibre-reinforced polymer/metal joints

By regarding the needs and requirements in modern multi-material joining, the Flow Drill Joining Concept (FDJ) was developed at the Chemnitz University of Technology. The technology allows an efficient and material-adapted joining of thin metal sheets with continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastics, as required in modern lightweight engineering. For a better understanding of their fatigue behaviour, single-lap FDJ joints were examined in quasi-static and dynamic tests regarding shear loads, cross tension and superimposed shear/cross tension loads. By way of example, joints between micro-alloyed steel with high yield strength for cold forming and a continuous glass/carbon fibre-reinforced polyamide 6 were investigated. The fatigue curves show inclinations between k = 8.01 (shear loads) and k = 5.17 (cross tension loads), depending on the applied load angle. The results of the fatigue testings represent a basis for the enhancement of a failure criterion for FRP/metal joints in highly stressed multi-material designs.

Influence of Paint Baking on the Energy Absorption and Failure Mode of Resistance Spot Welds in TRIP1180 Steel

Resistance spot welds (RSWs) in advanced high strength steels frequently exhibit interfacial failure during cross-tension testing: a mode of fracture associated with low-energy absorption. Automotive assembly lines include a paint application and baking cycle after the vehicle assembly and joining processes to cure paint and any adhesives used for assembly. In this article, the effects of a typical baking cycle: 180 °C for 20 min, on the failure mode and energy absorption during cross-tension testing of RSWs made in a TRIP1180 steel are reported. Further, short-time baking cycles of 30 s, 90 s, and 4 min were employed to investigate how quickly these baking effects are activated. RSWs, which exhibited interfacial failure and a low-energy absorption of 30.9 J in the as-welded condition, saw a change in a failure mode to partial interfacial failure and a 260% increase in energy absorption after baking for 30 s. After baking for a longer time (4 min), welds failed by button pull-out and exhibited a 296% increase in energy absorption during cross-tension testing. Baking for the full 20 min resulted in no additional improvement than was observed in the 4 min condition. The mechanisms responsible for the majority of the improvement in weld performance during baking are found to be activated after only 30 s of baking.

Prediction of Cross-Tension Strength of Self-Piercing Riveted Joints Using Finite Element Simulation and XGBoost Algorithm

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) has been widely used in automobile industry, and the strength prediction of SPR joints always attracts the attention of researchers. In this work, a prediction method of the cross-tension strength of SPR joints was proposed on the basis of finite element (FE) simulation and extreme gradient boosting decision tree (XGBoost) algorithm. An FE model of SPR process was established to simulate the plastic deformations of rivet and substrate materials and verified in terms of cross-sectional dimensions of SPR joints. The residual mechanical field from SPR process simulation was imported into a 2D FE model for the cross-tension testing simulation of SPR joints, and cross-tension strengths from FE simulation show a good consistence with the experiment result. Based on the verified FE model, the mechanical properties and thickness of substrate materials were varied and then used for FE simulation to obtain cross-tension strengths of a number of SPR joints, which were used to train the regression model based on the XGBoost algorithm in order to achieve prediction for cross-tension strength of SPR joints. Results show that the cross-tension strengths of SPR steel/aluminum joints could be successfully predicted by the XGBoost regression model with a respective error less than 7.6% compared to experimental values.