The automotive industry is adopting lightweight materials to improve emissions and fuel economy. Magnesium (Mg) alloys are the lightest of engineering metals, but work is required to assess their structural strength, especially for spot-welded applications. In the present research, fatigue behavior of magnesium spot-welds was characterized and compared with steel and aluminum spot-welds. A fatigue model was proposed to predict the failure location and crack initiation life in magnesium structures. The material under investigation, AZ31B-H24 Mg alloy, and its spot-welds were characterized from microstructural and mechanical perspectives. Microstructure and hardness of the base metal (BM) and different regions in the spot-welds were studied. Under cyclic loading, the BM had an asymmetric hysteresis loop. Cyclic behavior of magnesium spot-welds was measured using different specimen configurations, and the effect of geometrical factors on fatigue life was evaluated. A constitutive model was developed to model the asymmetric hardening behavior of wrought magnesium alloys under cyclic loading. An algorithm for numerical implementation of the proposed model was developed. The numerical formulation was programmed into a user material subroutine to run with the commercial finite element software Abaqus/Standard. The proposed model was verified by solving two problems with available solutions. A number of available fatigue models, as well as a new model proposed in this research were assessed by predicting fatigue life of magnesium spot-welds. The new model used a strain energy damage parameter. All models were evaluated by comparing the predicted and experimental fatigue lives for different Mg spot-welded specimens. The effect of considering the asymmetric hardening behavior of wrought magnesium alloys on the accuracy of the fatigue life prediction was not significant for the available experimental data. This was attributed to the limited experimental data on spot-welded specimens. The proposed material model and fatigue damage parameter were verified by simulating a real-life structure manufactured and fatigue tested by the US Automotive Materials Partnership. The results obtained from the proposed asymmetric model were compared with available symmetric simulation results and experimental data. The asymmetric material model along with the proposed damage parameter resulted in more accurate prediction of fatigue failure location and life.

The need for rehabilitation of bridges has become a critical challenge due to aging and an increase in traffic loads. Many of these bridges are exceeding their design fatigue life. Since many of these bridges are structurally deficient, they need to be rehabilitated or replaced by a new bridge. The most susceptible and weak parts of steel bridges to cracks and fatigue are the welds, due to the presence of high stress concentrations, tensile residual stresses, and imperfections as a result of the welding process. Inspection and repair of welds are difficult and elimination of welded details is not possible in steel bridge construction. Ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) is a promising and innovative post-weld treatment (PWT) method for improving the fatigue performance of existing welded steel and steel-concrete composite structures such as highway bridges. The fatigue resistance of treated joints is enhanced by improving the geometry of the weld toe, and introducing compressive residual stresses. However, a lack of tools for quality assurance has slowed UIT’s adoption by bridge authorities. The current study was undertaken to examine the fatigue performance of structural steel welds subjected to UIT at various levels, including intentional under-treatment and over-treatment, and to relate the fatigue performance of the treated welds to geometric and metallurgical properties measured to control the treatment quality. The last objective was to use the laboratory results to develop acceptance criteria for the quality control of UIT in bridge applications. Fatigue tests of non-load carrying fillet welded attachments were conducted on properly treated, under-treated, and over-treated weld toes. Statistical analyses of the fatigue life data were performed and crack growth was monitored using the alternating current potential drop (ACPD) method. Measurement of local properties (such as weld toe geometry, local hardness, and residual stresses) and examination of the weld toe microstructure were also performed on the untreated and treated welds. The effects of weld toe geometry on the local stresses in the untreated and treated welds were also investigated using elastic finite element analysis (FEA) to obtain the stress concentration factor (SCF) for the different treatment cases and to examine the changes in the SCF for the different weld toe geometries. Based on the statistical analysis performed in this research, the results illustrated that UIT significantly improved the fatigue lives of weld details regardless of the investigated level of treatment quality. The fatigue lives of welded details under constant amplitude (CA) loading and constant amplitude loading with under-loads (CA-UL) were increased up to 30 and 27 times respectively. On average, the fatigue life of the treated weld details was slightly lower under CA-UL than under CA loading. Treatment quality had little impact on the mean of the S-N curves. However, it did impact the design (95% survival probability) S-N curves, with the curve associated with a proper treatment slightly higher than the curves for poor or unknown treatment quality. Local near-surface microhardness and compressive residual stresses were greatest for the over-treated welded details, followed by the properly treated and then the under-treated welded details. Increasing the treatment speed resulted in a greater reduction in the surface microhardness and compressive residual stresses than decreasing the treatment intensity. Finite element analyses showed that changes in weld toe geometry due to UIT can cause a decrease in the SCF near the surface of the treated weld toe. The SCF was the lowest for the properly treated steel specimens and slightly higher for the under-treated specimens. For the over-treated specimens, the SCFs were nearly as high as for the untreated weld. The SCF increases as the thickness of the flange increased up to 19 mm. With further flange thickness increase to 38 mm, the SCF did not change substantially. The work presented herein demonstrated that indent depth measurements from the base metal side, commonly used for quality control, may not identify over-treatment on their own. Indent depth measurements from both the weld and the base metal sides, obtained by measurement of weld toe impressions, offer a good alternative means for identifying over-treatment. However, for identifying under-treatment, indent depth measurements should be used in conjunction with visual inspection for traces of the original weld toe.

