Influence of laser weld shape on mechanical and fatigue behaviour of single lap laser welded joints

Abstract Traditional manufacturing processes, like arc welding and resistance spot welding, are still the main welding processes to join structural components used across the on/off-road vehicle industry. Due to the abundance of data, experiences and insights over the decades of usage, lot of fatigue design data has been generated for different joint geometries produced using these methods. The laser welding process has excellent capabilities to join thin sheet metal structures with minimum heat input resulting into lower deformation and improved productivity that offers significant benefit as compared to the arc and resistance welding processes. However, due to the agility of designing joint configurations and limited availability of understanding regarding the fatigue behaviour of laser welded joints, the need arises for the fatigue design data. Most of the research presents the use of straight linear shape laser welds and limited knowledge exist regarding the influence of shape of laser welds on mechanical and fatigue performance of the laser welded joints. The laser welded joints produce small notch like radius at the root of laser weld which could act as a stress raiser causing early crack initiation. For this work, C-shape laser weld has been selected as the geometric shape in comparison to the straight linear shape of laser weld produced on a series of single lap joints. Detailed fatigue experimental investigation has been carried out for linear and C-shape laser welded joints tested in 3 different orientations with respect to the applied cyclic load and several different R-ratio's and the results are compared. The metallurgical studies have been carried out to understand the failure mode and micro-hardness variations across the weld and heat affected zone. Further, the residual stress profiles have been compared for the C-shape laser weld with the linear welds using detailed X - Ray Diffraction based residual stress measurement.