Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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  • Publication
    Influence of welding-induced cracks on the fatigue strength of resistance-spot-welded joints made of high-strength austenitic steel
    ( 2012)
    Rethmeier, M.
    ;
    Brauser, S.
    ;
    Schwenk, C.
    ;
    Noack, T.
    ;
    Jüttner, S.
    In the rough conditions in the fabrication of automobile bodies, it is not always possible to avoid welding-induced imperfections such as cracks during the resistance spot welding of high-strength steels. In this respect, the influence of such cracks on the fatigue strength particularly of modern high-strength austenitic steels is not sufficiently well-known at present. The influence of welding cracks with various positions and formations was therefore investigated within the framework of this paper. In this case, the analysis of the standardised stiffness courses of specimens and the comparison of the numbers of failure stress cycles served to prove that the surface cracks produced without any spatter in the centre, interfacial region and peripheral region of the weld nugget do not have any negative influence on the fatigue strength of the high-strength austenitic material investigated here. Specimens which were manufactured with welding spatter and exhibit cracks in the peripheral region show considerably higher numbers of failure stress cycles than crack-free reference specimens.
  • Publication
    Einfluss von schweißbedingten Rissen auf die Schwingfestigkeit von Widerstandspunktschweißverbindungen aus hochfestem austenitischen Stahl
    ( 2012)
    Brauser, S.
    ;
    Schwenk, C.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    ;
    Noack, T.
    ;
    Jüttner, S.
    Unter den rauen Bedingungen in der Automobilkarosseriefertigung lassen sich schweißbedingte Imperfektionen wie Risse beim Widerstandspunktschweißen von hochfesten Stählen nicht immer vermeiden. Dabei ist der Einfluss solcher Risse auf die Schwingfestigkeit insbesondere von modernen hochfesten austenitischen Stählen derzeit nicht hinreichend bekannt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde daher der Einfluss von Schweißrissen verschiedener Lage und Ausbildung untersucht. Die erzielten Ergebnisse weisen nach, dass Oberflächenrisse bis zu einer Tiefe von 0,8 mm (Einzelblechdicke: 1,7 mm) bei den hier geprüften Bedingungen keinen negativen Einfluss auf die Schwingfestigkeitvon widerstandspunktgeschweißtem hochfesten austenitischen Stahl haben. Weiterhin ist nach derzeitigem Kenntnisstand davon auszugehen, dass diese Ergebnisse auf andere hochfeste austenitische Stähle übertragbar sind. Demzufolge können für Bauteile und Baugruppen aus hochfestem austenitischen Stahl im Hinblick auf eine wechselnde Belastung Oberflächenrisse bis zu 0,8 mm zunächst als unkritisch bewertet werden. Inwiefern eine Übertragbarkeit der Ergebnisse auf andere Belastungszustände (Zug-Druck-Wechsel, Scherzug usw.) besteht, ist in weiteren Untersuchungen zu klären. Darüber hinaus weisen die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass auch eine Spritzerbildung beim Punktschweißen in Kombination mit den resultierenden Schweißrissen nicht zu einer Verringerung der Schwingfestigkeit führt. Vielmehr zeigt sich, dass die Spritzerbildung zu einer Erhöhung der Versagensschwingspielzahlen führen kann, sodass bezüglich der Schwingfestigkeit eine Spritzerbildung ebenfalls nicht als kritisch anzusehen ist. Da sich die hier dargestellten Ergebnisse auf gleichartige Verbindungen beziehen, im Rohkarosseriebau jedoch überwiegend Mischverbindungen, das heißt Schweißverbindungen aus unterschiedlichen Werkstoffen auftreten, ist eine Übertragbarkeit der Ergebnisse beispielsweise auf ferritisch-austenitsche Mischverbindungen in kommenden Untersuchungen zu prüfen.
  • Publication
    Influence of Ti and B additions on grain size and weldability of aluminium alloy 6082
    ( 2012)
    Schempp, P.
