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Design and Simulation of A Spot Welding Process

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 Design and Simulation of A Spot Welding
Process
Ziad Sh. Al Sarraf
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Mosul
Ziad_sarraf@yahoo.com

1. Abstract

Resistance spot welding is a process that is being widely used in the industry for sheet
joining purposes. This paper describes the modeling and simulation of the welding
process using the finite element modeling technique. A two dimensional axisymmetric
model will be used to model the thermo-mechanical-electrical coupling of the process. A
mechanical analysis and a thermal-electric analysis will be carried out using the
developed model. This paper also includes the benefits of modeling of the welding
process towards production performance and cost.

2. Introduction

Resistance spot welding is a process of joining two or more metal parts by fusion at
discrete spots at the sheet interface. Resistance to current flow through the metal sheets
generates heat. Temperature rises at the sheet interface till the plastic point of the metal is
reached, the metal will begin to fuse and a nugget is formed. Current is then switched off
and nugget is allowed to cool down slowly to solidify under pressure. This process is
completed within a specified cycle time. Figure 1 shows the diagram of the welding
process. The welding process was invented in 1877 by Professor Elihu Thomson[1] and
has been extensively used since then in the manufacturing industries for joining metal
sheets. The two main industries that widely use this process are the automobile industries
and the aircraft industries.

2.1 Spot Welding Parameters and Welding Cycle

The 3 main welding parameters are :- a) current b) force and c) weld time. All these
parameters need to be controlled effectively in order to produce a good quality weld.

The spot welding process welding process consists of 4 stages:-

1. Squeeze cycle – time during which the upper electrode is

brought in contact with the sheets that
need to be welded and force is exerted at the region
that need to be welded.
2. Weld cycle – time during which current is turned on
and resistance to current flow at the sheet interface
 produces a nugget.
3. Hold cycle – time during which the current is turned off and the fully grown
nugget is allowed to cool slowly and solidify under constant pressure till it.
4. Off cycle – time during which the electrode is raised form the welded sheets and
moved to the next welding location.
Figure 1: Spot welding process

The aim of this paper is to describe how the welding process especially the squeeze
cycle and the weld cycle could be modeled using the ANSYS modeling software.

3. Literature review

Some work has already been carried out on the modeling and simulation of a spot
welding process. P.S Wei [2] in his work has modeled the spot welding process using
numerical modeling . He had created an unsteady , axisymmetric heat conduction
model to investigate 3-dimensional nugget growth for different welding current. J.A
Khan [3] has used ABAQUS code to develop an axisymmetric finite element model
employing coupled thermal-electrical-mechanical analysis. C.L Tsai [4] has created a
2-dimensional axisymmetric model using ANSYS to do some parametric studies on
the spot welding process.

4. Model Development

The spot welding process is a complicated phenomena, which involves the

mechanical, thermal, electrical and metallurgical factors. An axisymmetric 2-
dimensional model was developed using the University Edition ANSYS 5.5 software.
Since the entire schematic arrangement of the spot welding process shown in Figure 1
can be modeled as an axisymmetric model, only one quadrant of the model was
constructed. Figure 2 shows the 2-dimensional finite element model.

Two types of analysis would be carried out through this model; a structural analysis
and a thermal-electric analysis. The structural analysis would be used to analyze the
compressive stresses developed during the squeeze time and the thermal-electric
analysis will be used to analyze the nugget growth during weld time through he
temperature distribution during the period. Figure 3 shows the schematic illustration
of the computational procedure.
4.1 Material Properties

Isotropic material properties of copper and carbon steel (BS 1449) was used for this
model. The selected material properties are Young’s Modulus, Poisson’s ratio,
material resistivity, thermal conductivity, specific heat and enthalpy.

4.2 Boundary Conditions

 The boundary conditions for the model was selected based on the work of H.A
Nied[5]. Figure for shows the boundary conditions applied to the model.