The post-weld-shift (PWS) introduced in the butterfly laser packaging is investigated in this study. The elastic-plastic-thermal coupled finite element model is employed in the stress and deformation analyses. The temperature dependent material properties are used to calculate the residual stresses and the post-weld shift distributions during the packaging process. The finite element package ¡¥MARC¡¦ is used in this study. And the commercial optical software, i.e. ¡¥Zemax¡¦ is also employed in laser power coupling efficiency simulation. The variations of laser welding sequence, Nd-YAG pulse laser power, and initial ferrule¡¦s alignment position on PWS for butterfly laser packaging are studied and discussed in this work. The results indicated adjust the sequence and pulse laser power properly can improve the PWS in butterfly packing significantly. Besides, the PWS correction technique, i.e. the ¡¥Laser Harmering¡¦, is also illustrated in this study. The simulate results showed that proper arrange the welding processes may improve the coupling efficiency over 75¢M.

For getting the position which can obtain the maximum coupling efficiency, fiber array and laser array need to be adjusted while the module of fiber array is packaging, than fastening it on the base. Nowadays, there are some methods for fastening the fiber array like adhesive, soldering and laser welding. But the material will discover some phenomenons like expansion and contraction during the process of heating and solidification. Those phenomenons will lead the system to deviate on the six degree of freedom (D.O.F). Because of the fiber array system will confront with the situation of deviation, the magnitude of coupling efficiency will drop down. It is because that the technique of laser welding will cause smaller deviation than other methods just mentioned, so the research choose the method of laser welding for packaging. The distance between fiber and laser array is too small to fasten the CCD on the directions of X, Y and Z axes while the research measures the deviation. So the research uses a mirror to reflect the image for obtaining the correct position of the space and Post-Weld-Shift measurement the deviation of system. Afterward, the research designs a structure for reducing the deviation and increasing the coupling efficiency of system.

The effect of residual stress on the post-weld-shift (PWS) of a fiber-solder-ferrule (FSF) under a cyclic thermal load is investigated in this thesis. By using the finite element software MENTAT and MARC, the stress distribution in this model of coupled thermal-elastoplasticity is adopted to solve. The temperature dependent material properties are employed to calculate the residual stresses and the thermal stresses of the solder in the solidification process. The PWS of a fiber and the stress distribution of a solder under different temperature cycles are also investigated in this study. The PWS calculated with and without considering residual stresses are compared with the measured data in this study. Results indicated that the effects of residual stresses introduced in the solder solidification can not be ignored. The temperature dependent material properties, i.e., the melting temperature , Young¡¦s Modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and yield strength at high temperature may affect the residual stress distribution and the PWS of the FSF significantly.

