Assessment of Gap and Charging Voltage Influence on Mechanical Behaviour of Joints Obtained by Magnetic Pulse Welding

Abstract

This work investigates the study of the experimental weldability in magnetic pulse welding process of a one material assembly (aluminium AA6060T6) and a dissimilar metal couple (aluminium6060T6/copper). The weld quality is defined using a destructive process allowing measuring the weld dimension. A diagram charging voltage-air gap is used to establish the variance of weldability. With the criterion of width of the weld, this representation is able to determine the operational weldability window. The lower boundary is defined by the case of bad weld, i.e. an insufficient bonding, and the upper boundary by defective welds, i.e. a weld susceptible to crack. The weld is able to undergo a plastic deformation prior to failure. A large weld is more potentially ductile. A numerical modelling of a mechanical destructive push out test could be helpful to characterise the weld in a quantitative manner. Finally, the material dissymmetry as considered in this study notably reduces the weldability window because of intermetallic phase at the welded interface. For this case, the weld is found to have a rather brittle behaviour.