Figure 2 – FE model

5. Results

5.1 Mechanical analysis

A load of 0.2N/mm2(2 bar) was applied at the upper part of the finite element model as
shown in figure 4. A static analysis was carried out to find out stress distribution at the
electrode/sheet interface and the sheet/sheet faying surfaces. Radial displacement is
restricted along the centerline due to the model being axisymmetric. Figure 5 shows the
result obtained from this analysis.
Current, electrode force, material
properties and boundary condition P load

Mechanical analysis
PLANE42 structural element
adiabatic
condition
Results: 1) Compressive stress
2) Contact areas between V volts

Thermal-electric analysis
PLANE67 thermal-electric element
Surface element
Results: 1) Temperature distribution
2) Current density
distribution
3) Nugget formation
adiabatic condition

Time step Figure 4: Boundary conditions

End of computation

Figure 3 – Schematic illustration of analysis

It was found that the compressive stress COMPRESSIVE STREES DISTRIBUTION

vary from the centerline of the model
3
towards the edges of the electrode and
2.5
the sheet metals. It also found that the 2
electrode-sheet
interface
stress distribution at the electrode/sheet
Stress

1.5 sheet-sheet interface

interface is even higher than the 1
sheet/sheet faying surface. For a 0.5
5
pressure of 2x10 Pa(2bar), a maximum 0
2 0 1 2 3 4
stress of 2.4N/mm was achieved at the
Distance from centreline(mm )
edge of the electrode whereas the
maximum stress at the sheet/sheet
interface is 1.2N/mm2. The results are similar to that of Nied's[5] even though his work
was carried out on aluminum sheets.
5.2 Thermal-electric analysis

Even though the results of the thermal-electric results are not presented in this paper, a
brief explanation on how this analysis would be carried out is described based on the
literature review. The element used in the structural analysis will be replaced by an
equivalent quadrilateral thermal-electric solid element. A transient analysis would be
carried out by applying a voltage, that is equivalent to the welding current, across the
upper part of the electrode to the sheet. The required thermal properties of both copper
and steel are included in the finite element model. The increase of nugget size as a
function of current , will be obtained based upon the temperature distribution in the finite
element model. Figure 6 shows the predicted isothermals and nugget shape.

1. 15200C
2. 13300C
3. 11500C
4. 9610C
5. 7750C Figure 6 – Isothermal and nugget shape
6. 5830C
7. 4030C
8 8. 2160C
7
6
1
2 3 4 5

Benefits of spot welding process modeling and simulation.

Testing of weld quality through tensile testing seems to be an expensive process and most
industries are really trying to reduce the expenses used for the testing process.
Guehdoze[6] in his work has also mentioned that using tensile testing to test the quality
of the weld i.e the weld strength, causes the outer edges of the nugget to tear and in turn
an inaccurate measurement of the developed weld nugget diameter is produced. By
developing a model of the welding process, the development of the nugget could be
determined through the developed isotherms as shown in Figure 6. The diameter of the
nugget and the strength of the nugget could also be estimated without the need for any
testing process. Developing the model of the spot welding process could also help a
welding engineer to produce welding schedules and also help him to investigate weld
nugget formation for a variety of materials to be joined.
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6. Conclusions

Development of a 2-dimensional axisymmetric coupled thermal-electric-mechanical

finite element model of a spot welding process was described in this paper. The develop
model was used to analyse the squeeze cycle and the weld cycle. The result obtained
from the squeeze cycle shows that the stress distribution varies from the centerline of the
model towards the edge of the electrode and the sheets. The modeling of the weld cycle
based on the available literatures was also looked at. Modeling of the spot welding
process enables cost for weld quality testing to be reduced and facilitates the
development of various welding schedules.

7. References

1. O.P Gupta and Amitava De, An improved numerical modeling for resistance spot
welding process and its experimental verification, Journal of Manufacturing Science, Vol
120, pp 246-251, 1998.

2. P.S Wei and C.Y Ho, Axisymmetric nugget growth during resistance spot welding,
ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol 112, No.2, pp 309-316, 1990.

3. J.A.Khan, L.Xu and Y.J Chan, Prediction of nugget development during resistance
spot welding using coupled thermal-electric-mechanical model, Science and Technology
in Welding and Joining, Vol.4, No.4, pp201-207, 1999.

4. C.L Tsai, O.A Jammal and J.C Papritan, Modeling of the resistance spot welding
nugget growth, Welding Journal.

5. H.A Nied, Finite element modeling of a resistance spot welding process, Welding
Journal, Vol.63, No.4, pp123-132,1984.

6. Cheikh Guendouze, Computer assisted generation of parameters for resistance spot

welding, Phd Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1995.