JSET: Journal of Science & Technology Vol. 03 No. 01(2016) pp.

126-130

Mechanical Properties of Treated Spot Welded Joint

Farizah Adliza Ghazali1,a, Mohamad Nor Berhan2,b, Zuraidah Salleh3,b
1Fabrication and Joining, Universiti Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia France
Institute (UniKL– MFI), 43650 Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM),
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
a
farizahadliza@unikl.edu.my

Abstract— This paper focus on the improvement for spot
welding on the mechanical properties by applying treatment of
high frequency mechanical impact (HFMI) on the spot welded
joint. The main objective of the research is to improve the
mechanical properties of the spot-welded samples. This
experiment will be run with the material of carbon steel with
welded single lap shear joint with the constant thickness of 1.2
mm. All the welded samples were subjected to tensile shear test,
failure mode and hardness test. The study was focused on the
fusion zone (weld nugget) and heat affected zone (HAZ) of
treated and untreated samples. The results indicate a
significantly improvement in tensile-shear strength and hardness
of treated samples compared to untreated samples.
Keywords— Spot welding; HFMI; tensile-shear; hardness
I. INTRODUCTION
Low-carbon steel comprises the largest percentage of
material welded with the resistance spot welding process [1].
Resistance spot welding (RSW) is a welding technique that
joins two or more metal sheets through fusion at the contact
area of electrode tips. This process basically uses two copper
electrodes to compress the sheets together and supplies huge
amount of current through the contact area of electrodes [2].
When the melting point of the metal is reached, the metal will
begin to fuse and a nugget begins to form. The current is then
switched off and the nugget is cooled down to solidify under
pressure [3]. Due to the weld thermal cycle a heterogeneous
structure will be created in spot weld and the region around it.
The melted and solidified areas of base metals are then,
called as weld nuggets and it consists of three major zones
which are fusion zone (FZ) which is melted during welding
process and is re-solidified showing a cast structure, heat
affected zone (HAZ) which is not melted but undergoes
microstructural changes, and base metal (BM) which is
remained unaffected during welding process [4]. Generally,
spot welding joints occur in two failure modes, which are
interfacial failure (IF) and pullout failure (PF) [5].
In the spot welding process, the mechanical properties of
the joining metals are related to the residual stress and also
influence the in-service performance of the structures [6]. The
improvement of weld properties in some case can be achieved
by post-weld heat treatment [9]. High Frequency Mechanical
Impact (HFMI) has significantly developed as a reliable,
effective and user- friendly method for post-weld treatment in
order to improve dynamic load capacity of the structures [8]. It
also known as Pneumatic Impact Treatment (PIT) where it is a
high frequency hammer peening method where pins are
accelerated by air pressure and produces plastic deformation
which results in beneficial compressive resistive spot in the
material, reduction of residual stresses and smoother weld toe
profile. The induced compressive residual stresses in the
treatment prevent the track cracking and the crack propagation
on the surface [9]. Consequently, high frequency hammer
peening was investigated as a mean for improving mechanical
properties in RSW.
Several investigations [10-13] has assessed the local
mechanical properties of spot welded low carbon steel,
however none have assessed the effects of impact treatment on
the mechanical properties on RSW. In this study, the hammer
peening was used to introduce the compressive residual stress
into low carbon RSW. The influence of the peening on the
mechanical properties of the RSW specimens were evaluated
and characterized.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
A. Material and Samples Preparation
The lap shear joint is made of carbon steel grade JIS
G3141. Samples were prepared according to AWS D8.9m
standard as shown in Fig. 1.
105
35
45
24
1.2
175
Fig. 1. The spot welded sample

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The chemical composition and mechanical properties of these

steel was listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Chemical compositions and mechanical

properties.

(b)
The carbon steel-base metals were prepared in rectangular
shape with size of the length (170mm), width (45mm) and Figure 2: Sample surfaces: (a) untreated and (b) treated with
thickness (1.2mm). The experiment involved joining of two hammer peening
sheet metals using RSW machine model JPC 75-kVA. Welding
was carried out using a 45-deg truncated cone Class 2 electrode
C. Tensile-shear Test
with a 6 mm face diameter.
Samples for tensile-shear testing were also prepared using
AWS D8.9m standard. The tensile-shear tests were performed
B. Treatment Equipment and Parameters at crosshead speed of 2mm/min with a 100-kN testing machine,
Treatment was performed using pneumatic impact as shown in Fig. 3.
treatment (PIT) on the welded structures. The HFMI hammer
operates with a hardened pin with a ball resting on the work
piece with a diameter of 3 mm. This pin is hammered with an
adjustable intensity at 90 Hz at the weld toe and pressure Upper jig
applied from compressor is 4.5 bar. Local mechanical
deformations occur in the form of a treatment track.
Figure 2 shows the surface of spot welding for the single
lap-shear joint before and after being treated with the Sample
application of high frequency mechanical impact (HFMI)
acting on it.

