An Innovative Hybrid Ultrasonic Resistance Welding Process for Joining Advanced Lightweight and Dissimilar Materials

用于连接先进轻质和异种材料的创新混合超声波电阻焊接工艺

• 批准号: 1853632
• 负责人: Xun Liu
• 金额: $ 35.8万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-04-01 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1853632&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Innovative; Hybrid; Ultrasonic; Resistance; Welding

Lightweight structures are highly desirable for improving fuel economy and reducing carbon emissions. As key lightweight enablers, successful utilizations of advanced lightweight materials and multi-material structures rely on economical and reliable joining processes. Resistance spot welding (RSW), as one of the most extensively used technologies in the automotive industry, is not suitable for joining dissimilar materials due to their different physical properties and metallurgical differences. In addition, RSW faces challenges in joining the newest generation of advanced high strength steel and aluminum alloys. In comparison, ultrasonic spot welding (USW) shows several advantages, but its applications are limited by the output power of generally available ultrasonic transducers. This award focuses on an innovative hybrid ultrasonic resistance welding (URW) process, which effectively integrates ultrasonic and resistance welding, maximizing the advantages of each process. Preliminary results show promising enhancements of joint mechanical performance with URW. The research will deeply advance the scientific understanding of the complex coupling mechanisms between electrical and acoustic fields. Since this technology has wide applicability to the automotive, aerospace and defense industries, the project directly impacts the economic welfare and national security of the United States. The successfully-developed URW process will significantly benefit manufacturing and assembly of lightweight, and especially multi-material structures. The inherent similarities of ultrasonic and RSW system make it naturally convenient to adapt existing RSW robots and equipment, facilitating widespread industrial applications of URW. The obtained knowledge on ultrasonically induced physical phenomena will deeply contribute to developing and improving various advanced manufacturing processes. One specific example is ultrasonic resistance additive manufacturing. The URW process and microstructural evolution model enhances applications of integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) in the field of solid-state manufacturing. Finally, the multidisciplinary educational program as a result of the award will empower next-generation engineers and researchers in the fields of mechanical, material, metallurgy, control, and data processing. The objectives of this research are to advance the knowledge of multiphysical thermo-mechanical-electrical-acoustic coupling mechanisms involved with the novel hybrid URW process, to reveal the fundamental physics of weld structure evolution and to optimize URW for joining advanced lightweight and dissimilar materials. Ultrasonic vibration is hypothesized to affect RSW in three stages: modifying contact resistance through removal of surface coatings and contaminations, influencing thermodynamic and kinetic conditions during melting through acoustic streaming and cavitation effects, and refining microstructure during solidification. The scope of this research includes: (1) A comprehensive experimental study of URW at various conditions, followed by mechanical testing and multi-scale characterizations of the welds. Process-structure-properties relationships will be established; (2) In situ analysis of the URW process through high speed and thermal imaging, as well as multiphysical modeling to determine the thermo-mechanical field during the process. Al-Fe interfacial reaction model will also be developed, which will be verified through physical simulations of the inter-metallic compounds (IMC) formation and growth under a controlled thermo-mechanical testing environment. (3) Optimization of the URW process in terms of process parameters, electrode geometry along with the synchronization between acoustic and electrical fields for desirable joint performance with the minimum amount of input process energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

轻质结构对于提高燃料经济性和减少碳排放是非常期望的。作为实现轻量化的关键因素，先进轻质材料和多材料结构的成功应用依赖于经济可靠的连接工艺。电阻点焊（RSW）作为汽车工业中应用最广泛的技术之一，由于不同材料的物理性质和冶金差异，不适合连接异种材料。此外，RSW还面临着加入最新一代先进高强度钢和铝合金的挑战。相比之下，超声波点焊（USW）显示出一些优点，但其应用受到一般可用的超声波换能器的输出功率的限制。该奖项专注于创新的混合超声波电阻焊（URW）工艺，该工艺有效地将超声波和电阻焊结合在一起，最大限度地发挥了每种工艺的优势。初步结果表明，有前途的增强联合机械性能与URW。该研究将深入推进对电场与声场之间复杂耦合机制的科学认识。由于该技术广泛适用于汽车、航空航天和国防工业，该项目直接影响美国的经济福利和国家安全。URW工艺的成功开发将大大有利于轻质结构，特别是多材料结构的制造和装配。超声波和RSW系统的内在相似性使得它自然方便地适应现有的RSW机器人和设备，促进URW的广泛工业应用。所获得的关于超声诱导物理现象的知识将为开发和改进各种先进制造工艺做出深刻贡献。一个具体示例是超声波电阻增材制造。URW工艺和微观结构演化模型的建立，促进了集成计算材料工程（ICME）在固态制造领域的应用。最后，该奖项的多学科教育计划将使下一代工程师和研究人员能够在机械，材料，冶金，控制和数据处理领域。本研究的目的是推进知识的多物理热-机械-电-声耦合机制与新的混合URW过程中，揭示焊接结构演变的基本物理和优化URW连接先进的轻质和异种材料。超声振动被假设为影响RSW在三个阶段：修改接触电阻通过去除表面涂层和污染物，影响热力学和动力学条件在熔化过程中通过声流和空化效应，并在凝固过程中细化微观结构。本研究的范围包括：（1）在各种条件下对URW进行全面的实验研究，然后进行焊缝的力学测试和多尺度表征。（2）通过高速热成像和多物理模型对URW过程进行原位分析，以确定过程中的热-机械场。Al-Fe界面反应模型也将被开发，这将通过在受控的热机械测试环境下的金属间化合物（IMC）的形成和生长的物理模拟来验证。(3)在工艺参数、电极几何形状沿着以及声场和电场之间的同步方面对URW工艺进行了优化，以最小的输入工艺能量实现理想的联合性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Effect of ultrasonic energy on the spot weldability of aluminum alloy AA6061

• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2020.108690
• 发表时间: 2020-07
• 期刊: Materials & Design
• 影响因子: 8.4
• 作者: U. Shah;Xun Liu

Effects of ultrasonic vibration on resistance spot welding of transformation induced plasticity steel 780 to aluminum alloy AA6061

• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2019.108053
• 发表时间: 2019-11
• 期刊: Materials & Design
• 影响因子: 8.4
• 作者: U. Shah;Xun Liu

Computational analysis of the ultrasonic effects on resistance spot welding process

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmapro.2022.06.050
• 发表时间: 2022-09-01
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
• 影响因子: 6.2
• 作者: Shah，Umair;Liu，Xun;Zhang，Wei
• 通讯作者: Zhang，Wei

In-situ IR imaging for modeling energy transfer and its relationship to shear strength of the weld interface in ultrasonic additive manufacturing

用于建模超声增材制造中能量传递及其与焊接界面剪切强度关系的原位红外成像

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cirpj.2023.04.004
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Venkatraman, Gowtham;Shah, Umair;Liu, Xun;Dapino, Marcelo J.
• 通讯作者: Dapino, Marcelo J.

Ultrasonic resistance welding of TRIP-780 steel

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2019.116287
• 发表时间: 2019-12
• 期刊: Journal of Materials Processing Technology
• 影响因子: 6.3
• 作者: U. Shah;Xun Liu