Abstract

Weld-bonding process is increasingly used in many industries such like automobile and aerospace. It offers significant improvements of sheet metal joints in static, dynamic, corrosion, noise resistance, stiffness and impact toughness properties. A full understanding of this process, including the elastic-plastic stress distribution in the joint, is a must for joints design and automation of manufacturing. Also, the modelling and analysis of this process, though it is complex, proves to be of prime importance. Thus, in this study a systematic experimental and theoretical study employing Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is conducted on the weld-bonded joint, fabricated from Austenitic Stainless steel (AISI 304) sheets of 1.00 mm thickness and Epoxy adhesive Araldite 2011, subjected to axial loading. Complete 3-D finite element models are developed to evaluate the normal, shear and triaxial Von Mises stresses distributions across the entire joint, in both the elastic and plastic regions. The, needed quantities and properties, for the FE modelling and analysis, of the base metals and the adhesive, such like the elastic-plastic properties, modulus of elasticity, fracture limit, the nugget and Heat Affected Zones (HAZ) properties, etc., are obtained from the experiments. The stress distribution curves obtained are found to be consistent with those obtained from the FE models and in excellent agreement with the experimental and theoretical published data, particularly in the elastic region. Furthermore, the stress distribution curves obtained for the weld-bonded joint display the best uniform smooth distribution curves compared to those obtained for the spot and bonded joint cases. The stress concentration peaks at the edges of the weld-bonded region, are almost eliminated resulting in achieving the strongest joint.

Keywords:

Adhesives, bonding, FE modelling, Heat Affected Zones (HAZ), joining, spot welding, stress distribution, weld-bonding,

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