Search Results

For lightweight automotive structures, the stiffness and the fatigue behaviour is greatly influenced by the properties of its joints. The used joining technology, the number and locations of the spot joints are of high importance for both engineers and cost accountants. An overview of common computational procedures including European and national standards is given for the assessment of the stiffness and fatigue behaviour of thin sheet structures with spot joints and arc welds. The influence of the quality and the size of finite shell elements on the fatigue result is investigated and it is shown, how this influence can be minimized.

An automated assessment of structures with welding seams or spot joints is presented. Based on guidelines and with the help of software-coded procedures, the Finite Element model is conventionally build up including welding seams and spot joints. After having determined the stresses by linear or geometric nonlinear Finite Element analyses (FEA), the stresses are post-processed by a software package taking into account the special properties of the welding seams and the spot joints as defined in the FE-model. With it, the fatigue life, in terms of safety factor or damage distributions, can be evaluated fast and efficiently and may be displayed on the FE-structure. Computationally optimized welded or spot-jointed structures become feasible with this software package, leading to development time and cost reductions due to minimizing testing expenditures.