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Microstructure and failure behaviour of resistance spot welded DP980

dual phase steel

Article  in  Materials Science and Technology · June 2010

DOI: 10.1179/174328409X414995

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 Microstructure and failure behaviour of
resistance spot welded DP980 dual phase
steel
F. Nikoosohbat1, S. Kheirandish1, M. Goodarzi*1, M. Pouranvari2 and
S. P. H. Marashi3
In this research, microstructure and overload failure behaviour of resistance spot welded DP980
were investigated. Microstructural characterisation, microhardness test and static tensile shear
test were conducted. Fusion zone size proved to be the most important controlling factor of spot
weld peak load and energy absorption. The results of this study demonstrated that the
conventional weld size recommendation of d54t1/2 is not sufficient to ensure the pullout failure
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

mode for DP980 steel resistance spot welds during the tensile shear test. In pullout mode,
generally, failure was initiated at heat affected zone/base metal interface, where softening occurs
due to the tempering of martensite. However, when heavy expulsion occurs, pullout failure tends
to be initiated at fusion zone/heat affected zone interface. It was shown that heavy expulsion and
associated large electrode indentation can reduce load carrying capacity and energy absorption
capability of DP980 spot welds.
Keywords: Resistance spot welding, Failure mode, Microstructure, Dual phase steel, DP980

Introduction and energy absorption capability. The pullout failure

mode indicates that the weld have been able to transmit
Demand for high strength steel sheets having excellent a high level of force, thus cause severe plastic deforma-
ductility has been increasing in the automotive industry, tion in its adjacent components, and increased strain
in order to improve the fuel efficiency, occupant’s safety energy dissipation in crash conditions.4 To ensure the
and reducing the car body weight. Owing to their reliability of spot welds during vehicle lifetime, process
excellent strength and formability combinations, parameters should be adjusted so that the pullout failure
advanced high strength steels offer the potential for mode is guaranteed.5,6
improvement in vehicle crash performance without Considering development and commercialisation of
increase in extra weight. Dual phase (DP) steel is one new DP steels for application in automotive bodies,
of the most common advanced high strength steels. Dual there is a need to study the spot welding behaviour of
phase steels have a composite microstructure of mar- these materials. Considerable works are focused on the
tensite and ferrite.1,2 spot welding behaviour of DP600,4,6–11 but there are
Quality and performance of the resistance spot welds only limited published works on the weldability of
(RSWs) are very important to durability and safety higher grades of dual phase steel such as DP780 and
design of the vehicles. Overload failure mode is a DP980. Therefore, the objective of the research is to
qualitative criterion for spot weld performance, which is investigate the failure behaviour of DP980 RSWs under
widely used in the manufacturing environment. overload tensile shear test.
Generally, the RSW failure occurs in two modes:
interfacial and pullout. In the former, failure occurs Experimental
via crack propagation through fusion zone (FZ), while
in the latter, failure occurs via nugget withdrawal from A 2 mm thick uncoated DP980 steel sheet was used as
one of the sheets.3 The Failure mode under which RSWs the base metal (BM). The chemical composition of
fail, can significantly affect their carrying load capacity DP980 steel is 0?004P–0?014S–0?036Al–0?196Cu–0?2Cr–
0?13Si–1?326Mn–0?13C (wt-%) and its yield stress is
532 MPa, ultimate tensile stress is 990 MPa and total
1
Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering Department, Iran elongation is 18%. Spot welding was performed using a
University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran, Iran 120 kA AC pedestal type resistance spot welding
2
Materials and Metallurgical Department, School of Engineering, Islamic
Azad University, Dezful Branch, Dezful, Iran machine, controlled by a programmable logic controller.
3
Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Welding was conducted using a 45u truncated cone
Technology, Tehran, Iran resistance welding manufacturing alliance class 2 elec-
*Corresponding author, email mgoodarzi@iust.ac.ir trode with 8 mm face diameter.