Abstract In this thesis, we have studied the post-weld-shift (PWS) in laser welding technique for laser module packaging. The joining method for packaging of laser module by laser welding technique can offer a number of significant advantages. It provides strong joint strength, therefore, the packaging has good long-term stability. It also provides high-speed and high-volume production, and hence the packaging is potential low cost. However, the laser welding process has caused PWS of laser module, would decay the coupling efficiency of laser module. We investigate the weld-spot by using metallographic method. The PWS in stainless steel (SS304L) plate is studied experimentally and numerically. The metallographic results are in good agreement with the Finite-Element-Method (FEM) results that the PWS in x-y plane can be neglected. Based on the experimentally and numerically results of PWS in SS304L, we investigate the yield improvement of laser module packaging. The laser hammer technique was used to improve the coupling efficiency of laser module. The results show displacement of the z-axis is from 1 to 9 (£gm) that equals to the angle changes of upper parts of laser module from 0.38¡Ñ10-2 to 3.4¡Ñ10-2 (degree). Therefore, the coupling efficiency of laser module can be improved from 4 to 20 (%).

Abstract The occurrence of ripples on the workpiece surface after solidification in electron-beam weld or melting is experimentally and analytically investigated. The maximum accelerating voltage and welding current of electron-beam welder are 60kV and 50mA, respectively, while the workpieces are four different materials containing different quantities of sulfur. Using a scale analysis to account for heat transfer and fluid flow induced by different quantities of surface active element in the molten pool. The result predicted results show good agreement with experimental data.

Since 1987 Uddcomb Engineering has repaired pulps by their own developed overlay welding method even called Uddcomb method. Currently each welding machine is operated by two persons. To increase Uddcomb Engineering competitiveness the reduced number of operators is desired. An installation of a monitoring system which can aid humans in the welding quality control also helps to improve company’s position. A future goal would be to make this monitoring system automatic without a human operator in the loop. In this thesis, arc voltage, weld current and audio signals were collected and analyzed with aim on finding algorithms to monitor the quality of the welding process. The use of statistics tools is the basis for detecting variations in the voltage and current data, associated with welding process. It has been shown that voltage signal can be used as a part of the welding quality control. The audio signal from welding at low frequencies varies with the speed of the process. The signal can also be incorporated in the monitoring of the process. The use of filters, growing sums and statistics are key elements in the algorithms presented in this report.

No description available.

The automotive industry is adopting lightweight materials to improve emissions and fuel economy. Magnesium (Mg) alloys are the lightest of engineering metals, but work is required to assess their structural strength, especially for spot-welded applications. In the present research, fatigue behavior of magnesium spot-welds was characterized and compared with steel and aluminum spot-welds. A fatigue model was proposed to predict the failure location and crack initiation life in magnesium structures. The material under investigation, AZ31B-H24 Mg alloy, and its spot-welds were characterized from microstructural and mechanical perspectives. Microstructure and hardness of the base metal (BM) and different regions in the spot-welds were studied. Under cyclic loading, the BM had an asymmetric hysteresis loop. Cyclic behavior of magnesium spot-welds was measured using different specimen configurations, and the effect of geometrical factors on fatigue life was evaluated. A constitutive model was developed to model the asymmetric hardening behavior of wrought magnesium alloys under cyclic loading. An algorithm for numerical implementation of the proposed model was developed. The numerical formulation was programmed into a user material subroutine to run with the commercial finite element software Abaqus/Standard. The proposed model was verified by solving two problems with available solutions. A number of available fatigue models, as well as a new model proposed in this research were assessed by predicting fatigue life of magnesium spot-welds. The new model used a strain energy damage parameter. All models were evaluated by comparing the predicted and experimental fatigue lives for different Mg spot-welded specimens. The effect of considering the asymmetric hardening behavior of wrought magnesium alloys on the accuracy of the fatigue life prediction was not significant for the available experimental data. This was attributed to the limited experimental data on spot-welded specimens. The proposed material model and fatigue damage parameter were verified by simulating a real-life structure manufactured and fatigue tested by the US Automotive Materials Partnership. The results obtained from the proposed asymmetric model were compared with available symmetric simulation results and experimental data. The asymmetric material model along with the proposed damage parameter resulted in more accurate prediction of fatigue failure location and life.