© 2017 IJSRST | Volume 3 | Issue 7 | Print ISSN: 2395-6011 | Online ISSN: 2395-602X

Themed Section: Science and Technology

693
Study on Finite Element Analysis of Resistance Spot Welding
to Study Nugget Formation
Dr. R. Ramachandra
Principal & Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SKD Engineering College, Gooty, Andhra Pradesh,
India

ABSTRACT

Resistance Spot Welding is being used inside the enterprise for sheet becoming a member of system in particular
within the automobile and aerospace industry. The complicated behavior of this system must be analyzed to set the
choicest parameters to get the choicest weld great. This paper affords the FEA simulation of the RSW procedure. It
requires modelling of complex interactions among electrical, thermal, metallurgical and mechanical phenomena. A
2d axis symmetric FEM model has been evolved to examine the temporary thermal behaviors of technique the usage
of ANSYS software and matched structural thermoelectric evaluation is done by means of the usage of superior
coupled field detail PLANE223 to simulate the thermal characteristics of RSW technique. The targets of this
evaluation is to understand physics of the system and to expand a predictive device lowering the range of
experiments for the optimization of welding parameters.

Keywords: RSW, Coupled Analysis, weld nugget, Temperature distribution

I. INTRODUCTION reputation, section changing and paired discipline effects

into the simulation of RSW. To clear up the coupled
Resistance welding is the maximum commonly used hassle, iterative answer process is an regularlyfollowed
method for becoming a member of metallic sheets. An approach. first of all the pressure subject and call status
electro conductive touch surface is created among the are received from the thermalmechanical analysis and
work pieces with the aid of pressing them together. then the temperature field is obtained from the
Watercooled electrodes made from alloyed copper are completely coupled thermalelectrical analysis primarily
utilized in resistance welding. Electrodes convey a based at the contact vicinity on the electrode workpiece
urgent pressure to the joint and direct the welding interface and faying floor. The calculated temperature
cutting-edge to the joint in the correct manner. After subject is then exceeded again to the thermalstructural
welding, the electrodes swiftly cool down the welded analysis to update the stress discipline and speak to
joint. Resistance spot welding is a complicated system in popularity. The goal of this paper is to expand a multi-
which coupled interactions exist among electric, thermal, coupled technique to analyse the thermal and
mechanical, metallurgical phenomena and even floor mechanical behaviors of RSW technique, reduce the
behaviors. in the recent years, finite detail method has computing time with the minimal lack of accuracy and
provided a effective device in reading these interactions get more ok facts of the method.
and lots of related works have been carried out at the
FEM modelling of RSW. Nied developed the primary
FEA version for RSW technique, investigated the impact 1.1 Spot Welding Cycle
of the geometry of electrode on workpiece and
anticipated the deformation and stresses as a function of Figure 1 indicates the spot welding system. The
temperature. Moreover, many researchers developed RSW process is composed of four levels as
extra state-of-the-art FEA fashions that considered follows; a) Squeeze cycle time for the duration of
temperature established cloth properties, touch which the upper electrode is introduced in contact

