Int J Adv Manuf Technol
DOI 10.1007/s00170-015-7732-8
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Microstructural and mechanical properties of resistance spot weld
of Inconel 625 supper alloy
Hamid Reza Rezaei Ashtiani 1 & R. Zarandooz 1
Received: 22 November 2014 / Accepted: 18 August 2015
# Springer-Verlag London 2015
Abstract This study was carried out to evaluate the micro-
structural and mechanical properties of resistance spot-welded
Inconel 625 alloy. The effects of welding current, applied
force, and holding time of resistance spot welding (RSW)
process were investigated by optical microscopy (OM) and
scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, microhardness
tests, and also tensile shear tests. Microstructural investiga-
tions showed that the nugget structure consisted of homoge-
nous columnar dendrite structure, which epitaxially grew
along the electrode direction, and the microstructure of the
heat-affected zone (HAZ) included a fine-grain recrystallized
zone (FRXZ), coarse-grain recrystallized zone (CRXZ), and
recovery zone (REZ). The effects of welding parameters on
the mechanical properties of the spot weld in terms of peak
load, fracture energy, and failure mode were investigated.
Keyword RSW . Inconel 625 . Microstructure . Failure
mode . Fracture energy
1 Introduction
Nickel-based superalloy Inconel 625 was developed as a solid
solution-strengthened alloy having molybdenum and niobium
on its nickel–chromium matrix, and the high strength can be
retained without any precipitation heat treatment. It is widely
used in aeronautical, aerospace, chemical, petrochemical, and
marine applications due to its good mechanical properties,
* Hamid Reza Rezaei Ashtiani
hr_rezaei@iust.ac.ir; hr_rezaei@arakut.ac.ir
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Arak University of
Technology, Arak 38135-1177, Iran
process ability, weldability, and resistance to high temperature
corrosion on prolonged exposure to aggressive environments
[1].
Resistance spot welding (RSW) is one of the oldest
welding methods being used in many industries such as the
power, automobile, aerospace, and electronics. The RSW pro-
cess includes coupled interactions of electrical, mechanical,
thermal, and metallurgical phenomena.
In this process, the sheets to be joined are brought together
under pressure by a pair of electrodes and then a high electrical
current is passed through the workpieces between the elec-
trodes. Due to contact resistance and joule heating, a molten
weld nugget is formed in the sheets. The workpieces are
joined as solidification of the weld pool occurs. Moreover,
force is applied before, during, and after the application of
electric current to maintain the electric current continuity
and to provide the pressure necessary to form the weld nugget.
The total heat generation between two sheets is defined as the
product of the current intensity squared multiplied by the total
resistance and the welding time.
Some works have already been carried out about the effects
of RSW process parameters on the microstructural and me-
chanical properties. Hayat [2] investigated the RSW capability
of magnesium AZ31 alloy sheets and aluminum 1350 alloy
sheets. The results of this study confirmed that nugget geom-
etry was different for the Al and Mg sides and also the nugget
size and the weld strength increased with increasing of the
welding current and duration. Uwaba et al. [3] inspected
RSW of ferritic/martensitic steel sheets with different thick-
nesses to develop a manufacturing technology for a fast reac-
tor fuel subassembly with an inner duct structure. They
showed that welding conditions under which spot-welded
joints did not have either crack or void defects in the nugget
could be found when the electrode force was increased to
9.8 kN. They also found that the electrode cap with a longer
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Table 1 Chemical composition and mechanical properties of the investigated Inconel 625

Chemical composition (wt%) Mechanical properties

C Nb Mo Fe Cr Ti Al Co Ni YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) EL (%)