Lower jig

Figure 3: The 100-kN Instron tensile test machine

D. Hardness Test
Samples for both conditions were analyzed on their
toughness and hardness with the load of 1000g acting on the
specimen surface using Hardness Vickers Tester with diamond
(a) indentation as shown in Fig. 4.

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Figure 4: Microhardness indentation
Time taken for each indentation is about 15 second.
Readings of hardness (Hv) and distance (mm) were taken for
micro-hardness measurement profile along the weldments.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Effect of HFMI on Shear Strength and Failure Modes
Tensile-shear test was done to determine the strength of the
samples as for both treated and untreated samples of spot
welded carbon steel. Table 2 shows the tensile stress and
maximum extension for both of the specimens as they as the
factor of the tensile test. The ductility of the specimens also
can be observed from the load-extension curves.
Table 2: Tensile Stress and maximum extension for treated
and untreated samples
Treated Untreated
UTS (MPa) 71.16 56.63
Peak Load (kN) 6.76 5.38
Maximum 4.06 3.58
Extension (mm)
Untreated samples failed early and reached the break point
when the loading is 5381.883 N with the value of UTS which
is 56.634 MPa. Meanwhile for the treated specimen
experienced higher loading acting on the specimen which is
6762.154 N in order to reach the break point with the value of
UTS which is 71.158 MPa shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Tensile Stress for Treated and Untreated Samples
The deformation or extension of the treated samples is much
higher which is 4.057 mm and extension of the untreated
samples is about 3.583 mm. Treated samples experienced a
vast increased in weld strength due to rise of permanent
dislocation of the atomic structures in weld metal which
required much more load in tension to destruction or tear
apart.
From the analysis on the maximum extension, it shows treated
samples experienced high ductility while getting increase in
strength, hence it will give benefit for the weldabilty to avoid
sudden break when fail. The increased in tensile-shear strength
mainly due to compressive stress applied which is reduces and
negate any residual stress generation during hammer peening
process [14].
B. Failure Modes
Two different failure modes were observed which are pullout
and interfacial fractures (Figure 6). The untreated specimen
was experienced interfacial fracture (IF) while treated
specimen was experienced pullout fracture (PF).
(a) (b)
Figure 6: Failure modes were included of: (a) interfacial
fracture (IF) for untreated samples and (b) pullout fracture
(PF) for treated samples
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The failure modes have substantial influence on the peak
failure load of spot weld. Furthermore, the energy absorption
capability and its load carrying capacity are significantly
affected by the failure modes. Shear stress and tensile stress
were the driving forces for the interfacial and pullout failure
mode. In the PF mode, increase in loading acting and stress in
T site on the treatment weld structures leads to higher plastic
deformation since the amount of energy absorbed by the weld
was bigger than in the case of IF where it was dominant for
untreated samples.
It shows the spot weld fracture surface in the IF mode
accompanied little plastic deformation. In other words, it can
be claimed that increase of plastic deformation of carbon steel
sheets by constrained high frequency hammer peening can
improve resistance spot weld ability and finest quality of weld
can be achieved due to decrease of residual stresses [7].
Possibility of the pullout failure location was at the BM,
which means this can be recognized to the lowest hardness
of the BM and showing huge, different of hardness towards
HAZ and FZ in the treated specimen.
C. Effect of HFMI on Hardness
Figure 9 shows the hardness profile of spot welded carbon
steels with acting loading of 1000g. Points of the indentation
were most taken in the FZ in order to analyse peening region
for both samples.
Figure 9: Micro hardness profile for treated and untreated
samples using Hardness Vickers
Hardness value for treated samples experienced vast increased
in rather than untreated samples. The hardness for base metal
seemed to be lower than HAZ and FZ region due to unaffected
region during solidification process for both samples and also
during the hammer peening process [15].
For treated samples, it shows a huge difference in the range of
FZ and HAZ. No phase transformation occurred because BM
of carbon steel was not affected during the hammer peening
process. Hardness at nuggets and HAZ were showed
considerably higher values than that at base steel. Due to fine
grain in FZ compare to HAZ, hardness value was much higher
in FZ. For the hardness properties, it can be stated that
treatment specimen was harder than the untreated specimen.
IV. CONCLUSION
HFMI have resulted increment in plastic deformation in the
weld nuggets formation and therefore the increment of tensile
strength was obtained. Treated samples have shown higher in
tensile-shear strength than the untreated samples due to
compressive stress which reduces and negate the residual stress
in welded area. Furthermore, treated samples resulted in
extending the joining lifetime for carbon steel. Two distinct
failure modes were observed as poor weld creates interfacial
fracture (IF) and good weld creates button pullout or tear from
one side (PF). The hardness values of welded areas were
increased due to the treatment. Micro hardness level at FZ was
higher than BM due to unaffected region during solidification
and peening process.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Faculty
of Mechanical Engineering (UiTM), Advance Manufacturing
Technology Excellence Centre (AMTEX) and Universiti Kuala
Lumpur-Malaysia France Institute (UniKL-MFI) for the
facilities and technical support.
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