On Residual Stresses in Resistance Spot-Welded Aluminum Alloy 6061-T6: Experimental and Numerical Analysis

In this study, an electro-thermal-structural-coupled finite element (FE) model and x-ray diffraction residual stress measurements have been utilized to analyze distribution of residual stresses in an aluminum alloy 6061-T6 resistance spot-welded joint with 2-mm-thickness sheet. Increasing the aluminum sheet thickness to more than 1 mm leads to creating difficulty in spot-welding process and increases the complexity of the FE model. The electrical and thermal contact conductances, as mandatory factors are applied in contact areas of electrode-workpiece and workpiece-workpiece to resolve the complexity of the FE model. The physical and mechanical properties of the material are defined as thermal dependent to improve the accuracy of the model. Furthermore, the electrodes are removed after the holding cycle using the birth-and-death elements method. The results have a good agreement with experimental data obtained from x-ray diffraction residual stress measurements. However, the highest internal tensile residual stress occurs in the center of the nugget zone and decreases toward nugget edge; surface residual stress increases toward the edge of the welding zone and afterward, the area decreases slightly.