Numerical simulation on temperature field for resistance spot welding of non-equal thickness stainless steel

An axisymmetric finite element model is developed to simulate the temperature field of resistant spot welding according to the process characters of nugget formation of non equal stainless steel sheets. A simulation method of the interaction of electrical and thermal factors is presented. The spot welding process of nugget formation is simulated using hard and soft welding technique norms. The heating characters of soft and hard norms determine the differences in the process of nugget formation and determine the finally shape and offset of nugget. Experimental verification shows that the model prediction agrees well with the practical.

Ultrasonic C-scan Detection for Stainless Steel Spot Welding Based on Wavelet Package Analysis

An ultrasonic test of spot welding for stainless steel is conducted. Based on wavelet packet decomposition, the ultrasonic echo signal has been analyzed deeply in time - frequency domain, which can easily distinguish the nugget from the corona bond. The 2D C-scan images produced by ultrasonic C scan which contribute to quantitatively calculate the nugget diameter for the computer are further analyzed. The spot welding nugget diameter can be automatically obtained by image enhancement, edge detection and equivalent diameter algorithm procedure. The ultrasonic detection values in this paper show good agreement with the metallographic measured values. The mean value of normal distribution curve is 0.006 67, and the standard deviation is 0.087 11. Ultrasonic C-scan test based on wavelet packet signal analysis is of high accuracy and stability.

DETECTION METHOD OF SPOT WELDING BASED ON MULTI-INFORMATION FUSION AND FRACTAL

A novel detection method of support vector machine （SVM） based on fractal dimension of signals is presented. And models of SVM are made based on nugget size defects of spot welding. Classification using these trained SVM models is done to signals of spot welding. It is shown from effect of different SVM models that these models with different inputs. In detection of defects, these models with inputs including sound signal have a high percentage of accuracy, the detection accuracy of these models with inputs including voltage signal will reduce. So the SVM models based on fractal dimensions of sound are some optimal nondestructive detection ones. At last a comparison between SVM detection model and ANNS detection model is researched which indicates that SVM is a more effective measure than Artificial neural networks in detection of nugget size defects during spot welding.

Comparative study of resistance spot welding performance between cold-rolled DP980 and Q&P980 steels

Advanced high strength steel (AHSS) has been widely used in the automobile industry.The resistance spot welding performance of DP980 and Q&P980 steels was studied through comparing the two steels’welding current range,tensile shear strength (TSS),cross tension strength (CTS),weld spots’microhardness,etc.The following conclusions were achieved:It is easy for both DP980 and Q&P980 steels to get a nugget size bigger than 4 mm,they all have welding current ranges exceeding 2 kA and high weld strength.

基于相关性分析和SSA-BP神经网络的铝合金电阻点焊质量预测

基于电阻点焊过程中工艺信号特征,在不同间距、不同间隙和不同间距与间隙3种条件下,引入相关性分析方法分析工艺信号与熔核直径之间的相关性,并建立基于麻雀搜索算法-BP神经网络(sparrow search algorithmback propagation neural network,SSA-BP)的电阻点焊质量预测模型,将功率、焊接电流、焊接电压和动态电阻作为预测模型输入特征.结果表明,经麻雀搜索算法优化后的BP神经网络在测试集上的决定系数R2、均方误差(meansquare error,MSE)、均方根误差(root mean square error,RMSE)和平均绝对误差(mean absolute error,MAE)分别为0.95,1.55,1.24和0.90,均优于BP模型.获得了功率、焊接电流、焊接电压和动态电阻与熔核直径的映射关系,可为焊接的工艺参数设计提供依据.

Effect of deep cryogenic treatment on mechanical behavior of a Cu-Cr-Zr alloy for electrodes of spot welding

The effects of deep cryogenic treatment on mechanical behavior of a Cu-Cr-Zr alloy for electrodes of spot welding were investigated employing Brinell-hardness testing unit, abrasion examination machine, electronic almighty testing machine and X-ray stress analyzer. Tensile fracture surfaces of the alloy were characterized by scanning electronic microscope （SEM） with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy （EDS）. The results showed that, after deep cryogenic treatment, σb and σ0.2 increased 23 MPa and 21 MPa respectively, the wear rate of the alloy exhibited the trend of decrease with the decreasing temperature and increasing time of deep cryogenic treatment, and the surface residual stress of the alloy was partially eliminated by deep cryogenic treatment.

