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Article history:
Received 25 March 2010
Received in revised form 21 July 2010
Accepted 28 July 2010
Keywords:
Resistance spot welding
Deformation behaviour
Advanced high strength steel
TRIP steel
Similar and dissimilar material spot weld
EBSD
SEM
Strain eld
a b s t r a c t
Numerical simulation of component and assembly behaviour under different loading conditions is a main
tool for safety design in automobile body shell mass production. Knowledge of local material behaviour
is fundamental to such simulation tests. As a contribution to the verication of simulation results, the
local deformation properties of spot-welded similar and dissimilar material joints in shear tension tests
were investigated in this study for a TRIP steel (HCT690T) and a micro-alloyed steel (HX340LAD). For
this reason, the local strain distribution was calculated by the digital image correlation technique (DIC).
On the basis of the hardness values and microstructure of the spot welds, the differences in local strain
between the selected material combinations are discussed. Additionally, the retained austenite content
in the TRIP steel was analysed to explain the local strain values. Results obtained in this study regarding
similar material welds suggest signicant lower local strain values of the TRIP steel HCT690T compared
to HX340LAD. One reason could be the decrease of retained austenite in the welded area. Furthermore,
it has been ascertained that the local strain in dissimilar material welds decreases for each component
compared with the corresponding similar material weld.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In the last decade a change in body shell mass production has
occurred in the automotive industry. In answer to the intensifying energy crisis and in order to meet customer requirements
for automobiles such as weight reduction for energy saving and
enhancement of passenger safety, new materials, e.g. advanced
high strength steels (AHSS) have to be applied. These materials
are gaining in popularity due to their high strength in combination with good ductility characteristics compared to traditional
high strength steels, for example micro-alloyed steels [13]. An
important AHSS representative is the so-called TRIP (TRansformation Induced Plasticity) steel dominated by a ferrite matrix with
retained austenite, bainite and martensite as dispersed phases,
offering excellent mechanical properties due to the transformation
of retained austenite into martensite during plastic straining [2,4].
As a result, both strength and uniform strain increase owing to the
appearance of a harder phase and to the additional local plastic
yielding of the surrounding grains related to the transformation
strain [5,6].
In the lightweight body shell mass production of automobiles,
resistance spot welding is the most important joining technique.
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Fig. 1. FE-simulation of local strain behaviour of spot-welded shear tension samples via [6].
2. Experimental
In this study two different types of high strength steels
were selected, including micro-alloyed steel HX340LAD and AHSS
HCT690T. The micro-alloyed steel HX340LAD was chosen because
of its extensive use in the automotive industry for similar material welds (SMW) and above all with regard to its application for
dissimilar material welds (DMW), especially in conjunction with
HCT690T. Table 1 shows an extraction of the chemical composition
and the mechanical properties of the tested steels. Furthermore,
the carbon equivalent (CE) characterised based on Eq. (1) [21] is
listed, too. All steel grades offer a thickness of 1 mm and were hot
dip zinc coated with an average weight of 140 g m2 .
(1)
Table 1
Mechanical properties and an extract of the chemical composition of the base materials, measured via tensile test and Emission Spectrometry.
Steel grade
HX340LAD
HCT690T
370
420
450
750
A (%)
32
30
Mn
Cr
Al
Si
Fe
CE
0.09
0.19
0.78
1.70
0.051
0.027
0.04
1.33
0.15
0.077
Balance
Balance
0.24
0.48
ure. In the interfacial failure mode, the failure occurs through the
nugget, while in the plug and the partial plug failure mode, it occurs
by complete or partial withdrawal of nugget from one sheet, as
schematically shown in Fig. 3.
It is well established that the nugget diameter has an inuence
on the fracture behaviour of spot-welded joints. In simple terms, a
small nugget diameter often results in an interface failure while a
bigger weld nugget normally leads to a plug failure or to a partial
plug failure [15,16]. It is conjecturable that different failure types
lead to modied deformation characteristics. The interface failure
results in negligible deformation of the specimen surface while the
plug failure is characterised by a signicant deformation on the
specimen surface, see Fig. 2. Accordingly, to avoid an inuence of
weld size and fracture type, respectively, on the resulting deforma
tion, a constant nugget diameter of 4.5 t (t = sheet thickness, 1 mm)
was used which induces plug failures in all cases. The samples were
produced using an electromotive controlled welding gun with constant current control and direct-current operation. All specimens
were welded using medium frequency current and electrode caps
of type F16 attened to a face diameter of 5.5 mm. The welding
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Table 2
Welding parameters.
Material
HX340LAD
HCT690T
HCT690T/HX340LAD
3.5
3.5
3.5
8.00
7.20
7.15
12
12
12
Fig. 4. Schematic overview of strain eld measurement with stochastically patterned shear tension specimen.
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Fig. 5. Similar and dissimilar material spot-welded cross-sections, (a) HX340LAD, (b) HX340LAD/HCT690T, (c) HCT690T.
Fig. 6. Hardness proles for similar and dissimilar material spot welds with schematic location of the indentations, (a) HX340LAD, (b) HX340LAD/HCT690T and (c) HCT690T.
Fig. 7. Shear tension test results, (a) loaddisplacement curves, (b) Failure load depending on base metal combination.
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Fig. 8. Local strain x on front and back side of the specimens during shear tension test for (a) HX340LAD, (b) HCT690T and (c) HX340LAD/HCT690T.
