Effect of Mechanical Deformation on the Electrical Conductivity of Resistance Spot Welding Joints

Marwah Sabah  Fakhri; Ahmed  Al-Mukhtar; Ibtihal A.  Mahmood

doi:10.6180/jase.202409_27(9).0007

Effect of Mechanical Deformation on the Electrical Conductivity of Resistance Spot Welding Joints

Marwah Sabah Fakhri^1,2, Ahmed Al-Mukhtar^3,4This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and Ibtihal A. Mahmood²

¹Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research-Baghdad, Iraq

²University of Technology, Mechanical Engineering Dept., Baghdad, Iraq

³College of Engineering, Al-Hussain University College, Iraq

⁴Institute of Structural Mechanics, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany

Received: July 7, 2023
Accepted: November 11, 2023
Publication Date: December 6, 2023

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202409_27(9).0007

In the automotive industry, resistant spot welding is now frequently utilized to join similar or dissimilar materials. Among these metals are copper and aluminum alloys. Electrical conductivity plays a significant role in the electromotive industry and its performance. Welded parts in electric cars are subjected to axial deformation and are often fractured due to tensile force. Hence, the conductivity may change due to the deformation. In this work, the changes in electrical conductivity due to the deformation will be studied. Therefore, electric resistance has been investigated in similar and dissimilar weld joints during the tensile tests. The relationship between weld deformation and conductivity has been presented. In general, similar weld joints will show high tensile shear strength. Therefore, dissimilar welds (Al-Cu) are showing less strength as compared with similar Cu-Cu and Al-Al joints. The results have been verified with the American Welding Society Standards. The electrical conductivity decreases with increasing deformation. Hence, similar weld joints conduct higher currents even after deformation.

Keywords: Aluminum; Copper; Deformation; Electrical conductivity; Spot welding; Tensile test

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