Effect of fatigue test on spot welded structural joint

Abstract

Spot welding is mainly used method in joining sheet metals for body structure in automotive industry. The comprehension of the fatigue strength for the spot welds is very critical in automotive component design. Parameter for the resistance spot welding and fatigue machines is constant for each specimen used. The S-N curve is obtained from the fatigue testing for each specimen. This experiment parameters are varies the different thickness and different material combination in spot welding structure to investigate the fatigue life cycle and fatigue stress. For 1050A aluminium joint, fatigue life cycle and fatigue strength will decrease from number of cycle 500 at 16.58 MPa to number of cycle 61 at 6.62 MPa as the thickness increase. The fatigue life cycle and fatigue stress for galvanized iron will increase from number of cycle 46 at 9.25 MPa to number of cycle 1500 at 57.8 MPa when the thickness of joint increase. The finding from the combination of 1050A aluminum and galvanized iron on spot welded structure has shown no improvement in term of fatigue life cycle and fatigue strength because specimens experienced failure at number of cycle 19 with fatigue stress 2.36 MPa.