0.032 2.87 8.61 4.4 21.67 0.2 0.18 0.124 Base 1167 1428 21

YS yield strength, UTS ultimate tensile strength, EL elongation

tip end length was effective for preventing weld defect forma-
tions. Florea et al. [4] compared weld quality for different
welding conditions in order to achieve optimal end-product
results. They found a strong dependency between the welding
parameters and the grain size and its orientation. Also, Florea
et al. [5] investigated the fatigue behavior of RSW of alumi-
num 6061-T6 alloy. Their investigations revealed that the
welding process parameters had a great influence on the mi-
crostructure and fatigue life of aluminum sheet resistance spot
welded joints. Khodabakhshi et al. [6] optimized RSW pro-
cess for welding of the constrained groove pressed (CGP)
sheets with different severe deformations, and their results
were compared with those of as-received sheets. They found
that optimum welding parameters (welding current and
welding time) for ultra-fine grained sheets were shifted to
lower values with respect to those for as-received sheets. Sev-
eral studies are available about RSW of aluminum, stainless
steel, etc. There are also different processes used to join
Inconel 625 sheets such as plasma [7], laser [8], and friction
stir welding [9].
However, there is no investigation on RSW of Inconel 625.
With the rapid increase in the use of super alloys for structural
components, a better understanding of Inconel 625 spot
welding processes has become necessary. Considering this
information, this study can be accepted as unique. The aim
of the present research is to investigate the influence of RSW
parameters such as welding current, electrode force, and hold-
ing time on the microstructural and mechanical properties of
resistant spot-welded sheets of Inconel 625 superalloy by op-
tical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM),
microhardness, and tensile–shear tests. In addition, failure
mode, peak or failure load, and fracture energy obtained in
tensile–shear test have been used to describe the performance
of spot welds.
2 Experimental procedure
In this investigation, the cold rolled Inconel 625 sheets (with-
out annealing treatment) with thickness of 0.7 mm were joined
by RSW process. The tensile properties of the base metal were
determined using a standard tensile test in accordance to
ASTM: E8M. Table 1 shows the chemical composition and
tensile properties of the base metal. Welding process was per-
formed using a calibrated 100 kVA and 50 Hz AC pneumatic
type RSW machine. Welding process was conducted using

Table 2 The employed welding

parameters of RSW Sample Welding parameter

Welding current (kA) Holding time (s) Electrode force (N)

TS-1 5.4 5 3400

TS-2 5.7 5 3400
TS-3 6.1 5 3400
TS-4 6.4 5 3400
TS-5 6.8 5 3400
TS-6 7.15 5 3400
TS-7 5.4 5 4250
TS-8 6.1 5 4250
TS-9 7.15 5 4250
TS-10 5.4 10 4250
TS-11 6.1 10 4250
TS-12 7.15 10 4250
TS-13 5.4 3 4250
TS-14 6.1 3 4250
TS-15 7.15 3 4250
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
copper-chromium-zirconium electrodes from group A of re-
sistance welding manufacturing alliance (RWMA) with a tip
diameter of 4.7 mm. Throughout the process, welding time
and squeeze time were kept constant at 10 and 5 cycles, re-
spectively. The RSW process parameters were changed as
shown in Table 2 (1 cycle=0.02 s and welding atmosphere:
ambient).
The tensile–shear test samples were prepared according to
ANSI/AWS/SAE/C1.1 standard [10]. The tensile test of base
material and tensile–shear tests of the spot welded joint were
conducted at room temperature using a universal testing ma-
chine with constant crosshead speed of 15 mm/min. Failure
modes were studied from failed specimens, and fracture ener-
gy was calculated by measuring the area under the load–dis-
placement curve up to the maximum tensile–shear load [11].
Fracture energy, which is the area under the stress–strain curve
up to the maximum or peak load, which is measured as the
maximum point in the tensile–shear curve, was extracted from
the obtained load–displacement curves. Microstructure
Fig. 1 a Typical microstructures of inconel625 resistance spot welds, and b base metal; c nugget and d HAZ microstructure
characterization of the BM, FZ, and HAZ was conducted by
performing standard metallography procedure, and the speci-
mens were electrochemically etched at room temperature
using saturated oxalic acid solution as electrolyte and a stain-
less steel cathode at 3–5 V for nearly 40 s and then micro-
structures were observed using optical microscope (OM) and
scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The micro-hardness
measurement was made using the vickers scale at an applied
load of 100 g. The measurement intervals were 0.2 mm in the
diagonal direction along transverse cross-section of the
welded sheet.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Microstructural characterization
Figure 1a shows the typical microstructures of Inconel 625
resistance spot welds at welding current of 7.15 kA and
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

welding cycle of 10. As shown, the joint region consists of (a)

