International Journal of Fatigue 29 (2007) 620627

International Journalof Fatigue

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Observation and prediction of fatigue behavior of spot welded joints with triple thin steel plates under tensile-shear loading
Byoung-Ho Choi
a c

a,*

, Dong-Ho Joo b, Sam-Hong Song

Plastics R&D, The Dow Chemical Company, 2301 N. Brazosport Blvd., Freeport, TX 77541, USA b Rinnai Korea, 560-2 Sipjeong 1-dong, Pupyoung-gu, Inchon, Republic of Korea Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, 1 5-ga Anam-dong, Sungbuk-ku, Seoul, Republic of Korea Received 6 October 2005; received in revised form 20 July 2006; accepted 23 July 2006 Available online 11 October 2006

Abstract Spot welding is very commonly used for joining two thin plates, which has useful application in the automotive, aerospace and other industries. For having a complex structure with spot welds, it is necessary to study the fracture and fatigue behavior of spot welds with multiple plates. When tensile-shear load applied to the spot welded structure, the spot welded structure may be deformed into an asymmetric shape when using two or more plates of dierent thickness. In this paper, fatigue behavior of spot welded triple plates is examined experimentally and the prediction of fatigue lifetime is proposed by the crack opening angle (COA) around the spot weld. The COA obtained experimentally is directly related with well-known fracture parameter, i.e. stress intensity factor, and the COA can be used for the prediction of fatigue strength regardless of the thickness of specimen if the geometry of triple plates is the same. The two dierent types of spot welded structures were considered to determine the dierence of fatigue behavior due to the geometry of spot welding of triple plates under tensile-shear loading. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fatigue limit; Crack opening angle; Fatigue lifetime; Spot weldments

1. Introduction Spot welding is very commonly used for joining two thin plates, which has useful application in the automotive, aerospace and other industries. Many studies have been performed on the mechanism of fracture of spot welded structures (e.g. Pook [1], Radaj [2], Cooper and Smith [3], Zhang [4]), but most have been focused on spot welds between two plates. Industry has been requiring more and more complex structures, so spot welding for multiple plates is needed depending on the process of structural fabrication. So, its important to have the evaluation of fatigue life based on the variation of geometry and plate thickness between multiple plates.
*

Corresponding author. E-mail address: cqbiho@hanmail.net (B.-H. Choi).

Song et al. [5] executed fatigue tests of spot welded specimen under tensile-shear loading with various thicknesses on two steel plate carbon C (SPCC) plates, which is dened in Korean standards (KS D 3512), and they dierentiated three failure modes: tear failure, button failure and shear failure. Sawhill et al. [6] proposed practical lifetime of spot welded structure as 106 cycles. Song et al. [5] and Zhang and Taylor [7] reported the thickness eect of spot welded structure on fatigue life. Pook [1] introduced stress intensity factors with assuming mixed modes (mode I and mode II) applied to nugget tip which was considered as a sharp notch. Zhang [8] and Pan and Sheppard [9] calculated stress intensity factors (SIFs) for crack propagation through the thickness of plate by numerically by nite element analysis. An interesting approach based on numerical interpolation technique developed by Rule was proposed to predict the ultimate

0142-1123/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2006.07.016

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strength and fatigue life of various geometries between two plates by Kang and Barkley [10]. Davidson [11,12] proposed a system-stiness approach to analyze the eect of fatigue strength of a spot welded structure with various variables. He also proposed that the crack opening angle (COA) is a good parameter, which has a direct correlation with SIFs. Song et al. [13] applied
Table 1 Chemical composition of test material C Composition (wt%) 0.025 Mn 0.14 P 0.012 S 0.011

the COA concept for the lifetime prediction of a multiple-spot structure, and they reported good agreement with experimental results.

Table 2 Mechanical properties of test material Yield stress (MPa) 221.5 Tensile stress (MPa) 331.2 Elongation (%) 45 Youngs modulus (GPa) 220 Hardness (HV) 110

Spot weld

Specimen

Table 3 Optimized welding condition Welding force (kN) 3.433 Welding current (kA) 11.88 Welding time (cycle) 10 Nugget diameter of spot welds (mm) 5.8

Grips Insert (metal strip)

Fig. 2. Schematics of grips with an insert.