ß 2010 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 16 May 2008; accepted 17 January 2009
738 DOI 10.1179/174328409X414995 Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 6
 Nikoosohbat et al. Microstructure and failure behaviour of spot welded DP980 dual phase steel

1 Tensile shear specimen dimensions

Electrode force and holding time were selected based

on the thickness of the base material and were kept
constant at 5 kN and 20 cycles. Welding current was
increased step by step; while, time was kept constant.
Then, welding current was kept constant; while, welding
time was increased step by step. The weld current was
varied from 7 to 11 kA and the weld time was between
10 and 65 cycles (1 cycle51/50 s) for each material.
Three samples were performed per welding condition
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

including two samples for tensile shear test and one

sample for metallographic investigation. 2 Typical a macrostructure and b hardness profile of
The quasi-static tensile shear test samples were DP980 spot weld (welding current58 kA, welding
prepared according to ANSI/AWS/SAE/D8?9-97 stan- time535 cycles, electrode force55 kN)
dard.12 Figure 1 shows the sample dimensions. Tensile
shear tests were performed at a crosshead of microstructure of the FZ’s centre. As can be seen, the
2 mm min21 with an Instron universal testing machine FZ microstructure consists predominately of lath
and load displacement curves were recorded. Peak load martensite. Martensite formation in the FZ region is
(measured as the peak point in the load displacement attributed to the high cooling rate of resistance spot
curve) and failure energy (measured as the area under welding process due to the presence of water cooled
the load displacement curve up to the peak load) were copper electrodes and their quenching effect as well as
extracted from the load displacement curve. Failure short welding cycle. It was shown through modelling
mode was determined from the failed samples. that spot welds in thicknesses up to 2 mm, typically
Samples for metallographic examination were pre- solidify in less than 3–4 cycles.13 Volger14 reported a
pared using standard metallography procedure. Optical cooling rate of 1000 K s21 for resistance spot welding
microscopy was used to examine the macrostructures with zero holding time. Increasing holding time,
and to measure weld FZ (weld nugget) size. increases the cooling rate to more than 10 000 K s21
Microstructure of samples was examined using scanning due to the copper electrode quenching effect.15 Gould
electron microscope (SEM). After complete separation et al. developed a simple analytical model predicting
in the tensile shear test, failure location of samples was cooling rates of RSWs. According to this model, cooling
examined by optical microscope. rate for 2 mm thickness is about 8000 K s21. Since
Microhardness test, a technique that has proven to be experienced cooling rates in the FZ and some regions of
useful in quantifying the microstructure mechanical HAZ are significantly higher than the critical cooling
property relationship, was used to determine the hard- rate needed for martensite formation (in the range of 40–
ness profile parallel to the sheets interface (20 mm away 120 K s21 for DP steels),15 it is not surprising that a
from the weld centreline), using a 100 g load on a Bohler martensite structure is present in the FZ.
microhardness tester. Figure 3c shows the microstructure of the centre of
HAZ, which comprised of martensite and ferrite.
Results and discussion Martensite formation in the HAZ can be attributed to
the high cooling rate during resistance spot welding.
Microstructure and hardness profile Figure 3d shows the outer region of HAZ where there is
Figure 2a shows a typical macrostructure of the DP980 a significant hardness drop compared to the BM, which
RSW. As can be seen, the joint region consists of three can be attributed to the tempering of the martensite.
distinct structural zones: FZ or weld nugget, heat Observed HAZ softening can be explained by temper
affected zone (HAZ) and BM. martensite microconstituent of the microstructure.
Figure 2b shows a typical hardness profile of the
DP980 RSW indicating that there is a significant Failure mode
hardness variation across the joint region. Hardness of Both interfacial and complete pullout failure modes
the FZ is about 1?3 times more than the BM. Also, there were observed during tensileshear tests. In some cases
is HAZ softening in the joint region. partial interfacial failure was observed. The effect of FZ
Microstructure of the various region of the joint is size on the failure mode is shown in Fig. 4. A large
shown in Fig. 3. Base metal microstructure consists of number of the spot welds failed in the interfacial mode.
ferrite and martensite (Fig. 3a). Volume fraction of Generally dual phase steel RSWs exhibited high
the martensite is about 40%. Figure 3b shows the susceptibility to the interfacial failure.

Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 6 739

 Nikoosohbat et al. Microstructure and failure behaviour of spot welded DP980 dual phase steel
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

3 Images (SEM) showing microstructure of a BM, b FZ, c centre of HAZ and d HAZ softening region (welding
current59?1 kA, welding time535 cycles, electrode force55 kN)

Examination of interfacial failure mode stress during tensile shear test at the faying surface and
In interfacial failure mode, crack initiates in the faying promote interfacial failure of the joint. According to
surface notch and propagates through the centre of the some researchers,17 shrinkage voids are one of the main
FZ, as can be seen in Fig. 5. causes for the interfacial failure mode.
Figure 6 shows a typical fracture surface of a spot Figure 6d shows that, at the adjacent region of the
weld that failed via interfacial failure. Macroscopic cracks, the fracture surface exhibits dimples and some
observation of the fracture surface at low magnification cleavage regions. Presence of dimples, in spite of the
(Fig. 6a) indicates that interfacial failure mode accom- high hardness values associated with the low carbon
panied by almost no plastic deformation. There are also martensite microstructures, is the characteristics of the
some cracks in the weld nugget. Figure 6b shows the ductile fracture. However, at the macroscopic level the
magnified view of the crack region in the FZ. Figure 6c interfacial failure is brittle. Therefore, it is necessary to
shows higher magnification view of the crack surfaces of eliminate the possibility of the formation spot welds that
Fig. 6a indicating dendritic fracture surface. It provides would fail via interfacial failure.
evidence that these cracks are resulted from solidifica-
tion shrinkages. The presence of solidification cracks in Examination of pullout failure mode
weld nugget has been reported by several research- Two types of pullout failure mode were observed in this
ers.4,10,16 As can be seen in Fig. 4, spot welds with small study. Figure 7 shows a typical macrograph of fracture
FZ size tend to fail in interfacial mode. In fact, small cross section of expulsion free spot welds, which failed at
weld nugget coupled with the presence of porosity and pullout mode. The failure of the spot weld appears to be
solidification cracks can experience increasing shear initiated at the nugget circumference in the HAZ

740 Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 6

 Nikoosohbat et al. Microstructure and failure behaviour of spot welded DP980 dual phase steel

5 Optical macrograph showing spot welds which is failed

in interfacial failure mode (welding current58 kA, weld-
ing time530 cycles, electrode force55 kN)

Critical FZ size
Fusion zone size is the most important parameter
controlling the failure mode of RSWs. According to
the previous studies, there is a critical FZ size beyond
which the pullout failure mode is guaranteed. As can be
seen in Fig. 4, the critical FZ size dCr is about 7?8 mm.
Various industrial standards have recommended a
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

minimum weld size for a given sheet thickness. For

example, American Welding Society, American
National Standards Institute, and Society of
Automotive Engineers (AWS/ANSI/SAE)12 have
recommended equation (1)