three basic distinct regions, namely fusion zone (FZ), heat-
affected zone (HAZ), and unaffected base metal (BM). The
microstructure of BM is shown in Fig. 1b. According to Carbides
Fig. 1c, a clear columnar dendritic structure indicates melting
and solidification in the nugget region, and therefore, the max- New grains from
imum temperature in this region has to be more than the melt- recrystallization
ing point of the alloy. In the HAZ region, no melting is oc-
curred during welding, but according to the temperature dis-
tribution, it can be divided into three distinct metallurgical
zones, namely fine-grain recrystallized zone (FRXZ),
coarse-grain recrystallized zone (CRXZ), and recovery zone
(REZ), that are shown in Fig. 1d. The dimensions of these
zones are based on the experimental data of microhardness
and microstructural observation and correspond to the grain-
refined zone (recrystallized zone), the recovered structure, and
the partially transformed zone respectively. The effects of (b)
welding parameters on the microstructural properties of these
regions will be explained later. The microstructural transfor-
mations in the HAZ are detailed, as follows: Carbides

1. FRXZ: The region next to FZ boundary that experi-

ences maximum temperatures ranging approximately
1250–1350 °C shows the fine-grained recrystallized
microstructure. Recrystallization will be started with
nucleation of new grains that are dislocation-free and
continued with growth of the new grains into the
dislocated matrix. As it is clear from Fig. 2, microstruc-
ture of FRXZ is a necklace structure that is created in
the grain boundaries and it cannot become larger due to
secondary phases. It can be claimed that in this region,
a partial recrystallization occurs and/or recrystalliza-
tion is prevented or significantly slowed by secondary
phases precipitated, depending upon the temperature.
In spite of Inconel 625 had been initially developed as
a solid-solution strengthened alloy, it is slightly age-
hardenable [12, 13]. In the HAZ, some intermetallic
0
phases such as δ [Ni3Nb], γ [Ni3Al], and γ0 0 [Ni3Nb]
may be precipitated in γ -Ni matrix depending upon the
temperature. Although the precipitation kinetics of
these intermetallic phase formations is very slow, some
precipitation is expected due to the very high tempera-
ture near the melt pool and solid interface. This is fur-
ther supported by the lattice parameter of the zone [8].
In the HAZ region, recrystallization occurs due to
the presence of energy stored in the Inconel sheet dur-
ing cold rolling and thermal cycle during welding pro-
cess. Also, Inconel 625 is the material with low stack-
ing fault energy of the FCC metals, which is easy to be
recrystallized during the hot working when compared
to the material with higher stacking fault energy [14].
Therefore, RSW can be effective in the grain refine-
ment of Inconel 625 and the size of recrystallized
Fig. 2 a OM and b SEM images of microstructure of FRXZ for TS-6
sample
grains is proportional to amount of pre-strain and heat
generated by welding current and time.
2. CRXZ: By moving away from the FZ line, the maximum
temperature decreases to approximately 950–1250 °C,
resulting in the formation of recrystallization zone with
grain growth that is named coarse-grain recrystallization
zone (CRXZ) as shown in Fig. 1d. Temperature gradient
and secondary phases play an important role in preventing
the grain growth of Inconel 625 in recrystallization zone.
Hence, the thermal history of different regions of the
welded sample was simulated using the quadrilateral
axi-symmetric elements of FE model by applying welding
current, welding time, and electrode force of 6.5 kA,
10 cycles, and 3400 N, respectively. For this purpose,
commercial finite element code ABAQUS was used to
model the coupling between electrical and thermal phe-
nomena and between the thermal and mechanical phe-
nomena (with mesh size of 5e-005). Figure 3 shows the
simulation results of temperature contour and time history
plot obtained from the FE model. In the RSW, all
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 3 Temperature contour plot and time history plot from FE model for RSW
strengthening elements such as Nb and Mo can form sec-
ondary phases in γ-Ni matrix that it is due to the faster
cooling rate of weld metal. It is expected that these phases
act as barriers to the growth of recrystallized grain. How-
ever, because of lower temperature gradient of CRXZ, the
secondary phases are dissolved and full recrystallization
and grain growth can occur.
3. REZ: The cold-worked state is a condition of higher in-
ternal energy than the undeformed metal. Although elon-
gated structure with grain orientation might present in
cold-worked material is mechanically stable, it is not ther-
modynamically stable. The cold-worked state becomes
more and more unstable with increasing temperature.
Eventually, the metal becomes soft and returns to a
strain-free condition. Recovery is usually defined as the
restoration of physical properties of the cold-worked met-
al without any observable change in the microstructure.
According to Fig. 3, the maximum temperature of this
zone is about 800 °C, that this, temperature is the proper
temperature of stress relieving of Inconel 625. Also, com-
parison of temperature gradient has shown that tempera-
ture gradient of REZ has the lowest value compared to the
other zones. As shown in Fig. 1d, in recovery zone, resid-
ual stresses resulting from cold rolling processes are re-
moved without significant changes in grains size and
microstructure.
Figure 4 shows the SEM microstructure of the FZ, indicat-
ing fine columnar dendritic structure with secondary den-
drites. It can be seen that columnar dendrites grow epitaxially
around the center of fusion zone. Temperatures in the FZ
surpass the liquids resulting in molten metal during welding.
This is followed by rapid cooling which promotes epitaxial
solidification of dendrites with directional growth towards the
centerline. After welding, the water-cooled electrodes help to
remove heat from the weld, inducing high initial cooling rates
in the solidified weld metal. It has been reported that RSW
cooling rates can be up to the order of 1000 °C/s, while the
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Fig. 4 SEM image of FZ consist