Fig. 9. Results of front and back side strain led measurement at the peak load (a) HX340LAD (b)/HCT690T/HX340LAD with schematically indicated nugget location.
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Fig. 10. Maximum local strain l ,max versus shear tension load with visualisation of local strain (a) HX340LAD/HCT690T (b) HCT690T, (c) HX340LAD/HCT690T and (d)
HX340LAD.
shear tension loads with rising base metal strength. Previous work
concerning the inuence of the softer material part in DMW has
also shown that the softer material component leads to a decrease
of the failure load [25].
Furthermore, the decrease in displacement, shown in Fig. 7a,
points out that DMW of HX340LAD/HCT690T offer lower
deformability compared to the base metal combination of
HX340LAD/HX340LAD.
Fig. 11. Cross-section with hardness values (a) HX340LAD, (b) HCT690T, (c) HX340LAD/HX340LAD.
7105
Fig. 12. SEM-fractography of spot weld fracture areas, (a) HX340LAD, (b) HCT690T, HX340LAD/HCT690T.
However, since the softer material signicantly determines the failure load in DMW, the peak load of DMW is lower than in SMW
of TRIP steel HCT690T.At the maximum local strain (peak load),
the HX340LAD component offers values of up to 12% while the
HCT690T component exhibits a value of 3.5%, Fig. 10a and c. Therefore, a nearly similar decrease of the DMW local strain values of up
to 20% is found for both steel parts in comparison to the corresponding SMW. Consequently, the combination of different materials in
RSW results in a major decrease of the peak load associated with
a drop in maximum local strain relating to the stronger material
part. Concerning the softer material component, only the maximum local strain is reduced, however without any inuence on the
fracture behaviour.
The differences in local strain values between the tested sheet
metal combinations are reected in the fracture behaviour, Fig. 11.
The micrographs of the cross-section for the micro-alloyed steel
HX340LAD and the DMW (HX340LAD/HCT690T) show that fracture
happened in the HAZ/base metal transition zone approximately
1 mm away from the nugget circumference after signicant necking, Fig. 11a and c. In the DMW, fracture happened in the softer
material part (HX340LAD). Lin et al. [17] have performed nite element analyses of the failure modes of spot welds and have shown
that when necking failure occurs at the distance in the order of
the thickness away from the notch tip, the ductility of the material near the notch or crack along the nugget circumference is high.
This result corresponds well with the local strain values discussed
above.
Unlike the micro-alloyed steel HX340LAD where fracture happened only in the HAZ/base metal transition zone, the TRIP steel
HCT690T fracture started directly in the HAZ region with the maximum hardness gradient (nearly 526 HV 378 HV, Fig. 6b) and
propagated into the region with reduced hardness and strength,
Fig. 10b. Based on the outcomes of [17] this behaviour could be
attributed to lower ductility of the material near the notch which
leads to initiation of kinked cracks at the critical locations of the
notch seen in Fig. 10b.
To examine the deformation behaviour in more detail, SEM analyses of the fracture region were performed, Fig. 12. Due to the
fact that the shape of the dimples depends on the loading conditions, the plug failure under tensile loading predominantly results
in equiaxed dimples while shear loading will create elongated dimples [15]. Fig. 12a shows the results of SEM for the micro-alloyed
7106
Fig. 13. Force distribution at nugget centreline and circumference during shear
tensile test [15].
steel HX340LAD (SMW). It can be seen that the dimples signicantly elongated indicate that the fracture happened under shear
load. This result is opposite to the work of Chao [7] who studied
failure mechanisms of pullout occurring in RSW during the shear
test. In contrast, the TRIP steel HCT690T exhibits equiaxed dimples
in the fracture zone which are typical of a tensile fracture mechanism Fig. 12b. In the case of DMW, elongated dimples are observed
(Fig. 12c) that implies similar behaviour to SMW of HX340LAD
(fracture under shear load).
The differences in fracture mechanisms (shear, tensile) between
TRIP steel HCT690T and micro-alloyed steel HX340LAD could be
explained by the simple model for stress distribution in spot welds
under shear tensile load seen in Fig. 13. Shear stresses are dominant at the interface. At the nugget circumference, the stress nature
is tensile shear at position A and compressive at position B [15].
Owing to the macroscopic rotation of the weld, not only tensile
shear force F| is produced at the spot weld but also cross-tension
force F, whereas with resign rotation angle the cross-tension
force F increases:
F = F sin
(2)
F = F sin
(3)
Fig. 14. Retained austenite (blue) in TRIP steel HCT690T base metal. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the
web version of the article.)
Fig. 15. Temperature eld at the peak temperature of spot-welded TRIP steel HCT690T with spot weld diameter of 4.5 mm determined by FE software Sorpas (a), coolingdown-curves for three measurement points in the HAZ (b).
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Fig. 16. Results of EBSD measurement near the crack path area; black and red marked areas correspond to fcc structure, blue marked areas correspond to bcc structure.
4. Conclusions
In this study, deformation behaviour of SMW and DMW in shear
tension test was investigated using a system for optical strain led
analysis. This was accomplished applying hardness values of the
weld and HAZ, loaddisplacement curves as well as loadstrain
curves. SEM and EBSD analyses were carried out to characterise
the deformation behaviour in the fracture area.
The following essential conclusions can be drawn:
The failure load does not show a linear increase with the base
metal strength. Failure loads of dissimilar material welds are
located between the analysed similar material welds with a sig-
7108
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