    ;
    Cross, C.E
    ;
    Schwenk, C.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    Grain refinement is an important possibility to enhance the weldability of aluminium weld metal that is usually defined by its susceptibility to solidification cracking. In this study, grain refinement was achieved through the addition of commercial grain refiner containing titanium and boron to the GTA weld metal of aluminium alloy 6082. The weld metal mean grain size could be reduced significantly from about 70 µm to a saturated size of 21 µm with a change in grain shape from columnar to equiaxed. The grain refinement prevented the formation of centreline solidification cracking that was present only in welds with unrefined grain structure. A variation of torch speed led to a strong change of solidification parameters such as cooling rate that was measured in the weld metal and the corresponding solidification rate and thermal gradient. The ratio thermal gradient/growth rate (G/R) decreased from 50 K s/mm2 (high torch speed) to 10 K s/mm2 (low torch speed). However, the variation of torch speed did not change the tendency for solidification cracking. The microstructure of unrefined and completely refined weld metal was compared. The observed change in size and distribution of the interdendritic phases was related to the change in susceptibility to solidification cracking.
  • Publication
    Case study for welding simulation in the automotive industry
    ( 2012)
    Rethmeier, M.
    ;
    Perret, W.
    ;
    Thater, R.
    ;
    Alber, U.
    ;
    Schwenk, C.
  • Publication
    Temperature dependent material properties for welding simulation - measurement, analysis, exemplary data
    ( 2011)
    Schwenk, C.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    Welding is a key technology in the area of industrial production due to its flexibility and efficiency. However, new materials and welding techniques necessitate permanent research activities in order to keep up with the demands. A detailed knowledge about the process itself and the heat effects of welding, e.g., temperatures, distortions,and stresses, is the basis for a target-oriented optimization instead of a trial-and-error approach. Numerical welding simulation is a powerful tool to meet these demands. Complementary to an experimental investigation, it enables the analysis of the specimen during the welding process, commonly known as computational welding mechanics(CWM). Whereas simulation is nowadays a common tool in different development processes, the modeling of welding still re mains difficult because of the multiple physical effects taking place. One of the most important problems for the user is the lack of knowledge about the material properties as input data for the simulation. Furthermore, any scattering of the data causes uncertainties that can have major effects on the calculations. The objective of this paper is to give an overview about the experimental determination and analysis of the material properties needed as input data for a welding simulation. The measurement techniques and the occurring deviations of the results are discussed. Additionally, the collected data for three representative alloys (dual-phase steel, austenitic steel, precipitation-hardenable aluminum alloy) are analyzed. Finally, the temperature-dependent thermophysical and thermome chanical material properties for these three alloys are given in a ready-to-use format for a numerical welding simulation.
  • Publication
    Material properties for welding simulation - measurement, analysis, and exemplary data
    ( 2011)
    Schwenk, C.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    Welding is a key technology in the area of industrial production due to its flexibility and efficiency. However, new materials and welding techniques necessitate permanent research activities in order to keep up with the demands. A detailed knowledge about the process itself and the heat effects of welding, e.g., temperatures, distortions, and stresses, is the basis for a target-oriented optimization instead of a trial-and-error approach. Numerical welding simulation is a powerful tool to meet these demands. Complementary to an experimental investigation, it enables the analysis of the specimen during the welding process, commonly known as computational welding mechanics (CWM). Whereas simulation is nowadays a common tool in different development processes, the modeling of welding still remains difficult because of the multiple physical effects taking place. One of the most important problems for the user is the lack of knowledge about the material properties as input data for the simulation. Furthermore, any scattering of the data causes uncertainties that can have major effects on the calculations. The objective of this paper is to give an overview about the experimental determination and analysis of the material properties needed as input data for a welding simulation. The measurement techniques and the occurring deviations of the results are discussed. Additionally, the collected data for three representative alloys (dual-phase steel, austenitic steel, precipitation-hardenable aluminium alloy) are analyzed. Finally, the temperature-dependent thermophysical and thermomechanical material properties for these three alloys are given in a ready-to-use format for a numerical welding simulation.
