• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.53-64
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• 2012

Deep and narrow welds can be produced by laser welding at high welding speeds with a narrow heat-affected zone (HAZ) and little distortion of the workpiece. This study aims to evaluate the usefulness of laser welding at automobile component manufacture. Microstructure observation, hardness test, tensile test and fatigue life test are performed by using the fiber laser welded SPFC590 steel sheets which is used widely in the manufacture of automotive seat frame. Three kinds of specimens are only a SPFC590 steel plate, quasi-butt joint plate and lap joint plate by laser welding. The following results that will be helpful to understand the static strength, fatigue crack initiation and growth mechanism were obtained. (1) The tensile strength of quasi butt joint specimens nearly equal to base metal specimens, but lap joint specimens fractured in shear area of weld metal. (2) The fatigue strength of quasi-butt joint specimen was approximately 8 percent lower than that of the base metal specimens. Furthermore, the lap joint specimens were less than 86 percent of the base metal specimens. (3) The lap joint fatigue specimens fractured at shear area in high level stress amplitude, while fractured at normal area in low level stress amplitude. From these results, the applicability of the laser welding to the automobile component is discussed.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.61-68
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• 2005

Dissimilar joining of Al 6013-T4 alloys and austenite stainless steel was carried out using friction stir welding technique. Microstructures near the weld zone and mechanical properties of the joint have been investigated. Microstructures in the stainless steel side were composed of the heat affected zone and the plastically deformed zone, while those in the Al alloy side were composed of the recrystallized zone including stainless steel particles, the thermo-mechanically affected zone and the heat affected zone. TEM micrographs revealed that the interface region was composed of the mixed layers of elongated stainless steel and ultra-fine grained Al alloy with lamella structure and intermetallic compound layer. Thickness of the intermetallic layer was approximately 300nm and was identified as the A14Fe with hexagonal close packed structure. Mechanical properties, such as tensile and fatigue strengths were lower than those of 6013 Al alloy base metal, because tool inserting location was deviated to Al alloy from the butt line, which resulted in the lack of the stirring.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.417-429
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• 2012

Taking the superficial temperature increment as the major fatigue damage indicator, the infrared thermography was used to predict fatigue parameters (fatigue strength and S-N curve) of welded joints subjected to fatigue loading with a high mean stress, showing good predictions. The fatigue damage status, related to safety evaluation, was tightly correlated with the temperature field evolution of the hot-spot zone on the specimen surface. An energetic damage model, based on the energy accumulation, was developed to evaluate the residual fatigue life of the welded specimens undergoing cyclic loading, and a good agreement was presented. It is concluded that the infrared thermography can not only well predict the fatigue behavior of welded joints, but also can play an important role in health detection of structures subjected to mechanical loading.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.161-169
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• 2004

In this study, we investigated fatigue crack growth behavior of laser welded sheet metal due to a single overload. Fatigue specimens were made using butt joint of cold rolled sheet metal that was welded by $CO_2$ laser. The fatigue crack propagation tests were performed in such a way that fatigue loading was parallel to the weld line while crack propagation was perpendicular to the weld line. Single overload was applied when fatigue crack tip was arrived near the weld line. The distances between the crack tip and the weld line at which a single overload was applied were 6, 4 and 2mm. The effect of specimen thickness and overload ratio on the fatigue behavior was determined. The plastic zone size of crack tip due to the single overload was determined from the finite element analysis. For investigating fatigue crack growth behavior, we used different thickness specimen 0.9mm and 2.0mm, and variable overload ratio applied fatigue crack propagation test. Also we used finite element analysis for investigating the plastic zone size of crack tip when single overload applied

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.281-292
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• 2016

In this research, 10 specimens of FCAW welding with positions of 1G and 3G were tested to confirm the weldability, welding positions, and welded joint performance of 60mm HSA800 steel. The test results showed that FCAW 1G and 3G satisfied HSA800 steel's KS and the criteria for homogeneity of strength, indicating a good weld zones. However, according to the tensile test results of weld zone, 3G position FCAW welding requires improvement of welding techniques and methods.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.826-830
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• 2002