D 5.8 nugget

30
270

Type A Specimen

t: thickness of middle plate t=0.5mm, 0.8mm and 1.0mm

Type B Specimen

t: thickness of middle plate t=0.5mm, 0.8mm and 1.0mm

Fig. 1. Geometry of specimen and denition of coordinate system.

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In this paper, the static and fatigue behavior of spot welded triple thin plates under tensile-shear loading for two dierent types of specimens based on geometry dierence is studied experimentally. The variation of static fracture properties according to geometry and size of nugget is investigated by visual and mechanical tests following Korean standards, KS B 0850. Fatigue characteristics of two dierent types of specimens fabricated by spot welded triple thin plates with variation of thickness and geometry is studied. Finally, the relationship between fatigue lifetime of both types of specimens under tensile shear loading and COA measured by optical observation is examined, and the empirical equation of the prediction of fatigue lifetime under tensile-shear loading is proposed. 2. Experiment In Tables 1 and 2, the chemical composition and mechanical properties of test the materials are shown.

The test material is a cold rolled steel alloy, steel plate carbon C (SPCC), as dened in KS D 3512. The major application of this type of steel is for automotive chases. We tested the preliminary spot welded samples, and we nally chose proper welding conditions (Grade A) for spot welding of triple plates, and which is shown in Table 3. The grade of spot welding was determined by following KS B0850, and required tests for this standard are appearance, cross-section, and shear-tension tests. For the spot welding process, CF type electrode with 16 mm of diameter was used. There were two dierent types of specimens used for this experiment, Type A and Type B. Both types had a small piece which is inserted between two major plates. In Fig. 1, the geometry of specimen is shown. Those two types of specimen are designed for understanding the variation of failure mechanism according to the geometry of middle plate. By inserting the middle plate, the stress distribution around spot weld is changed, hence the fatigue life of spot

Fig. 3. Microstructure of welded joint by etching. (a) Thickness of middle plate = 0.5 mm; (b) thickness of middle plate = 0.8 mm and (c) thickness of middle plate = 1.0 mm.

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welded structures having dierent geometry of middle plate will be varied. To observe the dierence of metallic structural morphology after spot welding, the spot welded part of the specimen is cut and etched with 3% Nital solution, and observed by optical microscope. Fatigue test were executed by an Instron hydraulic fatigue tester with stress ratio (R) of 0.1 and frequency of 10 Hz of sinusoidal wave, so the specimen is under tensile-shear loading. At gripping position, an insert of steel strip is used for avoiding the eccentric load during the fatigue test due to specimen geometries which is shown in Fig. 2. The thickness of the insert is changed based on the thickness of middle plate. Radaj [14] reported that the failure mechanism should be interpreted via moments and axial interaction if the centerlines of upper and lower plate are not the same. So, it is important to eliminate the initial moments due to the eccentricity of spot welded plates. 3. Nugget shape and tensile test To observe the geometry and the metallic structure of the nugget, the spot welded specimen is cut and etched as shown in Fig. 3. The nugget, heat aected zone (HAZ) and base metal, are three distinct zones that are clearly differentiated by optical microscope. Due to the heating and cooling process and applied load by electrodes during spot welding, the structure of the nugget is much more dense structure than the base metal. The size of nugget and HAZ can be dened quantitatively by Microvickers hardness test, and this test can be used for checking compatibility of spot welding. In Fig. 4, the results of Microvickers hardness are shown. The specimen is cut in the longitudinal direction, and Microvickers hardness was measured at the middle plate. Maximum hardness is observed at nugget area ($HV300) and minimum hardness at base metal is about HV110. In the nugget region, there are some scatters of Microvickers hardness by the inhomogeneous metallic structure during the spot welding process. HAZ can be dened as a transient area of hardness from high to low (from nugget to base metal). The size of nugget for all cases decreases slightly as the thickness of middle plate increases. However, the size of HAZ for all cases is similar. In Fig. 5, the results of the tensile test are shown. The fracture type for all cases is tear fracture as dened by Song et al. [5], so the compatibility of spot weld for all cases is conrmed. Type B specimen shows a higher value of both yield stress and tensile stress compared with the Type A specimen. The thickness of the middle plate had little eect on the yield stress with the exception of the Type A sample with the 0.5 mm thick middle plate, as shown in Table 4. 4. Discussion on fatigue test results Fatigue limit of spot welded specimens under tensileshear loading is dened as the applied load range at lifetime

