NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF HEAT INPUT IN THE SPOT WELDING OF DISSIMILAR MATERIALS

Resistance spot welding (RSW) of dissimilar metals is an emerging trend in automobile industries in the manufacture of passenger-vehicle bodies. It provides the material characteristics and advantages of both metals. In this research work, the influence of heat addition and maximum interface temperature in the RSW of austenitic stainless-steel sheets (AISI 304 and AISI 316L) is investigated by welding the specimens at various levels of welding current and weld time. The ultimate strength of the spot-welded joints is analyzed to evaluate the amount of heat utilization and the quality of spot welds, finite-element analysis, and macrostructural evaluations. The thermal distribution profile and stress-strain analysis on the welded specimens are carried out with the 3D finite-element model developed using ABAQUS V6.6 software through incremental electro-thermal-structural analysis. A maximum tensile shear failure strength of 253 MPa was obtained with a nugget diameter 6.55 mm and the heat utilization being 59.69 %.