Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Resistance spot welding and the effects of welding time and current
on residual stresses
Hessamoddin Moshayedi, Iradj Sattari-Far ∗
Mechanical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, PO Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A 2-D finite element model is developed based on fully coupled electrical-thermal and incrementally
Received 21 December 2013 coupled thermal-mechanical analysis. The growth rate of the weld nugget as a function of welding time
Received in revised form 4 May 2014 and current is studied. Comparison of the predicted results with the experimental data shows good
Accepted 6 May 2014
agreement. Contact area variations and pressure distribution between the sheets’ faying surface and
Available online 13 May 2014
electrode-sheet interfaces during the welding process are studied. Compressive radial residual stress on
the surface of the specimen obtained in the center region of the nugget while it becomes tensile and
Keywords:
rises toward the nugget edge. The maximum tensile residual stress occurs outside of the nugget, near the
Finite element model
Resistance spot welding
edge region. The effects of welding time and current on distribution and magnitude of welding residual
Residual stresses stresses are also investigated. The magnitudes of radial residual stresses in the inner and outer areas of
Welding time and current the weld nugget grow with increasing the welding time and current while they decrease slightly in the
edge regions of the weld nugget. The growth rate of the maximum residual stress reduces with increase
in the welding time and current. This fact is more tangible for welding time.
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Weld nugget size and welding residual stresses are two impor-
tant parameters determining the mechanical behavior of the spot
weld joints. Anastassiou et al. (1991) found that residual stresses
in welded parts could decrease fatigue and fracture strength of
structures. They indicated that through selection of appropriate
parameters, desired nugget sizes and minimum welding residual
stresses could be achieved. Therefore, study of the effect of RSW
parameters on the nugget size and welding residual stresses is
important.
In the RSW process, first in the squeezing step, a static load
is applied on the electrodes to make a good contact between the
two sheets. Then with electrical current transmission, the contact
region of the sheets’ faying surface is heated as a result of electrical
resistance and melting occurs at this area. In the holding step, elec-
trical current disconnects and the electrodes, which are in contact
with water, operate cooling of the workpiece under mechani-
cal pressure loading. Afterwards, the workpieces are released and
cooled down in air. With increasing electrical current and time of
welding, more thermal energy is given to the sheet.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 64543426; fax: +98 21 64543498.
E-mail addresses: h.moshayedi@aut.ac.ir (H. Moshayedi), Sattari@aut.ac.ir
(I. Sattari-Far).
Khanna and Long (2008) showed that besides influencing the
electrical resistance, electrode force imposes pressure on the weld
zone during heating and cooling, and it affects the residual stresses.
The welding time and current, electrode diameter, materials, pre-
heating, post-heating cycles, and workpiece thickness are other
effective parameters. The need for electrical-thermal-mechanical
analysis in study of the mechanical features attributed to the RSW
process makes residual stresses a more complicated phenomenon
in RSW in comparison with other welding processes.
Lindh and Tocher (1967) performed one of the first studies on
residual stresses in RSW. They used a 2D finite difference model
to predict the residual stresses in 5 mm-thick plates of titanium
alloys. The electrical phenomenon in their study was neglected, and
the experimental equivalent thermal rate was considered in the
thermal-mechanical analysis. Popkovskii and Berezienko (1988)
calculated the residual stresses in the spot weld of low carbon steel
sheets with 6 mm thickness by means of finite element method
(FEM). They compared the average calculated residual stresses in
the thickness direction with the experimental data obtained from
the ultrasonic method. Their study showed that an increase in
holding time would reduce residual stresses. Dong et al. (1998) pro-
posed a numerical model to predict residual stresses of spot welded
high strength steels. In their study, the yield stress of the material
was not considered temperature dependent. Babu et al. (2001) sim-
ulated distribution of residual stresses in a resistance spot-welded
joint of mild steel with 6 mm diameter and 1.1 mm thickness, but

