Modelling the static and fatigue behavior of hybrid spot welded-adhesively bonded single lap joints

Hybrid joints formed by combining two or more joining methods, including spot welding and adhesive bonding, are relatively new joints designed especially for use in the automotive industry. The aim of this work is to study numerically the static and fatigue behavior of ultrasonically spot-welded, adhesively bonded and hybrid spot welded – adhesive bonded joints. The Virtual Crack Closure Technique was used to model the experimental static and fatigue tests for single lap joints reported in the literature. By introducing a short fictitious initial crack, in static loading the simulations matched the experimental results, characterized by a higher stiffness and static strength of the bonded and hybrid joints compared to the just spot-welded ones, and by an approximately similar static strength of the bonded and the hybrid joints. By the same method, a good match between the numerical and the experimental fatigue strengths was found, with the hybrid joints providing higher strength compared to the just spot-welded joints at 0.1 load ratio. According to the numerical analyses, S–N curves of bonded joints are expected to be statistically similar to those of the hybrid joints. This indicates that the adhesive plays the major role in the fatigue behaviour of the hybrid joint. Finally, the fatigue strength of hybrid joints was simulated at 0.3 load ratio. It was found a reasonable agreement between the experimental and numerical observations at 0.3 load ratio. The VCCT proved to be capable of simulating the static and the fatigue behaviour of the hybrid joints, thus proving to be a tool useful for the interpretation of the results and for the design of other hybrid joint configurations.