of discontinuous cellular–
dendritics and continuous of
cellular–dendritics for sample of
TS-6

electrodes are still in contact with the workpiece [6]. Two

different types of cellular–dendritic microstructures are ob-
served in the SEM microstructure of the FZ: The first micro-
structure is continuous cellular–dendritic, and the second mi-
crostructure is discontinuous cellular–dendritic. These two
types of cellular–dendritic microstructure exhibit identical
growth directions and alternately appear. Sometimes, the par-
tial melting zone (PMZ) appears next to the FZ, as it is par-
tially filled by coarse columnar grains, as shown in Fig. 5. This
region corresponds to a limit between the liquid and solid
regions in the phase diagram, but this zone cannot be found
in all positions and welding conditions of RSW. As described
previously, the structure and morphology of the phases present
at different locations of weldment depending upon the cooling
rate of the melt pool in the RSW process. Whereas the rate of
heat transfer depends upon the temperature gradient that it has
higher in the primary stages of cooling time, at the onset of
holding time, the solidification velocity is very fast resulting
from the water-cooled copper electrodes, leading to finer den-
drites. However, for the greater welded area, the temperature
gradient becomes small, and the cooling rate becomes less
(Fig. 3). Therefore, the dendrites become slightly coarse as
shown in Fig. 5b.
The hardness distribution provides indirect information
about the strength and the deformation behavior of spot
welded joints. Normally, the increase in hardness is usually
accompanied by an increase in strength and decreasing the
formability of the metal [10]. The microhardness profile re-
sults for the weld regions including BM, HAZ, and FZ at
welding current of 5.4 kA and welding time 10 cycles are
shown in Fig. 6. The heterogeneous hardness profile of the
HAZ compared to that of FZ and BM is a result of different Fig. 5 a Microstructure of PMZ and b fine dispersion of carbide
microstructure in this region of the weld. The lower hardness precipitates in PMZ (SEM) of TS-6 sample
Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Fig. 6 Microhardness profiles of

the resistance spot welded joint
(sample of TS-1)

of the CRXZ compared to the adjacent regions may be con-
tributed to the reduction in the residual stresses induced by
cold rolling process and followed by recrystallization and
grain growth. The maximum hardness obtained in BM is
due to the cold working. In the FRXZ, the hardness is de-
creased due to recrystallization, whereas the micro-hardness
of recovery zone from CRXZ to BM increased due to decrease
in recovery phenomenon because of decreasing heat gradient
and maximum temperature.
3.2 Mechanical characterization
In this step, the effect of welding current, electrode force, and
holding time on various parameters including peak or failure
load (the maximum amount of load that a welded joint can
endure), fracture energy (calculated as the area under the curve
up to the peak load), and failure mode were meticulously
considered and obtained results have been presented in
Table 3. The fractured samples after the tensile shear test have
been shown in Fig. 7.
3.2.1 Failure mode
Failure mode of resistance spot-welded joint is a qualitative
criterion for weld reliability. Figure 8 shows a schematic rep-
resentation of the main fracture path during tensile–shear test-
ing of spot welded joint. Basically, the fracture of resistance
spot-welded joint occurs in four modes: interfacial fracture
(IF), partial interfacial fracture (PIF), pull-out fracture (PF),
and tearing failure (TF) mode. In the interfacial (IF) mode,
fracture propagates through the fusion zone (FZ) (Fig. 8a);
as it is clear from Fig. 8b, in partial interfacial mode (PIF),