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2014.05.008
0924-0136/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2546 H. Moshayedi, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552
Table 1
Chemical composition of the employed steel.
N S P C Si Mo Ni
0.036 0.001 0.026 0.051 0.39 2.02 13.79
they did not report the residual stresses out of the weld nugget
region. Cha and Na (2003) investigated the effect of RSW condi-
tions on the distribution of residual stresses in the 304 stainless
steel sheets of 2 mm thickness. They also introduced a correlation
for calculation of the maximum radial tensile residual stresses with
electrode force of 400 kgf.
In present work, a finite element model in the form of fully
coupled electrical-thermal and incrementally coupled thermal-
mechanical analysis was developed. The predicted results for
nugget size were compared with the experimental results to
validate the model. The mechanical features during the welding
process, such as stresses, strains, contact pressure, welding residual
stresses were investigated. In addition, the effects of welding time
and current on the magnitude and distribution of welding residual
stresses were studied.
2. Experimental work
AISI Type 304 austenitic stainless steel sheets of 1 mm thick-
ness were chosen as the workpieces for this study. Samples with
equal dimensions of 60 mm × 80 mm were provided and cleaned
before welding. The chemical composition of the workpieces is
given in Table 1. Spot welding was performed using a calibrated
150 kVA AC pedestal type resistance spot welding machine oper-
ating at 60 Hz. Welding was conducted using a 45◦ truncated cone
electrode with a 7 mm face diameter, based on recommendations
in ANSI/AWS/SAE/D8.9 (1997). A 5.4 kN electrode force and 30
cycles holding time were applied, based on recommendations in
ANSI/AWS/SAE/C1 (2000).
To investigate the effect of welding time and current on nugget
size, two series of test-specimens of the same material were
welded, fixing one parameter and varying the other. A 7 kA welding
current and 12 cycles welding time were chosen as the fixed param-
eters for welding time and current varying, respectively. Moshayedi
and Sattari-Far (2012) described more details about the process of
choosing welding parameters and measuring nugget size and this
study follows author’s previous work.
Fig. 1. Measurement set up for contact resistance and micro-ohm meter.
An MOM200+ model digital micro-ohm meter with 1 ␮ accu-
racy was used for measurement of the contact resistance associated
Cr with the sheets’ faying surface. The applied set up of measuring
17.33 contact resistance is shown in Fig. 1.
3. RSW simulation
3.1. Overview
Welding procedure induces high temperature cycles on the
weldment due to its localized heating nature. This phenomenon
brings about nonlinearities in mechanical behavior of the material,
which makes it difficult to be studied analytically. In fact, analytic
study of the RSW process includes coupled electro-thermo-
mechanical equations, which are almost insolvable without major
simplifying assumptions that lead to considerable errors in the
results. Therefore, numerical methods are being vastly used in the
analysis of RSW procedure. Moreover, by the advancement of com-
putational devices today, numerical methods can produce reliable
results in a reasonable time.
In this work, nugget size, mechanical features of RSW like stress
and stress variations and contact pressures during the process
and the consequent residual stresses have been studied by using
FEM. The FE model was two-dimensional and axisymmetric due
to its axisymmetric geometrical and loading conditions. Two 1-
mm-thick sheets and 45◦ conic truncated AWS standard electrodes
with an 16-mm outer diameter and 8-mm water channel diame-
ter were applied. The tip diameter of electrodes was 7 mm. A fine
mesh was used near the contact regions, whose accuracy is more
effective on the predicted results associated with the workpieces,
and the other regions were applied coarser mesh. Fig. 2 illustrates
the mesh-generated model.
Electrical, thermal and mechanical characteristics of 304
austenitic stainless steel sheets and copper alloy electrodes are
given in Tables 2 and 3, respectively.
3.2. Governing equations
The applied physical equations are defined in 2D cylindrical
coordinate system. The governing equation for calculation of volu-
metric generated heat can be emphasized by Joule’s law:
1 2
q= [∇ ] (1)
R
 H. Moshayedi, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552 2547

Table 2
Physical and mechanical properties of the employed SS304 (Cha and Na, 2003). The yield stresses and Young’s Modules have been scaled up due to a room temperature
tensile test on the material.

Temperature Specific heat Conductivity Density Thermal expansion Electrical Yield stress Young’s Poisson’s
(◦ C) (J/Kg ◦ C) (J/m ◦ C s) (kg/m3 ) coefficient (◦ C−1 × 10−5 ) resistivity (␮ m) (MPa) modulus (Gpa) ratio

20 462 14.6 7900 1.70 0.604 353 198.5 0.294

100 496 15.1 7880 1.74 0.702 307 193 0.295
200 512 16.1 7830 1.80 0.774 268 185 0.301
300 525 17.9 7790 1.86 0.858 224 176 0.310
400 540 18.0 7750 1.91 0.922 203 167 0.318
600 577 20.8 7660 1.96 1.001 177 159 0.326
800 604 23.9 7560 2.02 1.120 112 151 0.333
1200 676 32.2 7370 2.07 1.210 32 60 0.339
1300 692 33.7 7320 2.11 1.280 19 20 0.342
1500 700 120 7320 2.16 8 10 0.388

Table 3
Physical and mechanical properties of the employed cupper electrode (Cha and Na, 2003). The yield stress and Young’s Modules have been scaled up due to a room temperature
tensile test on the material.

