Effects of spot welding on the functionality of thin-wall elements of car‘s deformation zone
Authors
D. Juodvalkis
J. Sapragonas
P. Griškevičius
Abstract
The effect of changed characteristics of the spotweldedconnections on the absorbed energy, deformationform and axial shortening of typical thin-walled elementsof car’s deformation zones was estimated. The experimentalquasi-static and impact tests of the axial crushing ofcolumns were performed to validate FE models whichwere used for the simulations to evaluate the influence ofspot-welding on the mechanical behavior. The experimentalresults of statically and dynamically axial crushed thinwalledcolumns showed that the dynamically deformedthin-walled columns absorb from 10 to 50% more energythan those statically deformed. The good correlation betweenthe results of dynamical experiments and FE simulationswas obtained. The FE simulations show that reducingstrength of spot-welded connections changes the behaviorand decreases the amount of absorbed energy.