Failure loads of spot welds under combined opening and shear static loading conditions

Failure loads of spot welds are investigated under combined opening and shear static loading conditions. Square-cup specimens were used to obtain the failure loads of mild steel spot welds under a range of combined opening and shear loads. Optical micrographs of the cross-sections of spot welds before and after failure were examined to understand the failure processes under different combinations of loads. The experimental results indicate that under nearly pure opening loads, shear failure occurs in the heat affected zone along the nugget circumferential boundary. Under combined opening and shear loading conditions, necking/shear failure starts near the nugget in the stretching side of the base metal sheet. According to the experimental observations, a simple lower bound limit load analysis is conducted. The results of the lower bound limit load analysis quantitatively agree with those of the experiments. A simple closed-form equation is proposed to characterize the failure loads of spot welds under combined opening and shear static loading conditions. The failure load is expressed as a function of the tensile strength of the base metal, the nugget size, the sheet thickness, the loading angle for characterization of combined loads, and an empirical coefficient for the given welding schedule.