In the civil engineering and architecture fields, welding for large sectional members, such as I section steel and H section steel, are usually performed. a flash welding system, by which large I section steel or H section steel can be welded for a short time, was newly developed. In order to know the basic characteristics of welded joints, the specimens were cut out from flash welded joints, and tensile and fatigue experiments were carried out. The joint efficiency of welded joints by flash welding is 100% for the specimens with reinforcements and 93% for without reinforcements. The fatigue strength of welded joints with reinforcement was about 50% of that of the base metal. Removing the reinforcement generated by flash welding, fatigue strength of flash welded joints became 75% of that of the base metal. In case of flash welded joints with reinforcements, after a couple of fatigue cracks had propagated, ductile fracture occurred at the toe. In flash welded joints without reinforcements, fracture occurred at the bond or at HAZ (Heat Affected Zone). In case of fracture at the bond, fracture was brittle, and in case at HAZ, fracture was ductile.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2020

For microstructural analysis of a friction stir welded (FSWed) joint of advanced high-strength steels, dual phase (DP) and complex phase (CP) steels, are studied. FSWed joints are successfully fabricated in the following four cases: (i) DP/DP; (ii) CP/CP; (iii) DP/CP, where the advancing side is DP and the retreating side is CP; (iv) CP/DP, where the advancing side is CP and the retreating side is DP. The stir zone (SZ) of (i) the DP/DP joint mainly consists of lath martensite, while the stir zone of (ii) the CP/CP joint consists not only of lath martensite but also of bainite. In the case of (iii) DP/CP and (iv) CP/DP, they exhibit a similar microstructure including acicular-shaped phases in the joints; however, cross-sections of the joints show differences in material mixing in each case. In (iv) the CP/DP joint, temperature towards the CP steel is sufficient to cause softening, thus leading to better mixing than that in (iii) DP/CP. The phases of the SZ in each of the four cases are formed by phase transformation during the FSWed process; however, the transformed phase volume fraction of CP steel is lower than that of DP steel, indicating that dynamic recrystallization occurs mainly in CP steel. The hardness values of the SZ are significantly higher than those of the base materials, especially, the SZ of (iii) the DP/CP joint has the highest value due to highest fraction of lath martensite.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-57
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• 2008

Friction welding was performed to investigate mechanical properties for Ni-base superalloy with 15 mm diameter solid bar. The main friction welding parameters were selected to endure good quality welds on the basis of visual examination, tensile tests, impact energy test, Vickers hardness surveys of the bond of area and heat affected zone. And then, the nondestructive technique to evaluate the weld quality was carried out by acoustic emission(AE) and ultrasonic attenuation coefficient. The tensile strength of the friction welded joint was shown up to 90 % of the Alloy718 base metal under the condition of the heating time over 5 sec. The optimal welding conditions were n=2,000 rpm, $P_1=200$ MPa, $P_2=200$ MPa, $t_1=8$ sec and $t_2=5$ sec when the total upset length was 4.4 mm.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.4066-4076
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• 2023

Pressure resistance welding is usually used to seal the connection between the cladding tube and the end plug made of zirconium alloy. The seal welded joint has a direct effect on the service performance of the fuel rod cladding structure. In this paper, the pressure resistance welded joints of zirconium alloy tube-plug structure were obtained by thermal-mechanical simulation experiments. The microstructure and microhardness of the joints were both analyzed. The effect of processing parameters on the microstructure was studied in detail. The results showed that there was no β-Zr phase observed in the joint, and no obvious element segregation. There were different types of Widmanstätten structure in the thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) and heat affected zone (HAZ) of the cladding tube and the end plug joint because of the low cooling rate. Some part of the grains in the joint grew up due to overheating. Its size was about 2.8 times that of the base metal grains. Due to the high dislocation density and texture evolution, the microhardnesses of TMAZ and HAZ were both significantly higher than that of the base metal, and the microhardness of the TMAZ was the highest. With the increasing of welding temperature, the proportion of recrystallization in TMAZ decreased, which was caused by the increasing of strain rate and dislocation annihilation.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 2009

Ferritic stainless steel, which has been used as material for decoration parts in automobile, is recently used as material for the exhaust system due to its good performance at high temperature. To improve the fuel efficiency and purify automotive exhaust gas, it is needed to increase the temperature of exhaust gas. However, it is frequently reported that the rising of the temperature of exhaust gas increases thermal stress at exhaust manifold, which results in thermal fatigue failure in welded joints. Therefore, in this study, effects of chemical composition of steel and welding parameters on thermal fatigue properties of synthetic heat affected zone in ferritic stainless steel have been investigated. It has been found that thermal fatigue life in heat affected zone is affected by bead shape of welded joint and amount of soluble Nb in steel. Especially, Nb-Ti added steel has higher thermal fatigue life in comparison to Nb added steel, which is attributed to difference of precipitation behavior in both steels.