Development of liquid-nitrogen-cooling friction stir spot welding for AZ31 magnesium alloy joints

A liquid-nitrogen-cooling friction stir spot welding(C-FSSW) technology was developed for welding AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets. The liquid-nitrogen cooling degraded the deformability of the welded materials such that the width of interfacial cracks increased with increasing cooling time. The grain size of the stirred zone(SZ) and the heat-affected zone(HAZ) of the C-FSSW-welded joints decreased, whereas that of the thermomechanically affected zone(TMAZ) increased with increasing cooling time. The maximum tensile shear load of the C-FSSW-welded joints welded with a cooling time of 5 or 7 s was larger than that of the friction stir spot welding(FSSW)-welded joint, and the tensile shear load decreased with increasing cooling time. The microhardness of the C-FSSW-welded joints was greater than that of the FSSW-welded joint. Moreover, the microhardness of the SZ and the HAZ of the C-FSSW-welded joints increased, whereas that of the TMAZ decreased, with increasing cooling time.

Electrode degradation mechanism during resistance spot welding of zinc coated steel using Cu-TiB_2 electrodes

The TiB2 dispersion-reinforced copper-matrix composite used as electrode material in resistance spot welding of zinc coated steels was studied. The service life of the composite electrode reaches （7700） welds, which is 4 times that of the conventional Cu-Cr-Zr electrode. Little gross deformation is observed on the composite （electrodes） because of the higher thermal strength; therefore, it is believed that wear is the only mechanism for the composite （electrode） deterioration. However, both wear and plastic deformation are responsible for the large increase in the tip diameter of the Cu-Cr-Zr electrodes. Moreover, the large deformation of the Cu-Cr-Zr electrodes may contribute to the increased wear rate of the tips.

A MULTI-COUPLED FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF RESISTANCE SPOT WELDING PROCESS

A two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model is developed to analyze the transient thermal and mechanical behaviors of the Resistance Spot Welding （RSW） process using commercial software ANSYS. Firstly a direct-coupled electrical-thermal Finite Element Analysis （FEA） is performed to analyze the transient thermal characteristics of the RSW process. Then based on the thermal results a sequential coupled thermo-elastic-plastic analysis is conducted to determine the mechanical features of the RSW process. The thermal history of the whole process and the temperature distribution of the weldment are obtained through the analysis. The mechanical features, including the distributions of the contact pressure at both the faying surface and the electrode-workpiece interface, the stress and strain distributions in the weldment and their changes during the RSW process, the deformation of the weldment and the electrode displacement are also calculated.

Analysis of the effect of geometrical parameters on fatigue performance of spot-weld joint for ultra-high strength steel

This paper studied the spot welding structure of ultra-high strength steel 22MnB5.ANSYS software was adopted to simulate its static strength;BS5400 algorithm was used to calculate the fatigue life;and the grouping method was used to test the fatigue performance of tensile shear spot weld specimens.The simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental values.Based on the validation of the simulation method,influences of different structural parameters on static strength and fatigue life were explored by adopting single factor.The results showed that within the selected structure parameter range,increase of the sheet thickness,nugget diameter,sheet width and overlapping length can lead to longer fatigue life.Besides,the fatigue life of spot weld took on a linear relationship with the overlapping length,a DoseResp relationship with the sheet thickness,and a single exponential decay relationship with the sheet width and the nugget diameter.Moreover,in order to estimate the impact from various parameters on the fatigue life of the specimens,the Taguchi orthogonal design method was applied in the simulation design.The simulating result indicated that influence of the sheet thickness on fatigue life was the most significant.In addition,the effects of nugget diameter,sheet width and overlapping length on fatigue life were reduced in turn.

Dissimilar ultrasonic spot welding of Mg-Al and Mg-high strength low alloy steel

Sound dissimilar lap joints were achieved via ultrasonic spot welding （USW）, which is a solid-state joining technique. The addition of Sn interlayer during USW effectively blocked the formation of brittle Al12Mg17 intermetallic compound in the Mg-Al dissimilar joints without interlayer, and led to the presence of a distinctive composite-like Sn and Mg2Sn eutectic structure in both Mg- Al and Mg-high strength low alloy （HSLA） steel joints. The lap shear strength of both types of dissimilar joints with a Sn interlayer was significantly higher than that of the corresponding dissimilar joints without interlayer. Failure during the tensile lap shear tests occurred mainly in the mode of cohesive failure in the Mg- Al dissimilar joints and in the mode of partial cohesive failure and partial nugget pull-out in the Mg-HSLA steel dissimilar joints.