IJSRST1737136 | Received : 01 Oct 2017 | Accepted : 15 Oct 2017 | September-October-2017 [(3) 7: 693-698]
 20
with the sheets and a force is exerted at the region 2.2 Material models and welding conditions
that wishes to be welded. b) Weld cycle time in the
course of which contemporary is turned on and Temperature various properties are considered for
resistance to modern-day waft on the sheet copper electrode and slight metallic sheets. The
interface produces a nugget. c) keep cycle – time for residences assigned are thermal conductivity,
the duration of which the modern-day is grew to resistivity, young’s modulus, coefficient of thermal
become off and the fully grown nugget is permitted growth, yield stress, specific heat and phone
to chill and solidify slowly beneath constant resistivity. Those temperature structured homes are
pressure. d) Off cycle time at some point of which assigned inside the range of 21ºC to 1204ºC [4]. In
the electrode is raised from the welded sheets. modelling RSW manner with the complex
Watercooled electrodes made from alloyed copper thermoelectric behavior, several bodily phenomena
are used in resistance welding. After welding, the have to be considered. It is of brilliant significance
electrodes swiftly quiet down the welded joint. The to define the parameters effectively to obtain
three fundamental welding parameters are: a) correct results. Considering that electric powered
contemporary b) force and c) weld time. these kind present day has terrific have an effect on on the
of parameters need to be controlled successfully first-rate of RSW procedure, the enter cutting-edge
with a purpose to produce a good fine weld. in this simulation is 50 Hz sine wave AC modern of
10 kA, applied for two hundred ms. The cutting-
II. Finite Element Analysis
edge is imposed as an electric load at the top floor of
higher electrode. To simulate the cooling system of
2.1 FEA model and mesh
the welding, the hold time is taken as 60 ms. A force
of 3000 N is implemented on the higher electrode
FEA model of RSW process is shown in Fig 3
that is equal to the pneumatic pressure applied at
and 4, which is axisymmetric about y axis since
the sheets. The maximum important property
only half portion of the complete model is
within the simulation of RSW process is the
analysed. The x axis is the contact surface of the
contact resistivity of faying surface. To simplify
two sheets called as faying surface. The model is
the problem, the contact resistivity is considered
meshed using three elements; PLANE223,
as a function of temperature.
CONTA172 AND TARGE169. The element
PLANE223 with structural thermoelectric
capabilities has eight nodes with up to four
degrees of freedom per node. It has UX, UY,
TEMP and VOLT degrees of freedom. The other
elements are contact elements consisting of
contact pair of CONTA172 and TARGE169. Contact
occurs when the element surface penetrates one
of the target segment elements (TARGE169) on a
specified target surface. Any translational or
rotational displacement, forces, moments,
temperature, voltage and magnetic potential can be
imposed on the target segment element. [6] [7]

Figure 1: Spot welding process

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in contact with the circulating cooling water with
initial temperature of 10ºC [5].

III. Results And Discussions

The FEM version is hired to simulate the RSW

technique as a way to quantitatively recognize the
outcomes of the method parameters on temperature
distribution and the nugget length at exceptional
cycles. The strain and stress fields in the weldment
all through the RSW method are very complex due to
the aggregate of temperature and electrode pressure.
at the squeeze degree, the electrodes and work
Figure 2: FEA model of RSW process portions are deformed below the utility of the burden.

Figure 4: Boundary conditions

Figure 3: Mesh of the FEA m

2.2 Boundary conditions

Figure 4 shows the boundary conditions imposed

for the analysis. The upper face of top electrode
and lower face of bottom electrode are constrained
in x and y directions. A voltage difference is applied
across the top face of upper electrode and bottom
face of lower electrode. The convection coefficient
of air (21 W/m2 ºC) is applied on faces of
electrode and sheet which are open to environment.
The convection coefficient of water (300 W/m2 ºC) Figure 5: Distribution of Von Mises stress during
is applied on the inner faces of electrodes which are squeeze stage

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loads in the thermo mechanical model. The final
Figure. 5 shows the Von Mises stress distribution nugget size is obtained at the end of holding time
after the squeezing stage. The most stress (281 because there is some deformation in the welding
MPa.) happens at the edge of the touch floor zone when the weldment cools due to the electrode
between the electrode and the work piece. The pressure and material shrinkage. As the electric
touch pressure on the WE interface is reasonably current ceases at 0.3 s, the weldment starts to
uniformly in most people around the axis and cool down. In a very short time, the temperature
inside the area near the electrode part, there is of the nugget center decreases. The temperature
intense stress awareness. The welding residual at the center of electrodeworkpiece interface
pressure is produced in welded joint as a result of decreases more slowly but continuously. Fig 7
plastic deformation caused by nonuniform thermal shows the temperature distribution at the end of
enlargement and contraction because of non- the hold period i.e. after the weld current is
uniform temperature distribution within the switched off.
welding procedure. The deformation at the stop of
keep step is extremely massive than that of the
squeeze step. This means a great deal deformation
is produced within the RSW process due to the
thermal growth. Fig 6 suggests the temperature
profile and nugget growth at the time when nugget
begin to form. On the start of the welding process,
the temperature on the center of faying surface will
increase very fast. The highest temperature
remains at the middle of the faying floor for the
duration of the complete welding method. Melting
first occur on the faying floor after which increase
to the fabric near it. Because of the resistance
presented to the go with the flow of cutting-edge on
the faying surfaces, Joule warmth is generated at Figure 6: Temperature distribution at the time
this surfaces that's extra than the heat generated at nugget started to form
other points on the weld surfaces. The nugget is
formed within the 10 th cycle of the welding
process assuming 1530 ºC because the melting
factor of moderate metal. The spot nugget vicinity
seems as crimson in colour. The weld nugget is
close to the elliptical form. The best temperature
usually remains within the middle of the workpiece
and the temperature away form the faying
surface decreases due to transfer of heat by
convection of air and cooling water. By changing
the welding conditions, the temperature profile
could be varied which in turn changes the
nugget size i.e. the welding quality. During the
holding time in which the current is set to zero,
Figure 7: Temperature distribution at the end of
convection and squeezing forces are only external
hold time