320

Microvickers hardness the thicknes of middle plate: 0.5mm

Nugget HAZ Base metal

280

Microviskers hardness, HV

240

200

centerline

160

120

Nugget
80 0 1 2

HAZ Base metal

3 4 5 6 7 8

a
320

Distance from the center line of nugget (mm) Microvickers hardness the thicknes of middle plate: 0.8mm
Nugget HAZ Base metal

280

Microviskers hardness, HV

240

200

centerline

160

120

Nugget
80 0 1 2

HAZ Base metal

3 4 5 6 7 8

b
320

Distance from the center line of nugget (mm)

Microvickers hardness the thicknes of middle plate: 1.0mm

280

Microviskers hardness, HV

Nugget
240

HAZ

Base metal

200

centerline
160

120

Nugget
80 0 1 2

HAZ Base metal

3 4 5 6 7 8

Distance from the center line of nugget (mm)

Fig. 4. Microvickers hardness distribution and nugget shape. (a) Thickness of middle plate = 0.5 mm; (b) thickness of middle plate = 0.8 mm and (c) thickness of middle plate = 1.0 mm.

of 106 cycles [6]. The relationship between applied load range and failure lifetime is shown in Fig. 6. Fatigue strength under tensile-shear loading of Type B for all

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6

Applied load range, P (kN)

Type A t=0.5mm t=0.8mm t=1.0mm

Load (kN)

0 0 2 4 6 8

Type A t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

10 12

1 0.9 0.8 0.7 10

4

a
7

a
4

10

10

Displacement (mm)

Number of cycles to failure, N f (cycles)

5 4

Applied load range, P (kN)

Type B t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

3 2 1

Type B t=0.5mm t=0.8mm t=1.0mm For two plates [1] 1mm:1.5mm 1mm:2mm
10
5

Load(kN)

1 4 10

10

0 0 5 10 15 20 25

b
Displacement (mm)

Number of cycles to failure, Nf (cycles)

Fig. 6. Results of fatigue test for Type A, Type B and spot weldment with two plates.

Fig. 5. Results of tensile test for Type A and Type B specimen.

Table 4 Yield strength observed by tensile test Thickness of middle plate 0.5 mm Type A Type B 5.631 kN 6.014 kN 0.8 mm 5.042 kN 5.994 kN 1.0 mm 5.062 kN 5.876 kN

Table 5 Fatigue limit observed by fatigue test Thickness of middle plate 0.5 mm Type A Type B 1.0 kN 1.373 kN 0.8 mm 0.961 kN 1.520 kN 1.0 mm 0.892 kN 1.589 kN

applied load range shows higher than that of Type A, which is the same tendency with tensile test. The dierence of failure lifetime between Type A and Type B increases when applied load range decreases. Adib et al. [15] pointed out the gap eect is normally ignored for nite element analysis, but it increases stress values and stress distribution patterns near notch root and produces a lower fatigue life in fatigue analysis of hot spot welds. In this paper, the eect of gap due to the eccentricity of metal plates is not considered. As shown in Fig. 6a, failure lifetime of Type A increases when the thickness of middle plate decreases, and fatigue strength variation by middle plate thickness change

decrease, so fatigue limit for three dierent thickness is almost the same. However, failure lifetime of Type B increases when the thickness of middle plate increases, and fatigue strength variation by middle plate thickness change increase, which is shown in Fig. 6b. Comparing with previous reports on spot welded plates with dierent thickness (1 mm:1.5 mm and 1 mm:2 mm) [5], Type A shows much lower fatigue limit for the specimen with the same total thickness. In case of Type B, fatigue limit for thin middle plate (0.5 mm) is around 81% of 1 mm:1.5 mm specimen, but fatigue limit for thick middle plate (1 mm) is almost the same with 1 mm:2 mm specimen. These results are shown in Table 5.

