Numerical Analysis and Modelling of Resistance Spot Welded DP600 Steel Sheets

This study presents a numerical analysis of spot-welded DP600 steel sheets to evaluate the strength of the spot-welded joint and damage model under tensile-shear loading conditions. The quality of spot-welded joint is highly dependent on process parameter, material properties and setting on the equipment. Experimental testing is commonly used method to validate the spot-weld quality, but it is costly and time consuming. The present work aims to verify the capability of FEM simulation to model the spot-welding process and generate a reliable result. The spot weld is modeled according to a standardized dimension using a non-linear FEM simulation. The main parameters used to simulate the spot-welding process are current, electrode pressure, and weld cycle. The boundary conditions were set-up in the simulation according to mechanism applied in real application and experiment. As spot weld is governed by electrical-thermal, mechanical, and metallurgical, it has been observed that the material plasticity, thermal and electrical contact conductivity are critical input in spot welding simulation. The simulation result obtained from this study is useful for future works to validate the spot-welding behavior in the FE simulation compared with experiment.