基于代理模型和NSGA-Ⅱ的超高强钢电阻点焊工艺参数多目标优化

为寻求超高强钢电阻点焊时最佳的焊接工艺参数,开展正交试验法设计三因素五水平的平板搭接点焊试验,以焊接时间、焊接电流和电极压力为可调的工艺参数,将熔核直径、压痕深度、拉剪强度及飞溅情况作为焊接接头质量评价指标.基于高斯过程回归和BP神经网络建立起焊接工艺参数与焊接接头质量评价指标之间关系的代理模型,训练的结果显示模型精度很高.最后利用带精英策略的非支配排序的遗传算法NSGA-Ⅱ实现多目标优化,得到各评价指标之间的最优pareto解集.经验证,各评价模型的相对误差值都很小.结果表明,该优化方法有较好的预测效果和稳定性.通过使用较少的试验数据,建立优化模型的方法对电阻点焊及其它焊接领域最佳焊接工艺参数的选取具有重要的指导价值.

Dynamic simulation of resistance spot welding of zinc-coated steels

A model was developed to simulate the temperature distribution and nugget formation during resistance spot welding （ RS1V） of zinc-coated steels. It employs a coupled thermal-electrical-mechanical analysis simulating the dynamic RSW process. Temperature-dependent thermal-electrical-mechanical material properties were considered including contact-resistance. The contact area was determined from a coupled thermal-mechanical analysis. A layer of transition elements was used to represent the change of contact area by killing or activating elements. The heat generation and temperature field were computed in a coupled thermal-electrical model. All these analyses were solved using the commercial finite element method （FEM） based on ANSYS code, and some advanced functions were used by writing a paragraph of codes by the authors. Compared with the results from only coupled thermal-electrical model in which contact area was uniform during the whole process, the result matches better to the experimental results.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-to-Al dissimilar welded joints with an Ag interlayer using ultrasonic spot welding

Lightweight ZEK100-0 Mg alloy and A16022-T43 Al alloy with an Ag interlayer were joined via ultrasonic spot welding(USW),focusing on the microstructural change and tensile lap shear strength of the welded joints in relation to welding energy.Mg/Al interface was superseded by Mg/Ag and Al/Ag interfaces,and unfavorable Mg门A-intermetallic compound was eliminated.Ag foil was observed to be intact in the nugget center,while it was broken or dissolved at the nugget edge at high welding energy levels.The diffusion layer at the Mg/Ag interface consisted of two distinctive sub-layers:Mg3Ag intermetallic compound adjoining Ag foil,and Mg3Ag-l-Mg eutectic structure adjacent to Mg.Only a thin diffusion layer consisting mainly of Ag3Al occurred al lhe Al/Ag interface.The tensile lap shear strength first increased,reached its peak value,and then decreased with increasing welding energy.The shear strength achieved in the present study was〜31%higher than that of the joint without interlayer.Interfacial failure occurred at all energy levels,with Ag foil particles or fragments being stuck on both Mg and Al sides due to its intense interaction with Mg and Al via accelerated diffusion during USW.The results obtained pave the way for the challenging dissimilar welding between Mg and Al alloys.

Effect of retained austenite and nonmetallic inclusions on the thermal/electrical properties and resistance spot welding nuggets of Si-containing TRIP steels

Five advanced high-strength transformation-induced plasticity(TRIP) steels with different chemical compositions were studied to correlate the retained austenite and nonmetallic inclusion content with their physical properties and the characteristics of the resistance spot welding nuggets. Electrical and thermal properties and equilibrium phases of TRIP steels were predicted using the JMatPro? software. Retained austenite and nonmetallic inclusions were quantified by X-ray diffraction and saturation magnetization techniques. The nonmetallic inclusions were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the contents of Si, C, Al, and Mn in TRIP steels increase both the retained austenite and the nonmetallic inclusion contents. We found that nonmetallic inclusions affect the thermal and electrical properties of the TRIP steels and that the differences between these properties tend to result in different cooling rates during the welding process. The results are discussed in terms of the electrical and thermal properties determined from the chemical composition and their impact on the resistance spot welding nuggets.

