Temperature Dependent Behavior of Thermal and Electrical Contacts during Resistance Spot Welding

The thermal contact conductance at different temperatures and with different electrode forces and zinc coating morphology was measured by monitoring the infrared emissions from the one dimensionally simulated contact heat transfer experiments. The contact heat transfer coefficients were presented as a function of the harmonic mean temperature of the two contacting surfaces. Using these contact heat transfer coefficients and experimentally measured temperature profiles, the electrical contact resistivities both for the faying interface and electrode-workpiece interface were deduced from the numerical analyses of the one dimension simulation welding. It was found that the average value of the contact heat transfer coefficients for the material with zinc coating (coating weight from 0 g/$mm^2$to 100 g/$mm^2$) ranges from 0.05 W/$mm^2$$^{\circ}C$ to 2.0 W/$mm^2$$^{\circ}C$ in the temperature range above 5$0^{\circ}C$ harmonic mean temperature of the two contacting surfaces. The electrical contact resistivity deduced from the one dimension simulation welding and numerical analyses showed that the ratio of electrical contact resistivity at the laying interface to the electrical contact resistivity at the electrode interface is smaller than one far both bare steel and zinc coated steel.