EVALUATION OF THE FINITE ELEMENT MODELING OF A SPOT WELDED REGION FOR CRASH ANALYSIS

Abstract

The resistance spot-welded region in most current finite element crash models is characterized as a rigid beam at the location of the welded spot. The region is modeled to fail with a failure criterion which is a function of the axial and shear load at the rigid beam. The calculation of the load acting on the rigid beam is important to evaluate the failure of the spot-weld. In this paper, numerical simulation is carried out to evaluate the calculation of the load at the rigid beam. At first, the load on the spot-welded region is calculated with the precise finite element model considering the residual stress due to the thermal history during the spot welding procedure. And then, the load is compared with the one obtained from the model used in the crash analysis with respect to the element size, the element shape and the number of imposed constraints. Analysis results demonstrate that the load acting on the spot-welded element is correctly calculated by the change of the element shape around the welded region and the location of welded constrains. The results provide a guideline for an accurate finite element modeling of the spot-welded region in the crash analysis of vehicles.