Temperature Specific heat Conductivity Density Thermal expansion Electrical Yield stress Young’s Poisson’s
(◦ C) (J/Kg ◦ C) (J/m ◦ C s) (kg/m3 ) coefficient (◦ C−1 × 10−5 ) resistivity (␮ m) (MPa) modulus (Gpa) ratio

20 397 390.3 8900 1.65 26.4 83 124 0.32

93 402 380.6 1.67 30.0 105
204 419 370.1 1.71 40.0 93
316 431 355.1 1.75 50.5 82
427 440 345.4 1.78 61.9 55
538 465 334.9 1.84 69.9 38
649 477 320 1.85 80.0 25
760 315.5 1.89 89.8 16
871 310.3 1.93 94.8 14
982 502 305 99.8 7

Fig. 3. Electrical, thermal and mechanical boundary conditions.

Fig. 2. The mesh-generated finite element model.

where  and ε are stress and strain increments, respectively,
and T is temperature increment. D is elastic and plastic stiffness
where q is volumetric generated heat, R is electrical resistance and matrix and C is thermal stiffness vector that are material constants.
 is electrical potential. The governing equation for transient heat
transfer with internal heat source is as follow: 3.3. Boundary conditions
   
1 ∂ ∂T 1 ∂ ∂T ∂T
rK + rK + q = c (2) The applied electrical and thermal boundary conditions are dis-
r ∂r ∂r r ∂z ∂z ∂t
played in the right side of Fig. 3, while the mechanical boundary
where , c and K are density, specific heat and thermal conductivity, conditions are depicted in the left side. The AC current of 60 Hz
respectively. They are considered to be temperature-dependent. q frequency was supposed to impose on the top of upper electrode
can be substituted from Eq. (1) owing to the presence of electrical uniformly. The AC current can be used in the form of root mean
resistance in the bulk of the workpiece and contact surfaces. square (RMS) and applied in the form equivalent DC current as
Since thermal-elastic-plastic behavior of the material is non- stated in Eq. (4).
linear, stress-strain relation can be given incrementally in the  
following form (Timoshenko and Goodier, 2002): 1 2
IRMS = (Im sin 2 ft) d(2 ft) (4)
{} = [D]{ε} + {C}T (3) 0
2548 H. Moshayedi, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552
Table 4
Maximum temperature predicted from the models with different mesh sizes.
Model Basic meshed Fine meshed
Number of elements 1556 3053
Maximum temperature 1680 1709
(◦ C)
Temperature 1.72%
difference with the
basic meshed model
where Im is the peak current and f is frequency. Sun (2003) showed
that there is a good accuracy in using this simplifying assumption.
Since most of the generated heat is as a result of contact resistance
of two sheets, mathematical modeling of parameter variation with
temperature and pressure is important. Tsai et al. (1991) introduced
an applicable model for electrical contact resistance, which is tem-
perature dependent:
 from the fine meshed model and the basic model is negligible, while
l Y (T )
Rc (T ) = (T ) = Rc (20 ◦ C)
Ac Y (2 0◦ C)
where Rc (T) is contact resistance at T ◦ C, and  Y (T) is yield strength
at T ◦ C. In Eq. (5), the contact resistance at 20 ◦ C is varied by elec-
trode force and was measured 108 ␮ for 5.4 kN electrode force.
3.4. Solving method
Process modeling starts with simulation of squeezing step by
mechanical analysis of the model. Outputs of this step are defor-
mations, contact pressures and size of contact areas. They are read
as initial conditions, and moved to the “electrical-thermal, thermal-
mechanical” incrementally coupled block, in the next step. A fully
coupled electrical-thermal analysis is done for a time increment
and then, the results including temperature distributions are read
for thermal-mechanical analysis. Mechanical results of thermal-
mechanical analysis including deformations and the size of contact
regions are stored and read for the next increment of electrical-
thermal analysis to update the geometry of the model. This cycle
continues up to the end of welding and holding steps. The time
increment is set to 1/60 s.
4-node reduced integration point elements of type “Plane 42” for
mechanical analysis and “Plane 67” which have thermal and elec-
trical degrees of freedom for electro-thermal analysis have been
utilized. There are three contact areas in the model. Two contact
areas represent the electrode-sheet interfaces and the last one
represents the sheets faying surface. The contact pair elements
“Targe169” and “Conta171” which have the capability to establish
electrical, thermal and mechanical contact are employed to simu-
late the contact areas. In the finite element analysis, 1556 elements
and 1880 nodes have been employed.
