Sharif Digital Repository

Protrusion friction spot stir welding (PFSSW) was introduced as a novel method to produce keyhole-free welds of a drawing quality special killed low carbon steel (DQSK). The effects of welding parameters such as tool rotation speed and plunging depth were investigated on the mechanical properties and metallurgical aspects. The sheet/sheet joint interface of the welds produced by PFSSW was visible and non-planar compared to the conventional FSSW method. Microstructure and hardness were affected by dynamic recrystallization and transformation hardening in the stir zone. Hardness value of the stir zone produced by the present work was much lower than that produced by resistance spot welding... 

Abstract: Nowadays, friction stir spot welding (FSSW) is used in automotive, rail vehicle construction, the aerospace industry, and electrical industry. In the current research, a modified version of the FSSW process entitled friction stir spot vibration welding was introduced to join Al5083 specimens. The joining specimens were vibrated normal to the tool movement direction, while the joint position cooled by passing coolant through the fixture. Different characteristics of developed joint namely microstructure, mechanical properties, corrosion behavior were studied. The results showed that stir zone grain size decreased significantly as the vibration was employed and the joint position was... 

In the present paper, a crack propagation-based fatigue life estimation approach has been proposed for resistance spot welds. The presented approach also takes into account the effect of welding residual stresses. It can provide an accurate and systematic prediction of the life of spot weld joints with various dimensions and shapes. Experimental verification tests confirmed the validity of the calculations and good agreement was found between the theoretical predictions and experimental data  

There has always been a question about which condition results in superior mechanical properties in friction stir spot welds: (i) when the tool tip penetrates into the lower sheet or (ii) when the tool tip does not touch it. Given the question, the effects of the tool penetration depth were investigated on the microstructure and mechanical behaviour of dissimilar Al-5083/St-12 joints produced by friction stir spot welding (FSSW). Two different processes named as non-penetrating and penetrating FSSW were used. Optical and scanning electron microscopes as well as microhardness and tensile-shear tests were utilised to examine the obtained joints. The results showed that the penetrating process... 

Dissimilar joining of aluminium and steel, especially using resistance spot welding as a critical process in vehicle manufacturing, is a key challenge for multi-materials lightweight design strategy. Controlling the formation and growth of Al5Fe2 intermetallic is the outstanding issue for producing high strength crash-resistance Al/steel dissimilar resistance spot welds. This critical assessment highlights the current understating regarding factors affecting the joint properties and approaches to control the interfacial reaction. Finally, the unresolved scientific challenges are discussed with the goal of shedding light on the path forward to produce reliable metallurgical bonding between... 

The paper aims at investigating the microstructure, failure mode transition, peak load and energy absorption of DP600 dual phase steel during the tensile-shear test. It was found that the welding current has profound effect on the load–displacement characteristics. In the low welding current, welds failed in interfacial failure mode. Increasing welding current resulted in sufficient weld nugget growth to promote double-sided pullout failure mode with improved mechanical properties. Further increase in the welding current caused expulsion and failure mode was changed to single-sided pullout with reduced energy absorption capability. It was found that the fusion zone size is the key parameter... 

Martensitic stainless steel (MSS) resistance spot welds are prone to quasi-cleavage interfacial failure with very low energy absorption capability due to formation of hard and brittle carbon and chromium rich martensite in the fusion zone (FZ). In this work, a new pathway is proposed to enhance strength/toughness of the MSS resistance spot welds based on modification of the FZ composition/microstructure via introducing a nickel interlayer. This altered the FZ microstructure from dual phase microstructure of martensite and δ-ferrite to austenitic microstructure with finely dispersed ultra-fine chromium rich carbides. Formation of a tough predominately austenitic microstructure in the FZ... 

In this study, the critical nugget size, at which the failure state in tensile shear test changed from the interfacial failure mode to the pull-out failure one, was estimated as a function of nugget and base metal hardness. The proposed approach could address the effect of various parameters involved in resistance spot welding process, such as sheet thickness, base metal chemical composition and physical properties of electrodes and sheets. The reliability of the present model was evaluated using independent experimental results. Based on the obtained results, the effect of steel composition on critical nugget diameter was found to be more important, especially for the sheets thicker than... 

Ultrasonic Testing (UT) is one of the most common types of nondestructive methods that is being used in various industries, especially in the automotive industry. In this paper, qualitative and quantitative control of resistance spot welds on three-sheet joints was studied. Initially, mathematical model of ultrasonic waves was extracted for triple sheet joints. Then, acoustic simulation of ultrasonic testing on spot welds was performed using Finite Element Method (FEM). Afterwards, A Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) neural network was used to classify spot welds based on their diameter. There was a mean error of 20.9 % between peak amplitudes of numerical and theoretical models which the most... 

This paper introduces a novel facile method, called projection friction stir spot welding, to produce a keyhole-free friction stir welds based on a pinless tool method involving using a specially designed projection on the surface of the backing anvil. The projection plays two key roles contributing to the bonding mechanism and the joint strength: (i) encouraging the material flow perpendicular to the joint interface and (ii) bending the joint interface at the edge of the projection. The process enables pathway to produce keyhole-free welds with superior mechanical performance in steel sheets compared to the other spot welding techniques. © 2018, © 2018 Institute of Materials, Minerals and... 

