TY - JOUR
T1 - An investigation of the effect of the gap values between the overlap portions of the spot-welded pieces on fatigue life
AU - Ertas, A. H.
AU - Yilmaz, Y.
AU - Baykara, C.
PY - 2008/6
Y1 - 2008/6
N2 - In this study, the effect of the space or gap values - between the overlap portions of the spot welded specimens-which is especially important for spot-welded joints subjected to uniaxial in-plane loads, on fatigue life are investigated. In order to do these investigations, a computer programme is developed using ANSYS (version-10) finite-element programme. Numerical results based on the developed computer programme are compared with the experimental results conducted by Sheppard for the validation of the programme and are found to be satisfactory. Fatigue life properties for different type of spot-welded specimens and different gap values are calculated numerically using this developed computer programme with different fatigue-life approaches to see the gap effect on the fatigue life of the spot-welded specimens. It is found that maximum stress and strain values increase, hence fatigue life decrease, with increasing gap values, and this situation is clearer for tensile shear (TS) specimens than modified tensile shear (MTS) ones because of the flanged pieces of the MTS specimens. It is also found that maximum stresses and strains, hence the fatigue-life values, do not change so much for gap values lower than 0.0025 mm.
AB - In this study, the effect of the space or gap values - between the overlap portions of the spot welded specimens-which is especially important for spot-welded joints subjected to uniaxial in-plane loads, on fatigue life are investigated. In order to do these investigations, a computer programme is developed using ANSYS (version-10) finite-element programme. Numerical results based on the developed computer programme are compared with the experimental results conducted by Sheppard for the validation of the programme and are found to be satisfactory. Fatigue life properties for different type of spot-welded specimens and different gap values are calculated numerically using this developed computer programme with different fatigue-life approaches to see the gap effect on the fatigue life of the spot-welded specimens. It is found that maximum stress and strain values increase, hence fatigue life decrease, with increasing gap values, and this situation is clearer for tensile shear (TS) specimens than modified tensile shear (MTS) ones because of the flanged pieces of the MTS specimens. It is also found that maximum stresses and strains, hence the fatigue-life values, do not change so much for gap values lower than 0.0025 mm.
KW - Fatigue failure
KW - Finite-element analysis
KW - Gap
KW - Modified tensile shear specimen
KW - Spot weld
KW - Tensile shear specimen
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=48649100327&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1243/09544062JMES787
DO - 10.1243/09544062JMES787
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:48649100327
SN - 0954-4062
VL - 222
SP - 881
EP - 890
JO - Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
JF - Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
IS - 6
ER -