Effect of adhesive on fatigue property of Aural2 to AA5754 dissimilar aluminum alloy resistance spot welds

Abstract General Motors (GM) has developed a proprietary resistance spot welding (RSW) process using a multi-ring, domed electrode geometry that has been used successfully in automotive aluminum welding operations. To enhance structural performance, one-part epoxy adhesives are frequently applied prior to RSW to create weld-bonded joints. The addition of adhesive can result in additional porosity created within the weld nugget. Therefore, the adhesive's impact on mechanical properties, especially fatigue properties requires further investigation. Load-controlled fatigue testing was conducted on dissimilar aluminum alloy spot welds made of AA5754 wrought sheet and Aural2 die casting sheet with and without the addition of adhesive prior to welding. The same GM RSW electrode and weld schedule was used for both conditions. The results show that the addition of adhesive results in a larger nugget size, but similar maximum load in tension-shear testing. X-ray computed tomography during interrupted fatigue testing of the spot welds shows that the main fatigue crack initiates at the edge of the nugget in the plane of the faying interface and penetrates through the Aural2 die cast sheet in the thickness direction. Using the structural stress concept, it was also found that the structural stress range–fatigue life curve for these spot welds, both with and without adhesive, falls onto a single master curve indicating that the nugget size which corresponds to the tensile and bending strength dominates the fatigue life and that adhesive-induced porosity within the weld nugget does not harm fatigue performance.