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where, K is the stress intensity factor, m is the Poissons ratio, M is the geometric constant, ry is the yield stress and E is the Youngs modulus. One can notice that CTOD is proportional to the square of SIF, and CTOD is proportional to the COA. So, there is an approximate relation between SIF range and COA p DK / h 2
Fig. 7. Denition of crack opening angle.

5. Prediction of fatigue lifetime by crack opening angle Compared with the calculation of SIFs on a spot welded structure, using the concept of the COA is usually better in a practical viewpoint. Most SIFs for spot welded structures have limitations and should be modied based on geometry (Pook [1], Zhang [8] and Pan and Sheppard [9]), but COA can be measured by observation during testing directly. Crack tip opening displacement (CTOD, d) can be written with SIF (Davidson and Imhof [12]) d K 2 1 m2 Mry E 1

COA can be used to describe fatigue crack behavior for a given geometry. In this experiment, the COA for each applied load measured by an optical microscope. In Fig. 7, the denition of crack opening angle is shown. Initial COA for low applied load is very small, but the COA increases nonlinearly according to increasing load. Because of specimen geometry, two COAs observed from three plates for Type A are symmetrical, but those of Type B are not. Between the two observed COAs, the Type B, the COA is measured based on actual crack initiated direction. In Fig. 8, photos of deformed specimens for Type A and Type B with a 1 mm middle plate are shown. In the case of Type B, cracks initiated from double plates direction. The COA of the crack initiated direction is larger than the COA of the uncracked direction at low applied load range, but the dierence of COAs decreases and COAs for both directions are almost same just before failure.

Fig. 8. Deformation of plates around spot weldment for dierent loads. (a) Type A with 1 mm middle plate and (b) Type B with 1 mm middle plate.

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0.7

(radian )

Crack tip opening angle, (radian)

0.6

1/2

0.5

Type A t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3

Type A t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

Crack tip opening angle

0.4

1/2

1/2

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.0 0 1 2 3 4 5

0.1 0.09 0.08 10

10

10

10

a
0.20

Load, P (kN)

a
(radian )
1/2

Number of cycles to failure, Nf (cycles)

0.5 0.4

Crack tip opening angle, (radian)

0.16

Crack tip opening angle ,

Type B t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

1/2

Type B t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

0.08

1/2

0.12

0.3

0.2

0.04

0.00 0 1 2 3 4 5

0.1 10

10

10

Load, P (kN)

Number of cycles to failure, Nf (cycles)

Fig. 9. Relationship between applied load and crack tip opening angle.

Fig. 10. Relationship between crack tip opening angle and number of cycles to failure.

For Type A, the COA increases when the thickness of middle plate decreases but, for Type B, the COA decreases when the thickness of middle plate decreases. If the COA is small for the same applied load, it means that the stiness of the spot welded structure increases, therefore, these results are in accordance with the results of fatigue test. In Fig. 9a and b, the observed COA variation for given applied load is shown. Fatigue test results are revealed by the observed COA in Fig. 10. Fatigue strength decreases when the COA increases, and there is a linear relation between the COA and fatigue life regardless of the thickness of middle plate. The, empirical equation between the COA and fatigue life can be written as follows. p logN f X Y log h 3 where, X and Y is material constant for fatigue life calibration and exponent of COA for fatigue lifetime, respectively. In Table 6, obtained constants, X and Y, for these experiments are shown. To conrm the accuracy of fatigue life prediction based on the COA approach, comparisons of

fatigue life by experiment and prediction are shown in Fig. 11. In Fig. 11, the predicted results are conrmed by two factor variation. In Fig. 9, the prediction of fatigue lifetime under tensile-shear loading proposed by Eq. (3) is observed by comparing experimental results. 6. Conclusion In this paper, the fatigue behavior of spot welded triple plates under tensile-shear loading is observed and the COA is measured as a quantitative prediction of fatigue lifetime. The results obtained from this study are as follows:
Table 6 Calculated constants for relationship between CTOA and fatigue lifetime Specimen type R2 Constants for fatigue life prediction X Value Type A Type B 0.954 0.960 1.851 2.064 Error 0.139 0.119 Y Value 5.058 3.950 Error 0.268 0.181