Galvanic corrosion of AZ31B joined to dual-phase steel with and without Zn layer by ultrasonic and friction stir welding

Galvanic corrosion of AZ31B joined with bare or Zn-coated DP590 steel by ultrasonic spot welding or linear friction stir welding was quantitatively studied by pre-defining anode and cathode in the lap joint samples. Corrosion volume and depth from Mg anode surfaces exposed to 0.1 M sodium chloride solution was analyzed as functions of cathode surface type and welding method. Characterization of as-welded joints was performed to identify any microstructural feature of the bonding zone that could impact galvanic corrosion behavior.COMSOL modeling with modified user subroutine was conducted to simulate the progression of Mg corrosion in the same joint and electrode configurations used for the corrosion experiments. The experimental results indicated that Zn-coated cathode surface can reduce Mg galvanic corrosion significantly as galvanic polarization and cathodic current on Zn-coated surface remained relatively low for Mg in the weld joints.COMSOL modeling described the growth of Mg galvanic corrosion in a reasonable manner but showed limitation by underestimating the corrosion volume as it did not capture self-corrosion.

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Resistance Spot Welds for Fe-based Metallic Glass

The lap joints of Fe-based metallic glass ribbons were carried by resistance spot welding, and the microstructures of spot welds were investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that the perfect formations of joints without typical defects such as spatter were achieved with optimized parameters. Except for little nano-particle Fe2B, no other crystalline particle was detected by TEM, revealing that the most microstructure in spot weld remains amorphous. The maximum tensile-shearing force was 45.0 N with the optimized parameters of 1 kA weld current, 30 N electrode force and 0.02 ms weld time. The spot weld failed as pullout failure mode propagating along the interface of nugget zone. The study demonstrates that resistance spot welding is an effective and practical welding process for Fe-based metallic glass.

Electrical-thermal interaction simulation for resistance spot welding nugget process of mild steel and stainless steel

A three dimensional finite difference electrical thermal model for resistance spot welding nugget process of mild steel and stainless steel is introduced. A simulation method of the interaction of electrical and thermal factors is presented. Meanwhile, calculation method of contact resistance and treatment method of heater structure is provided. The influence of the temperature dependent material properties and various cooling boundary conditions on welding process was also taken into account in the model. A method for improving the mild steel and stainless steel joint was analyzed in numerical simulation process. Experimental verification shows that the model prediction agrees well with the practice. The model provides a useful theoretic tool for the analysis of the process of resistance spot welding of mild steel and stainless steel.

On-line evaluating on quality of mild steel joints in resistance spot welding

A method was developed to realize quality evaluation on every weld-spot in resistance spot welding based on information processing of artificial intelligent. Firstly, the signals of welding current and welding voltage, as information source, were synchronously collected. Input power and dynamic resistance were selected as monitoring waveforms. Eight characteristic parameters relating to weld quality were extracted from the monitoring waveforms. Secondly, tensile-shear strength of the spot-welded joint was employed as evaluating target of weld quality. Through correlation analysis between every two parameters of characteristic vector, five characteristic parameters were reasonably selected to found a mapping model of weld quality estimation. At last, the model was realized by means of the algorithms of Radial Basic Function neural network and sample matrixes. The results showed validations by a satisfaction in evaluating weld quality of mild steel joint on-line in spot welding process.

Effect of upsetting force on microstructure of welds in resistance spot welding of 400 MPa ultra-fine grain steel

The ultra-fine grain （UFG） steel is welded by using resistance spot welding technique with or without requirement of upsetting force. Metallographic inspection shows that the grain size of weld nugget is larger than that of the base metal and the microstructure is altered significantly. In addition, contracting defects such as air holes can be found in the nugget center. The experiments show that the defects can be effectively avoided by the technique of adding upsetting force during the nugget cooling and crystallizing processes. In tensile shear tests, the welding joint starts to crack from the inner edge of the corona bond. The results of micro-hardness tests show that the newly born martensite structure dramatically improves the hardness of the joint. Under the interactions between residual stresses and regenerated fine grains, the micro-hardness of the heat-affected zone （ HAZ ） is lower than that of the nugget, but evidently higher than that of the base metal.