• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.499-505
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• 2001

In order to classify the mechanical phenomena of thermal elasto-plastic behavior on the multi-spot welded joints, this study has tried to carry out three-dimensional thermal elasto-plastic analysis on them. However, because the shape of multi-spot welded joints is not taxi-symmetric, unlike the cafe of single-spot welded joint, the solution domain for simulation should be three dimension. Therefore, in this paper, firstly, the three-dimensional thermal elasto-plastic program is developed by an iso-parametric finite element method. Secondly, from the results analyzed by developed program, this has clarified mechanical characteristics and their production mechanism on single and multi-spot waled joints. Moreover, it has been intended to make clear effects of pitch length on welding residual stresses, plastic strain of multi-spot welded joints.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.121-126
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• 2002

The railroad cars or the commercial vehicles are generally manufactured by the spot welding. Among various kinds of spot welded lap joints, multi-lap joints are one of popular joints in manufacturing their body structures. But, fatigue strength of these joints are lower than that of base metal due to high stress concentration at the nugget edge of the spot weld and are known to considerably be influenced by welding conditions as well as the mechanical and geometrical factors. Thus, it is necessary to establish a reasonable and systematic fatigue design criterion for spot welded multi-lap joints. In this paper, the $\Delta$P-N$_{f}$ curves has been rearranged in the $\Delta$$\sigma$-N$_{f}$ relation with the maximum stress at the nugget edge of spot welded multi-lap joints subjected to tensile shear load. Consequently, the fatigue data were evaluated in terms of fracture mechanics by plotting on the $\Delta$OP-N$_{f}$ curves. From the results obtained, both of them have been revealed to be applicable to fatigue design of spot welded multi-lap joints. However, the fracture mechanical approach is found to be more effective than the maximum stress approach in the range on N$_{f}$$\geq$2x10$^{5}$ . .

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.101-107
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• 2003

Since stainless steel sheets have good mechanical properties, weldability, appearance and corrosion resistance, they are commonly used as one of the structural materials of the railroad cars or the commercial vehicles which are manufactured by the spat welding. Among the many kinds of spot welded lap joints, it can be found that multi-lap joints are employed in their body structure. But, fatigue strength of these joints is lower than that of base metal due to high stress concentration at the nugget edge of spot weld and is considerably influenced by welding conditions as well as the mechanical and geometrical factors. Thus, it is necessary to establish a reasonable and systematic design criterion for the long life design of the spot-welded body structures. In this paper, the stress distribution and deformation around the spot-welded multi-lap joints subjected to tensile shear load was numerically analyzed. Also, the $\Delta$P-Nf curve was obtained by fatigue tests. Using these results, $\Delta$P-Nf curves were rearranged in to the ${\Delta}{\sigma}$-Nf relation with the maximum stress at nugget edge of spot weld.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.809-815
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• 2002

For clarifying the mechanical phenomena of thermal elasto-plastic behavior on the multi-spot welded joints, this study has tried to carry out three-dimensional thermal elasto-plastic analysis on them. However, because the shape of multi-spot welded joints is not axi-symmetric, unlike the case of single-spot welded joint, the solution domain for simulation should be three-dimensional. Therefore, in this paper, from the results analyzed using the developed the three dimensional unstationary heat conduction and thermal elasto-plastic programs by an iso-parametric finite element method, mechanical characteristics and their production mechanism on single- and multispot welded joints were clarified. Moreover, effects of pitch length on temperature, welding residual stresses and plastic strain of multi-spot welded joints were evaluated, indicating that a pitch of 30mm was advantageous compared to a pitch of 15mm.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.481-487
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• 2006

Spot-welding is a widely used manufacturing method for thin-sheet components, especially in mass-production industries such as the car industry. Automobiles are often constructed by multi-lap spot welding to secure the passenger from the accident, where optimisation of the welding conditions is a major economic consideration. This research is conducted to investigate weldability characteristics with various welding conditions on the 4-lap spot welded joint of structural steel sheets in automobile. The relationship between the tensile-shear strength and the indentation depth has been investigated to propose the optimum welding conditions. The welding current and the welding time have a greater effect on the welding characteristics than the electrode force. It was found that the electrode force has a relatively close relationship with the expulsion occurrence. The design curves for optimum welding are proposed for the 4-lap spot welded joint.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.36-36
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• 2008

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.42-49
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• 2005

In general, multi-lap spot weld joints are frequently present in automobile. Most research, however, has been focused on the single-lap spot weld joints until now. In this paper, tensile-shear strength tests are performed to examine the weldability of 3-lap spot joint welded by using the high strength steel sheet and the zinc coated steel sheet. The indentation depth and nugget diameter are used to propose the optimum welding conditions. The weldability is affected by the welding current and welding time for 3-lap spot joint. Meanwhile the expulsions is round to decrease with the increase of electrode force. The optimum welding conditions are presented for 3-lap spot joints of high strength steel sheet and zinc coated steel sheet.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.3 s.174
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• pp.701-709
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• 2000

As the welding spot forms a singular geometry of an external crack type, fatigue failure of spot-welded specimens can be evaluated by means of a fracture parameter. Recasting the load vs. fatigue life relationships experimentally obtained, we predicted the fatigue life of spot-weld specimens with a single parameter denoted the equivalent stress intensity factor. This crack driving parameter is demonstrated to successfully describe the effects of specimen geometry and loading type in a comprehensive manner. The suggested fatigue life formula for a single spot weld can play a key role in the design and assessment of spot-welded panel structures, in that the fatigue strength of multi-spots is eventually determined by the fatigue strength of each single spot. We therefore attempt to evaluate the effectiveness and validity of $K_e$ in predicting the fatigue life of auto seat belt anchor panel. We first establish finite element models reflecting the actual mechanical behavior of 3 types of seat belt anchor specimens. Using finite element models elaborately established, we then obtain the effective crack driving parameter $K_e$ composed of its ductility -dependent modal components. It is confirmed that the $K_e$ concept successfully predicts the fatigue life of multi-spot welded panel structures represented by auto seat belt anchors here.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.179-185
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• 2008

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic method on the weld pitch design of a vehicle sub-frame considering the fatigue life of spot welding points. The input data, which perform the fatigue analysis on the spot welding nuggets, are obtained by both the dynamic analysis of the multi-body vehicle model passing through the virtual proving ground of a typical Belgian road and the quasi-static analysis with the finite element model of the vehicle sub-frame. By utilizing the life cycle data obtained from the fatigue analysis, the welding points to perform the pitch change are determined. The sensitivity analysis on the fatigue life of the welding points is carried out by using the three-level orthogonal array design, and through the results of the sensitivity analysis, the best combination on the welding pitch is determined. This study shows that as compared with the baseline design, the sub-frame redesigned by the proposed technique improves the fatigue life about 7 percent while reducing the number of welding points about 19 percent.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.270-273
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• 2001