  • Publication
    Fast temperature field generation for welding simulation and reduction of experimental effort
    ( 2011)
    Pittner, A.
    ;
    Weiss, D.
    ;
    Schwenk, C.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    The quality of welding processes is governed by the occurring induced distortions yielding an increase in production costs due to necessary reworking. Especially for more complex specimens, it is difficult to evaluate the optimal configuration of welding sequences in order to minimize the distortion. Even experienced welding operators can solve this task only by trial and error which is time and cost consuming. In modern engineering the application of welding simulation is already known to be able to analyse the heat effects of welding virtually. However, the welding process is governed by complex physical interactions. Thus, recent weld thermal models are based on many simplifications. The state of the art is to apply numerical methods in order to solve the transient heat conduction equat ion. Therefore, it is not possible to use the real process parameters as input for the mathematical model. The model parameters which allow calculating a temperature field that is in best agreement with the experiments cannot be defined directly but inversely by multiple simulations runs. In case of numerical simulation software based on finite discretization schemes this approach is very time consuming and requires expert users. The weld thermal model contains an initial weakness which has to be adapted by finding an optimal set of model parameters. This process of calibration is often done against few experiments. The range of model validity is limited. An extension can be obtained by performing a calibration against multiple experiments. The focus of the paper is to show a combined mode lling technique which provides an efficient solution of the inverse heat conduction problem mentioned above. On the one hand the inverse problem is solved by application of fast weld thermal models which are closed form solutions of the heat conduction equation. In addition, a global optimization algorithm allows an automated calibration of the weld thermal model. This technique is able to provide a temperature field automatically that fits the experimental one with high accuracy within minutes on ordinary office computers. This fast paradigm permits confirming the application of welding simulation in an industrial environment as automotive industry. On the other hand, the initial model weakness is compensated by calibrating the model against multiple experiments. The unknown relationship between model and process parameters is approximated by a neural network. The validity of the model is increased successively and enables to decrease experimental effort. For a test case, it is shown that this approach yields accurate temperature fields within very short amount of time for unknown process parameters as input data to the model contributing to the requirement to construct a substitute system of the real welding process.
  • Publication
    Case study for welding simulation in the automotive industry
    ( 2011)
    Perret, W.
    ;
    Thater, R.
    ;
    Alber, U.
    ;
    Schwenk, C.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    Welding is one of the most widely used joining processes in structural applications, like in car body production in the automotive industry. It is well-known that distortions and residual stresses occur during and after the welding process. Many procedures exist to decrease these negative heat effects of welding, but are often coupled with highly cost intensive experiments. For several decades, simulation models have been developed to understand and predict the heat effects of welding and to reduce experimental effort. In the production planning of various Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), some simulation tools are already well established, e.g. for crash test, forming or casting simulations. For welding, the demand is high but the implementation of welding simulation software is sti ll not established yet. Welding is a complex process and the development of a flexible simulation tool, which produces good simulation results without expert knowledge in simulation, is not an easy task. In this paper, a welded assembly from the automotive industry has been simulated and compared to experimental data. Temperature fields and transient distortion distributions have been measured with thermocouples and with an optical 3D deformations analysis tool, respectively. The simulation has been run with a commercially available welding simulation software. The simulated temperature fields match the numerical ones perfectly. The simulated distortions are also qualitatively in best agreement with the experimental ones. Quantitatively, a difference of approximately 20 % between the simul ated and the measured distortions is visible; this is acceptable considering the simplifications and assumptions of the simulation model. The global time to solution to get these results without expert knowledge in welding simulation was between 4 and 6 weeks, which is a reasonable time frame for an industrial application of welding simulation.