• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.148-159
• /
• 1998

Spot welding palys a key role in increasing productivity and weight reduction of the final products. This paper proposes a systematic approach on the design of spot weld configuration, dealing with the requried number and location of spot weld joints under the given design parameters, such as the applied loads, lap area, and individual spot weld strength. The optimal design of a spot-welded joint is postulated as a state when the safety factors of all spot weld points (i) are evenly distributed and (ii) reach maximum value. A CAD program is developed to arrange the optimal location of each spot weld based on the derived objective function and constraints. The CAD tool integrates the optimization procedure with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) code through an interface. The interface automatically provides geometrical data and mesh configuration for different spot weld locations to FEA model. It also extracts the transmitted load of each spot weld from the FEA code, and allows the optimization code predict an improved arrangement of spot weld locations. The feasibility of the developed approach is demonstrated by the selected examples.