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

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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.