Abstract
The current work develops forming-limit diagrams (FLDs) for weld materials in aluminum tailor-welded blanks (TWBs) under biaxial stretching conditions. Aluminum TWBs consist of multiple-thickness and alloy sheet materials welded together into a single, variable-thickness blank. The manufacture of TWBs and their application in automotive body panels requires their constituent weld material to deform under biaxial loading during sheet-metal stamping. The weld geometry is typically nonuniform and relatively small, causing difficulty if one attempts to determine the weld metal FLDs via traditional experimental methods. The subject work primarily relies on theoretical FLD calculation techniques using the Marciniak and Kuczynski (M-K) method. This numerical technique requires the use of material constants and levels of initial material imperfection that have been experimentally determined using unique miniature tensile specimens to isolate and characterize the weld metal. The experimental and numerical work, together with statistical analysis of the level of initial imperfection, allows generation of both an average and safe FLD. The weld metals studied in this work were produced via autogeneous gas tungsten arc welding of a 1- to 2-mm-thick 5000 series aluminum alloy sheet.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 259 |
| Pages (from-to) | 275-283 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2001 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the United States Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC06-76RLO 1830. The authors acknowledge Ruby Ermi and Karl Mattlin for especially diligent efforts in performing the miniature tensile testing and characterizing the dimensions of the specimens before and after testing.