3.5. Mesh sensitivity
In the FEM, mesh configuration and element size can have sig-
nificant influence on solution convergence. The effect of mesh size
on the results obtained from thermal analysis was studied to ensure
using the optimum mesh size in the model. Malik et al. (2008)
proposed one of the criteria in specification of appropriate mesh
configuration, which is the maximum-recorded temperature from
the thermal analysis. This approach was used and to study the mesh
sensitivity, a basic meshed model with 8 kA welding current and
12 cycles welding time was applied. Two models with the same
parameters as the basic model, one with twice and the other with
half element size, were prepared and the results are compared in
Table 4. This table shows that, the difference between the results
250
cycle 0
cycle 2
Coarse cycle 4
200
meshed
Contact pressure (MPa)
cycle 6
cycle 8
770
1491 150
11.25% 100
50
0
0 1 2 3 4
Distance from center of nugget (mm)
Fig. 4. Contact pressure distribution in the sheets’ faying surface in different welding
times.
(5) the result of coarse meshed model is distinct from the basic model
results (over 10% of difference), and therefore, the basic mesh con-
figuration with 1556 elements was employed for further analyses.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Contact pressure
The need for evaluation of how contact pressure is distributed
in the faying surfaces during different steps of the welding pro-
cess is important from two aspects. First, the pressure distribution
in the faying surfaces determines the dimensions of contact areas
in each thermal-mechanical analysis step, and updates the con-
tact conditions in electrical-thermal analysis. Second, Esme and
Cakmak (2005) showed that the distribution and magnitude of
contact pressure at any moment in the process determines the dis-
tribution and amount of contact resistance at that moment, since
contact resistance is a function of contact pressure. Distribution
of contact resistance, especially in sheet-to-sheet faying surface,
has an impact on the current density pattern, which affects the
temperature distribution upon Joule’s heating law.
Fig. 4 displays contact pressure distributions on the sheets’ fay-
ing surface in different cycles obtained from the developed model.
Welding current was set to 8 kA and a 5.4 kN electrode force was
applied.
During the squeezing step (which is illustrated as Cycle 0 in
Fig. 4), the maximum contact pressure about 160 MPa, occurred
near the edge of the contact area. Starting with welding cycles, the
pressure near the edge of the contact area decreased while pressure
increased rapidly at the central region of contact area. This can be
due to thermal expansion caused by heating the regions closer to
the center, on one hand, and the constraints imposed by the elec-
trodes on the other hand. Since the temperature at the center of
the faying surface rises rapidly (due to passing electrical current),
in the initial cycles of welding, the material expansion rate is high,
while the temperature is still low in the edge area and therefore,
no notable expansion occurres in this region. In Cycle 2, maximum
contact pressure occurred at the center of the sheet and reaches to
220 MPa. In the subsequent cycles, the pressure began to increase
at the edge areas while the central region pressure decreased. This
trend of changes is caused by the decrease in the yield strength due
to central contact area warming where the temperature at the edge
region is still much lower than central contact area. It is worth not-
ing that, increasing pressure at the edge regions is useful since it
prevents expulsion. As observed, the contact area radius rose from
3.5 mm to 3.7 mm in the range of 2 to 8 welding cycles.
 H. Moshayedi, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552 2549

250 7
cycle 0 t =12 Cycles , F=5.4 kN , El. Tip Dia.=7 mm
cycle 2 6
200 cycle 4
5

Nugget Size (mm)

cycle 6
Contact pressure (MPa)

Dia. Experiment
150 cycle 12
4 Dia. Predicted
Th. Experiment
3
100 Th. Predicted
2

50 1

0
0 5 6 7 8
0 1 2 3 4
Current (kA)
Distance from center of nugget (mm)
Fig. 7. Weld nugget growth over welding current.
Fig. 5. Contact pressure distribution in the electrode-to-sheet interfaces in different
welding times.

5
Nugget Size (mm)

4 Th. Predicted
Th. Experiment
3 Dia. Experiment
Dia. Predicted
2

1
I=7 kA , F=5.4 kN , El. Tip Dia.=7 mm
0
5 8 11 14 17 20 23 26
Time (cycles)

Fig. 6. Weld nugget growth over welding time.

