Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Characteristics of Resistance Spot Welding Process with Three Sheets Assemblies

Abstract

This project is focused on the finite element (FE) analysis for mechanical characteristics of resistance spot welding (RSW) process with three sheets stack up instead of conventional two sheets assemblies because of its wide application in automobile industry. It is proved that the protuberances region localized in the nugget area induced in the welding process are more inclined to have fatigue failure such as cracks and fracture. Local stress and strain distributions for three sheets stack up under quasi-static tension load are investigated by both experiments and FE analysis with commercial software code ANSYS and NASTRAN. The high stress/strain value is concentrated at the edges of nugget instead of nugget center from cross section view and stress/strain distribution at the center region of the weld nugget is relatively low. The FE analysis has effectively verification with the experiments results.