CAREER: Innovative Research and Teaching in Modern Welded Structures Engineering and Design

焊接结构件是我们经济中非常重要的因素，广泛应用于建筑和运输行业。 尽管焊接技术应用广泛，但工程专业（特别是机械和土木）的学生很少接受焊接科学及其应用的正规教育。 此外，有必要在工程课程中的焊接结构的背景下建立力学，材料科学和结构之间的联系。 这项建议旨在弥补目前工程师教育中存在的缺陷。该项目具有多方面和多学科的研究主旨。 它将集中在点焊金属板结构的耐久性预测及其在其生命周期中的退化。 这些结构在交通运输行业，特别是汽车行业中应用非常广泛。 预测由于疲劳、断裂、残余应力等引起的汽车车身剩余使用寿命，这些现象之间的相互作用是具有挑战性的，也很少有人了解。 例如，我们严重缺乏对点焊金属板结构在动态使用载荷下的力学响应和耐久性的理解。 对这种结构的破坏准则和设计准则的基本理解和发展将是非常有益的。

Welded structural members are a very important factor in our economy and are widely used in the construction and transportation industries. Despite the vast application of welding technology, students in engineering (especially mechanical and civil) are seldom formally educated in the science of welding and its applications. Moreover, there is a need to establish the linkage between mechanics, materials science, and structures in the context of welded structures in the engineering curricula. This proposal seeks to remedy such deficiencies that currently exist in the education of engineers. This project has a multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary research thrust. It will focus on the prediction of durability of spot welded sheet metal structures and their degradation during their life cycles. These structures are very widely used in the transportation industry, especially the automobile industry. Prediction of the remaining service life of an automobile body due to fatigue, fractures, residual stresses, etc., and the interaction between these phenomena is challenging and little understood. For example, we seriously lack in the understanding of the mechanical response and durability of spot-welded sheet metal structures under dynamic service loads. A fundamental understanding and development of failure criteria and design criteria for such structures will be immensely beneficial.