Resistance spot welding and hybrid weld bonding have wide applications in\nthe body work construction within the automobile industry. The integrity of\nthe spot welds and applied adhesives determines the body assembly rigidity\nand dynamic performance. Incorporating contact nonlinearity and geometric\nnonlinearity, finite element analysis (FEA) have been carried out to investigate\nthe structural stiffness and strength of both spot-welded and weld-bonded\nassemblies. Topology optimization has been performed to reveal the distributions\nof material effectiveness in the overlap regions and suggest a feasible\nmethod for removing underutilized material for weight reduction. Design\noptimization has been conducted with an aim to reduce the maximum\nvon Mises stress in the assembly to minimum by choosing optimum values\nfor a set of design variables, including the weld spacing, weld diameter and\noverlap width.
Loading....