Table 3 Results of the

mechanical properties of spot Welding Tensile–shear test results
welded joints condition no.
Failure mode Peak load (N) Fracture energy (J)

TS-1 IF 5650 6.1

TS-2 IF 6227 7.45
TS-3 IF 6627 8.76
TS-4 PF 6916 9.4
TS-5 PF 7141 10.29
TS-6 PF 7391 10.86
TS-7 IF 5224 5.16
TS-8 PIF 6246 7.93
TS-9 PF 7235 10.63
TS-10 IF 5892 6.27
TS-11 PF 6575 9.55
TS-12 PF 7106 10.07
TS-13 IF 5097 4.9
TS-14 IF 6108 7.5
TS-15 PF 6616 8.55

Fig. 7 Fractured tensile shear test samples showing different modes of failure
fracture first propagates in fusion zone (FZ) and then is
redirected through thickness; in the pullout mode, fracture
occurs with the nugget drawl from one sheet, the PF occurs
around the weld nugget, so it leaves the button in one sheet
and circular hole on the other sheet (Fig. 8c) and the tearing
failure (TF) mode, in addition to partial removal of weld nug-
get includes some parts of base sheet withdrawal from one of
the sheets (Fig. 8d) [6, 15]. Failure mode can significantly
affect load bearing capacity and energy absorption capability
of resistance spot welded joint. Generally, the PF mode is the
preferred failure mode due to higher plastic deformation and
energy absorption associated with it [15].
Figure 9 shows schematically the load–displacement
curves as observed from the tests for interfacial and pull-out
failure mode respectively. It is clear from these curves that
there is a nonlinear region before reaching the peak load. This
Fig. 8 Types of failure mode in tensile–shear test of spot welded samples: a interfacial (IF), b partial interfacial (PIF), c pull-out (PF), and d tearing (TF)
fracture
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
part is very similar to the stress–strain curve of ductile metals
and is attributed to the strain hardening of the material. As
shown in Fig. 9a, in the IF mode as the first crack propagates,
the load drops quickly. However, in the PF mode, as the first
crack propagates along the circumference of the nugget, an-
other crack (second crack) initiates and propagates (Fig. 9b)
and the both cracks occur in the HAZ. According to Fig. 9b,
the load–displacement of the pull-out fracture has a “tail” and
two drop steps of the curve after the peak load due to these
cracks that the shape of the “tail” depends upon the post fail-
ure mode, a long tail corresponds to a partial nugget pullout,
and subsequent tearing of base metal along the loading direc-
tion and a short tail corresponds to complete nugget pullout.
It is well known that necking phenomenon occurs at the
region with lower hardness due to its lower resistance to plas-
tic deformation. According to Fig. 6, CRXZ has the lowest
Int J Adv Manuf Technol

hardness value in comparison with different regions of joint.

Therefore, the cracks nucleate at neck regions that exist in
CRXZ. The necking is not equal in both sheets and the stress
concentration caused by the uneven necking in the two sheets
leads to the withdrawal of the spot weld from one sheet. In the
IF mode, the maximum local strain occurs in the nugget while
in the PF mode the maximum local strain is concentrated in
the HAZ transition zone [15].

3.2.2 Strength properties

The effect of welding current on FZ size is shown in Fig. 10. It

Fig. 9 Load–displacement curves from the tension-shear test: a
interfacial fracture (IF) (sample of TS-2) and b pullout fracture (PF)
(sample of TS-4)
is clear from this figure that the size of FZ increases with
increasing of welding current due to the heat input increases.
Also, macrographic images of nugget size and their variations
with welding current have been shown in Fig. 11.
The interaction effects of welding parameters on strength
properties of welds were described in terms of peak (failure)
load and fracture (failure) energy in Figs. 12, 13, and 14. The
effects of welding currents on the mechanical properties of the
weld in terms of peak load and fracture energy are shown in
Fig. 12. At low welding current values, interfacial failure (IF)
mode occurs due to small fusion zone size of joint. By increas-
ing the welding current from the low level, the partially fused
area expands and joining takes place on a wider area, that this,
condition increases both the peak load and fracture energy.
When the welding current is increased beyond 6.1 kA, the
failure mode is changed to the pullout mode (PF). As it is clear
in Fig. 12, the difference between the failures loads corre-
sponding to PF and IF modes is small, whereas the difference
of the failures energies between these modes is significant due
to more plastic deformation occurring at PF mode. Indeed, the
formation of larger FZ size provides larger bonding area be-
tween lap sheets. Therefore, the nugget resistance and also the
load and energy required to crack propagation increase for PF
mode.