Fig. 5 illustrates the contact pressure distribution in the

electrode-to-sheet interfaces at different welding cycles. The vari-
ation patterns differed somewhat with what were observed for the
sheets’ faying surface. Uniform pressure distribution was observed
in the central area of the contact surface, while in the edge region of
the nugget, a sharp change in pressure occurred. Starting the weld-
ing cycles, a sudden change in pressure distribution happened: the
pressure increased at the central region and reduced rapidly in the
edge area. The reason of this trend, as mentioned, lies in the faying
surface contact pressure.
4.2. Weld nugget growth
As presented in Fig. 6, in the early cycles of welding, the rate of
weld nugget growth was high, but the trend continued to decline.
Temperature changes during welding bring about two events:
increasing electrical resistivity and contact area growth. The first
phenomenon increases electrical resistance and the second one
reduces it due to increasing electrical current flow cross section.
In low temperatures, the first phenomenon is dominant and there-
fore, the nugget growth rate is high. With increasing welding time,
the second phenomenon becomes more tangible and as a result,
the growth rate decreases. Fig. 7 demonstrates the weld nugget
growth versus welding current. It was observed that in compari-
son with welding time, welding current had greater impact on weld
dimensions, and nugget growth rate was tangible only in the few
early welding cycles. This is due to increase in conduction and radia-
tion heat transfer with increasing welding time, which causes more
heat escape from weld region by spending more time. Besides the
Fig. 8. Weld nugget and temperature distribution at the end of the welding step
(◦ C).
predicted results, the results obtained from the experiments are
presented to validate the numerical model.
4.3. Residual stresses formation
A 7 kA welding current and 12 cycles welding time RSW pro-
cess with 45 cycles holding time and 5.4 kN electrode force was
considered for this section analysis.
With applying electrode force from the beginning of the squeez-
ing step, the workpieces are placed under mechanical stress. In the
welding step, non-uniform expansion occurs due to local heating
and as a result, thermal stresses begin to generate and are added to
mechanical stresses. Stress distribution pattern changes during the
welding and holding step. This is due to changes in thermal expan-
sion distribution on one hand, and mechanical properties of steel
sheets on the other hand, with temperature variations in the work-
pieces. Fig. 8 shows the temperature distribution and weld nugget
shape (the melting point is assumed as 1430 ◦ C), and Fig. 9 shows
the thermal strains generated in the workpieces, at the end of the
welding step.
For study how stress state changes and residual stresses form
during welding process, Von Mises equivalent stress was selected
because it eliminates hydrostatic stresses and shows the effective
stress which make a sense when comparing with the yield stress.
2550 H. Moshayedi, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552

Fig. 11. Von Mises effective stress distribution at the end of the holding step, with
10 times displacement magnification (Pa).

Fig. 9. Thermal strain distribution at the end of the welding step with 6 times
magnification.

Fig. 12. Von Mises effective residual stress distribution 30 s after the start of the
process, with 10 times displacement magnification (Pa).

Fig. 10. Von Mises effective stress distribution at the end of the welding step, with
2 times displacement magnification (Pa).

For further investigations, the radial residual stresses which are

the most important component of principal residual stresses in the
spot welds are used in the next session to study the effect of welding
parameters on residual stresses.
As observable in Fig. 10, at the end of the welding step, in which
the nugget has reached its maximum size, the Von Misses effec- Fig. 13. Radial residual stress distribution 30 s after the start of the process, with 10
tive stress in the molten weld nugget region reduced to about zero, times displacement magnification (Pa).

as expected. After the end of the welding step, the electric current
was cut and the sheets were cooled under the electrode force, for 45
cycles in the holding step. Copper electrodes that were in contact
with water performed the cooling operation. A high cooling rate
during solidification and cooling, besides existence of compressive
pressure on the nugget region during the holding step, has a dra-
matic effect on the magnitude and distribution of residual stresses.
Fig. 11 represents the distribution of Von Misses stresses in the
specimens, at the end of the holding time. The stress distribution in
this step is affected by electrode forces, which are still applied. After
the holding step, the electrodes were released and the workpieces
continued cooling in contact with air. As presented in Fig. 12, after
30 s from the commencement of the process, most of the existing
stresses at the end of the holding step remained in the workpieces
as residual stresses. The maximum Von Mises residual stress was
equal to 351 MPa and occurred in the center of the weld nugget.
Radial residual stress distribution in the workpieces 30 s after
the start of the process is displayed in Fig. 13. The indention of
electrodes can be observed in Fig. 11 to Fig. 13 with 10 times
 H. Moshayedi, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552 2551