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The size of the weld nugget decreases slightly as
compared to the size at the end of weld cycle.
This is because the heat generation is stopped
due to switching off the weld current. Also there
is convective heat transfer from the heated
surfaces of the sheets and the electrodes. Figure
8 shows the temperature variation along the
contact surfaces of the two mild steel sheets i.e.
faying surface. In the first stage of the process,
since only force is applied on the surfaces, there
is no heat generation and hence the temperature
Figure 8: Temperature variation along the faying remains constant. After the current is passed
surface through the electrodes, there is generation of heat
due to Joule effect and the temperature at the
contact surfaces starts increasing. The
temperature keeps on increasing till the time
current flows through the electrodes. The
maximum temperature of 1559 ºC is obtained at
the end of 10th weld cycle. After this time, the
current is switched off and there is decrease in
temperature due to loss of heat by convection of
air and cooling water. At the end of hold period,
the temperature reached is 842ºC. Figure 9 shows
the variation of temperature along the workpiece-
sheet interface. The nugget size obtained is 2.75
Figure 9: Temperature variation along the
mm. Figure 10 shows the distribution of Von
workpieceelectrode interface
mises stress along the faying surface and Figure
Distribution of Von mises stresses along the faying
11 shows the variation of nugget diameter with
surface
temperature.
IV. CONCLUSION

A multicoupled structural thermoelectric analysis is

accomplished on the RSW procedure. This multi-
coupled method can successfully provide sufficient
details of RSW process and increase the great
monitoring and method control of RSW. Because of
the mixture of temperature and electrode force, the
strain and pressure fields are very complex inside the
weldment. During the welding cycles there's
compressive stress within the touch place of faying
floor, that's beneficial for suitable metallurgical shape,
forming a condensed weld nugget. Through the
Figure 11: Variation of nugget diameter with
thermal histories and temperature distributions
temperature

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obtained from this evaluation, the geometry and
dimensions of the nugget can be calculated.

V. REFERENCES

[1]. Guo Zhong, “Finite element analysis of resistance

spot welding process”, 9781 424427239/09, 2009
Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC
2009), P 57995802.
[2]. Vural, A. Akkus¸, B. Ery¨urek, “Effect of welding
nugget diameter on the fatigue strength of the
Resistance spot welded joints of different steel
sheets”, Journal of Materials Processing
Technology,176(2006) 127–132
[3]. H. Zhigang , I.S. Kim , J.S. Son , H.H. Kim , J.H.
Seo, K.C. Jang,D.K. Lee, J.M. Kuk, “A study on
numerical analysis of the resistance spot welding
process”, Vol 14, Issue 12, Journal of
achievements in materials and manufacturing
engineering, JanuaryFebruary 2006.
[4]. Hou Zhigang, Wang Yuanxun, Li Chunzhi, Chen
Chuanyao, “A multicoupled finite element
analysis of resistance spot welding process”,
Acta Mechanica Solida Sinica, Vol. 19, No. 1,
March, 2006.
[5]. Hamid Eisazadeh , Mohsen Hamedi, Ayob
Halvaee, “New parametric study of nugget size in
resistance spot welding process using finite
element method”, Journal of Materials and
design, Elsevier, 31 (2010) 149 157.
[6]. Zhigang Hou, IllSoo Kim,Yuanxun Wang ,
Chunzhi Li, Chuanyao Chen, “Finite element
analysis for the mechanical features of resistance
spot welding process”, Journal of Materials
Processing Technology 185 (2007) 160165.
[7]. Ansys 11.0 Documentation manual, 2010.

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