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8

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Fatigue life by experiment, Nf (cycles)

10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

Type A t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

0

decreases. But, the fatigue lifetime for Type B specimens increases when the thickness of middle plate increases. (3) The COA as, measured by optical microscope, represents the level of stress intensity factor around spot welds, and the COA is applied to predict fatigue lifetime of spot welded structure. Linear relationship in loglog plot between the fatigue lifetime and the COA is obtained for both Type A and Type B specimens, and the fatigue lifetime can be predicted accurately based on the COA for both types of specimens.

Acknowledgements
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Fatigue life by prediction, Nf,p (cycles)

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We are grateful of Hyundai motor company for their generous nancial support. The authors thank Michael Cassiday for his great assistance on this article. References
[1] Pook LP. Fracture mechanics analysis of the fatigue behavior of spot welds. Int J Fract 1975;11:1736. [2] Radaj D. Stress singularity, notch stress and structural stress at spotwelded joints. Eng Fract Mech 1989;34(2):495506. [3] Cooper JF, Smith RA. The measurement of fatigue cracks at spotwelds. Int J Fatigue 1985;3:13740. [4] Zhang S. Fracture mechanics solutions to spot welds. Int J Fract 2001;112:24774. [5] Song S-H, Bae J-S, Jang S-J. A study on the fatigue characteristic of automobile spot welded specimen by applied load. In: Proceedings of annual fall conference of KSPE 1997, 1997; p. 66871. [6] Sawhill JM, Baker JC. Spot weldability of high-strength sheet steels. Weld J 1980(January):1930. [7] Zhang Y, Taylor D. Sheet thickness eect of spot welds based on crack propagation. Eng Fract Mech 2000;67:5563. [8] Zhang S. Stress intensity at spot welds. Int J Fract 1997;88:16785. [9] Pan N, Sheppard SD. Stress intensity factors in spot welds. Eng Fract Mech 2003;70:67184. [10] Kang H, Barkley ME. Fatigue life prediction of spot welded joints using and interpolation/extrapolation technique. Int J Fatigue 1999;21:76977. [11] Davidson JA, Imhof Jr., EJ. The eect of tensile strength on the fatigue life of spot welded sheet steels. 1984; SAE 840110. [12] Davidson JA, Imhof Jr., EJ. A fracture mechanics and systemstiness approach to fatigue performance of spot welded sheet steels. 1983; SAE 830034. [13] Song SH, Yang YJ, Jeon JW. A fatigue behavior for spot welded steel plate carbon c by the variation of the interval between two spots. Trans KSME A 2000;24(11):284552. [14] Radaj D. Theory of forces and stresses in spot welded overlap joints. Arch Appl Mech 1996;67(12):2234. [15] Adib H, Gilgert J, Pluvinage G. Fatigue life duration prediction for welded spots by volumetric method. Int J Fatigue 2004;26:8194.

Fatigue life by experiment, Nf (cycles)

10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

Type B t = 0.5mm t = 0.8mm t = 1.0mm

0

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10

10

10

10

10

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10

Fatigue life by prediction, Nf,p (cycles)

Fig. 11. Comparison between experimental fatigue life and predicted fatigue life.

(1) Fracture type for all specimens is tear fracture during a tensile test. Type B specimen shows better tensile properties compared with Type A specimens, and yield strength decreases when the thickness of middle plate increases for both types of specimens. (2) The fatigue limit based on the fatigue lifetime of 106 cycles of Type B is also higher than that of the Type A specimen. Fatigue lifetime for Type A specimens increases when the thickness of middle plate