400 400

300 6kA 300 12 cycles

Radial residual stress (MPa)

7kA 20 cycles
200
Radial residual stress (MPa)

200
8kA 26 cycles
100 100

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
-100 -100

-200 -200
t =12 Cycles , F=5.4 kN , El. Tip Dia.=7 mm, SY=350 MPa
-300 I=7 kA , F=5.4 kN , El. Tip Dia.=7 mm, SY=350 MPa
-300
-400
-400
Distance from center of nugget (mm) Distance from center of nugget (mm)

Fig. 14. The radial residual stresses distributions on the surface of the specimens Fig. 16. The radial residual stresses distributions on the surface of the specimens
welded with different welding currents. welded with different welding times.

345 360
Max. radial residual stress (MPa)

Max. radial residual stress (MPa)

330

345

315

300 330
5 6 7 8 9 10 15 20 25 30
Current (kA) Time (cycles)

Fig. 15. Maximum radial residual stresses on the surface of the specimens welded Fig. 17. Maximum radial residual stresses on the surface of the specimens welded
with different welding currents. with different welding times.

Fig. 16 illustrates radial residual stresses on the spot-welded

magnification. In fact, the major effect of applying electrode force
specimens’ surface for different welding times. The effect of weld-
during solidification and cooling is generating compressive resid-
ing time on residual stress distribution is almost the same as
ual stresses on the surface of the spot weld joint. It can be seen in
welding current. Maximum radial residual stress occurred outside
Fig. 13 that a high level of compressive residual stresses (in order
the weld area and right near the edges of the weld nugget.
of yield stress) were generated on the surface of the specimen, in
With increasing welding time from 12 cycles to 20 cycles, the
the nugget region. It can increase fatigue and fracture strength of
maximum radial residual stress had a significant growth of 18 MPa,
spot weld joints due to crack closure resulted from compressive
while it increased only 1 MPa with increasing welding time from 20
residual stresses.
to 26 cycles (Fig. 17). Comparison of Fig. 15 and Fig. 17 indicates that
with increasing welding current from 6 to 8 kA, maximum radial
4.4. The effect of welding time and current on the residual stresses residual stress rises about 40 MPa, while with increasing welding
time from 12 to 26 cycles, it increases only 20 MPa. It would be
The radial residual stress distribution on the spot-welded speci- caused by more heat escape from weld area in the form of conduc-
mens’ surface for different welding currents is presented in Fig. 14. tion or radiation with increasing time.
With increasing the welding current, the distribution of residual
stresses was extended and the level of maximum residual stress 5. Conclusions
rose in the inner and outer weld nugget regions, while it reduced
slightly in the edges of the weld nugget. Maximum radial residual (1) Maximum contact pressure of the sheets’ faying surface, in the
stresses occurred outside and close to the edge of the weld nugget. squeezing step occurs near the contact edges. Starting weld-
Therefore, it is seen that with increasing welding current, the posi- ing cycles, it appears at the center of the contact. With time
tion of maximum radial residual stress distances from weld nugget increasing, pressure decreases in the central area and rises in
center, since the weld nugget and contact area grow. the edge of the contact region. The trend of contact pressure on
The effect of welding current on maximum radial residual stress sheet-to-electrode interfaces is almost similar.
is depicted in Fig. 15. It is observable that with increasing current, (2) With increasing welding time and current, the weld growth rate
the rate of maximum residual stress growth reduces, which is sim- is reduced. The effect of welding current on nugget size is more
ilar to weld nugget growth rate. As discussed previously, this trend tangible and only in the initial cycles of welding, weld nugget
is caused by this fact that in the initial cycles and low welding growth has a considerable rate.
currents, increasing the electrical resistance due to increase in tem- (3) The maximum radial residual stress on the surface of spot
perature is more tangible than reducing electrical resistance due to welded specimens occurs outside and close to the weld nugget.
increasing the contact area. Radial residual stress on the surface of spot weld joint is
2552 H. Moshayedi, I. Sattari-Far / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 2545–2552
compressive in the nugget region, and it becomes tensile in the
edges and outside of weld nugget.
(4) With increasing welding time and current, the distribution of
residual stresses becomes extended, and the level of resid-
ual stresses increases in the inner and outer parts of weld
nugget area, while it decreases slightly in the edge region of
weld nugget. The maximum residual stress increases and its
position distances from the weld center. Welding current has
more effect on residual stresses in comparison with welding
time.
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tion the Resistance Spot Welding Behavior of Automotive Sheet Steel Materials.
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