This paper introduces a novel facile method, called projection friction stir spot welding, to produce a keyhole-free friction stir welds based on a pinless tool method involving using a specially designed projection on the surface of the backing anvil. The projection plays two key roles contributing to the bonding mechanism and the joint strength: (i) encouraging the material flow perpendicular to the joint interface and (ii) bending the joint interface at the edge of the projection. The process enables pathway to produce keyhole-free welds with superior mechanical performance in steel sheets compared to the other spot welding techniques. © 2018, © 2018 Institute of Materials, Minerals and... 

The effects of weld nugget size and expulsion on the performance of low carbon steel resistance spot weld have been investigated in the present paper. Failure mode, peak load and failure energy obtained in tensile-shear test have been used to describe the performance of spot weld. The influence of voids and porosity as well as electrode indentation associated with expulsion on peak load and failure energy is discussed. The results showed that although expulsion does not reduce the load carrying capacity of spot welds, it decreases their energy absorption capability which was attributed to the change of failure location due to excessive electrode indentation associated with expulsion. © 2008... 

The welding of nanostructured low carbon steel sheets produced by severe plastic deformation (SPD) has been considered in the present paper. Constrained groove pressing (CGP) method is used for imposing the severe plastic deformation to the steel sheets as a large pre-strain. The SPDed sheets are joined using resistance spot welding (RSW) process. The results show that severe plastic deformation can effectively increase the electrical resistivity of steel sheets; therefore it can affect the microstructure and mechanical properties of spot welds. Microstructure and mechanical properties of fusion zone, heat affected zone (HAZ), recrystallized zone and base metal of SPDed sheets are... 

In the present research, the effects of spot-welding process parameters on the nugget diameter and electrode penetration depth of spot-welded joints were investigated. To achieve this, a spot-welded joint of three-thin sheet low carbon steels (same thicknesses of 0.8 mm) was simulated as an electerical-thermal-mechanical coupling of 3D finite element model. After validating the finite element simulation presented in this study by comparison with the experimental results for the spot diameter, various cases of spot welds were analyzed based on the design on experiment (i.e., Taguchi method). Six variables including electrode force, electric current, and quadrilateral times (squeeze, up-slope,... 

In the present study, an electro-thermo-mechanical model is utilized to predict electrical potential, temperature and residual stress distributions during different stages of resistance spot welding. In order to improve accuracy, material properties including physical, thermal and mechanical properties supposed to be temperature-dependent. The employed model is capable of considering the effects of welding parameters such as heat input and welding time on residual stress distribution. The model results are then compared with the measured residual stresses and good agreement is observed. Predictions show that maximum tensile residual stresses are located at the weld center while they are... 

The present study Is carried out to investigate fatigue crack initiation and kinking behaviours of spot welded coach peel (CP) specimens of low carbon steel sheets subjected to cyclic loading by experimental and finite element analysis methods. Evaluations of fatigue crack growth stages were performed by crack tip plastic strains and J integral analyses and also by microhardness measurements on process zone. According to the experimental and analytical results, fatigue crack initiation and growing stages in the spot welded CP specimens can be divided to three stages. Stage I corresponds to 'gap sharpening stage' observed at the beginning steps of cyclic loading with crack growing on the... 

In the present paper, effects of welding current, welding time, electrode pressure and holding time on the weld nugget size were studied. A failure mechanism was proposed to describe both interfacial and pullout failure modes. This mechanism was confirmed by SEM investigations. In the light of this mechanism, the effect of welding parameters on static weld strength and failure mode was studied. Then, an analytical model was proposed to predict failure mode and to estimate minimum nugget diameter (critical diameter) to ensure pullout failure mode in shear tensile test. On the contrary to existing industrial standards, in this model, critical nugget diameter is attributed to metallurgical... 

Highly cold worked (HCW) low carbon steel sheets with cellular structure in the range of 200 to 300 nm are fabricated via constrained groove pressing process. Joining of the sheets is carried out by resistance spot welding process at different welding currents and times. Thereafter, failure behavior of these welded samples during tensile-shear test is investigated. Considered concepts include; failure load, fusion zone size, failure mode, ultimate shear stress, failure absorbed energy, and fracture surface. The results show that HCW low carbon steel spot welds have higher failure peak load with respect to the as-received one at different welding currents and times. Also, current limits for... 

Nowadays, the need for industrial processes with sufficient accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility to compete world markets is inevitable. On the other hand, the advent of control techniques and increased computation power of CPUs allow implementation of complex controllers using optimization techniques to provide higher efficiency and economic productivity. Model predictive control refers to a wide range of optimization-based control methods applying explicit models to predict its prospective use. These methods of control compute control signal by minimizing the cost function so that the process output becomes very close to the optimal path. In this paper, we use a new model predictive...