Fig. 10 Effect of welding current

on FZ size

Fig. 11 Effect of welding current
on nugget size: a 7.15, b 6.1, and
c 5.4 kA at welding time of
10 cycles and electrode tip
diameter of 4.7 mm
Figure 13 demonstrates the interaction effect of welding
current and electrode force on the mechanical properties of
RSW. As can be seen, at higher electrode force, there is a
decrease in strength because of excessive electrode force,
leading to enlarge the contact area between workpieces and
electrodes. Thus, the resistant heat decreases because of lower
current density with this phenomenon, and so the nugget size
decreases. On the other hand, the electrode force creates a
mechanical barrier around the molten metal to keep the mate-
rial within the nugget area, so it has a vital role in the nugget
formation during RSW process. Also, sheet deformation was
increased and electrode life was reduced with higher electrode
force due to creating more pressure and temperature on the
electrode tip.
It has been found that the effect of the electrode force
greatly depends on the welding time at higher welding
currents because the increase in the electrode force contrib-
utes to a decrease in strength at the higher welding time.
This is also due to the penetration of the electrodes into the
Fig. 12 The effects of welding
current on failure (peak) load and
fracture energy
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
workpiece and the workpiece crushing. However, by de-
creasing the welding time, the decrease in strength is not
observed any more [16]. In other words, by decreasing the
welding time, the electrode force parameter causes much
fewer variations in the strength.
The effects of welding current and holding time on the
mechanical properties have been shown in Fig. 14. As it is
clear, the effects of holding time on the strength alter with
variation of welding current. When welding current is low
(5.3 and 6.07 kA), the strength of welded joint increases
with increasing holding time due to water cooling elec-
trodes and quench hardening of nugget zone. When the
welding current is high (7.15 kA), as can be seen, by in-
creasing the holding time from the lowest level (3 cycles),
the strength of welded joint increases and after reaching a
maximum amount (at holding time of 5 cycles), it de-
creases. The reason for this phenomenon is that the amount
of generated heat during RSW is much greater at high level
of welding current; besides, if the holding time is short
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 13 The interaction effects of
welding current and electrode
force on the a failure load b
failure energy
(lower than 4 cycles), fusion zone will not have the suitable
opportunity to be frozen. So, if the holding time is too long
and the welded joint undergoes to high level of tempera-
ture, effective quenching occurs and the welded joint is
being brittle.
4 Conclusions
In summary, microstructural and mechanical properties of re-
sistance spot-welded cold rolled sheet of Inconel 625 were
investigated. The following conclusions can be drawn from
this research:
1. The results show that the welding process parameters
have a great influence on the microstructural and mechan-
ical properties of RSW of Inconel 625 superalloy.
2. Microstructure of the weld is mostly a fine columnar den-
dritic structure with secondary dendrites. Whereas HAZ is
divided to three distinct zones: fine-grain recrystallized
zone (FRXZ), coarse-grain recrystallized zone (CRXZ),
and recovery zone (REZ). The microhardness of CRXZ
was slightly less than other regions due to removing re-
sidual stresses and the grain growth in this region.
3. The modes of fracture of welded specimens consist of
pull-out fracture (PF) mode (in the high values of the
welding current) and interfacial fracture (IF) mode (in
the low welding current range) that fracture energy of pull
out mode is more than interfacial mode.
4. The effects of welding parameters and their interactions
on the tensile–shear strength were analyzed with ten-
sile–shear test. This can provide a beneficial reference
for the RSW process of Inconel 625 sheets. It was
shown that the failure load and fracture energy of the
welded joints were improved as the welding current
increases due to the formation of larger FZ size at
higher heat input, whereas electrode force had reverse
effects on the failure load and fracture energy. Also, the
strength of weld was improved with increasing holding
time in low current density.

Fig. 14 The interaction effects of
welding current and holding time
on the a failure load b failure
energy
Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest, and this study was not funded and it is a collegiate research.
Ethical Statement This manuscript is the original work and has not
been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration
and also has not been published previously. It is the results of full study,
and no data have been fabricated or manipulated to support your conclu-
sions. Data, text, or theories by others have not been presented unless with
references.
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