Analysis of Sheet Metal Joining with Self-Piercing Riveting 2020-01-0223

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) has been used in production to join sheet materials since the early 1990s. A large amount of experimental trial work was required in order to determine an appropriate combination of rivet and anvil design to fulfill the required joint parameters. The presented study is describing the methodology of SPR joint design based on numerical simulation and experimental methods of defining required simulation input parameters. The required inputs are the stress-strain curves of sheet materials and rivets for the range of strains taking place in the SPR joining process, parameters required for a fracture model for all involved materials, and friction parameters for all interfaces of SPR process. In the current study, the normalized Cockroft-Latham fracture criterion was used for predicting fracture. Custom hole and tube expansion tests were used for predicting fracture of the riveted materials and the rivet, respectively. In order to define the flow curve for riveted sheets, the multistep rolling-tensile testing procedure was used. The multistep cylinder compression test was employed to define the flow curve for the rivet material. Pin-on-disk testing procedure was employed to define coefficients of friction.