Residual stress measurements and model validation of single and double pulse resistance spot welded advanced high strength steel

Advanced high strength steels (AHSS) are increasingly used in automotive industry; thousands of resistance spot welds are applied to car body-in-white. High alloying levels of AHSS result in lower weldability. Residual stresses play an essential role on the formation of defects and the mechanical performance of the weld. An electrical-thermal-metallurgical-mechanical finite element model was constructed to simulate the temperature and stress distribution during single and double pulse resistance spot welding. The models are validated by ex-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction stress measurements. In this paper, single pulse and double pulse resistance spot welds were made on 1.3 mm thin sheets of a 3rd generation AHSS. Depth resolved stress measurements in two orthogonal directions were carried out using high-resolution powder diffraction at beamline ID22 of the European Synchrotron Research Facility. A monochromic 70 keV X-ray was used to record the d-spacing of (200) bcc planes in transmission mode. The strains were calculated from the shift in the d-spacing of the planes. The stresses were calculated by the biaxial Hook’s law. The numerical and experimental results show that the residual stresses in the weld nugget zone and the heat affected zone of the welds are tensile in nature, whereas the base material experiences compressive stresses. Lower residual stresses at the weld nugget and HAZ were obtained by applying a second current pulse. The simulated results show a good agreement with the residual stresses measured. This study provides a better understanding of the stress distribution in resistance spot welds and allows prediction of stresses as a result of welding conditions applied.