d~4t1=2 (1)
According to equation (1), the minimum required weld
4 Effect of FZ size on a peak load and b energy absorp- nugget size to ensure pullout failure mode for 2 mm
tion of DP980 RSWs (IF: interfacial failure mode; PF: thick DP980 sheet, is 5?65 mm. Therefore, the conven-
pullout failure mode) tional weld size recommendation of d54t1/2 is not
sufficient to guarantee the pullout failure mode for
DP980 steel RSWs during tensile shear test (Fig. 4).
softened region. Heat affected zone softening would Indeed, metallurgical factors are ignored in this indus-
promote the plastic deformation at regions outside of trial criterion, for the sake of simplification. Pouranvari
the hard FZ, in which the fracture will occur.4,18 et al.23 proposed a simple analytical model to predict
Therefore, this feature of the DP980 spot welds may failure mode of spot welds during tensile shear test.
reduce their susceptibility to interfacial fracture, com- According to this model, failure mode of spot welds is
pared to other dual phase steels such as DP780. Results dictated by the FZ size, sheet thickness and the ratio of
of Marya et al.18 also show that the critical FZ size of weld nugget hardness to failure location hardness.
DP980 is smaller than that of DP780 due to HAZ However, the effect of voids on the failure mode should
softening. not be ignored. It is shown that the presence of voids in
Figure 8 shows a typical macrograph of fracture cross the weld centreline can increase the critical FZ size.24
section of welds, which experienced heavy expulsion and Low FZ hardness to failure location hardness, increases
severe indentation during welding and failed via the tendency of spot weld to fail in the interfacial failure
pullout mode during tensile shear test. Expulsion is mode, during the tensile shear test. It should be noted
usually accompanied with significant electrode inden- that d54t1/2 criterion works well for spot welds of
tation.19,20 The results showed that expulsion and mild steel because the FZ has a significantly higher
associated high electrode indentation significantly hardness.25 Typically FZ hardness of mild steel RSWs is
affect the failure behaviour. As can be seen in Fig. 8, about 2–3 times more than BM hardness.26 Therefore, in
failure occurred at the FZ/HAZ interface. Similar the case of low carbon steel, pullout failure mode should
behaviour was observed for low carbon steel RSWs be the desired failure mode for strength estimation based
by Zhang21 and Pouranvari et al.22 High electrode on the fundamental mechanics. However, in the case of
indentation leads to stress concentration at the edge of DP980 spot welds, the ratio of FZ hardness to failure
the weld nugget; therefore, failure location gets closer location hardness is about 1?3–1?5. This explains high
to FZ/HAZ interface. This can reduce the energy susceptibility of DP980 to interfacial failure mode in
absorption capability of RSWs due to the harder comparison to low carbon steels. Also, the results of the
microstructure (i.e. martensite) of the FZ/HAZ inter- other researchers indicates that conventional weld size
face, compared to the less hard microstructure (i.e. soft recommendation of d54t1/2, is not sufficient to ensure
tempered martensite), as shown below. Therefore, in the nugget pullout for advanced high strength steels spot
order to improve the mechanical performance of welds. Therefore, there is a need to search for new weld
DP980 spot welds, expulsion and electrode indentation quality criterion for resistance spot welded dual phase
should be kept at minimum level. steels. Metallurgical characteristics of welds should be

Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 6 741

 Nikoosohbat et al. Microstructure and failure behaviour of spot welded DP980 dual phase steel
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

a view of low magnification; b magnified views of cracks in weld nugget; c high magnification view of crack surfaces; d
ductile fracture characteristics
6 Typical fracture surface of spot weld that failed via interfacial failure (welding current59?1 kA, welding time522 cycles,
electrode force55 kN)

8 Typical macrograph of fracture cross-section of welds

7 Typical macrograph of fracture cross-section of expul- which experience expulsion during welding and failed
sion free spot welds which failed at pullout mode dur- via pullout mode during tensile shear test (welding
ing tensile shear test (welding current510 kA, welding current510 kA, welding time5 30 cycles, electrode
time522 cycles, electrode force55 kN) force55 kN)

742 Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 6

 Nikoosohbat et al. Microstructure and failure behaviour of spot welded DP980 dual phase steel

current of 10 kA, the energy absorption significantly

reduces by increasing welding time up to 22 cycles.
Load carrying capacity and energy absorption cap-
ability of spot welds depend on their physical attributes
especially weld nugget size, failure mode and failure
location strength.3,22 To examine the relationship
between the peak load (and the failure energy) and the
weld nugget size, a scatter plot of peak load (and failure
energy) v. weld size was constructed, and a trend line
was added to the scatter plot to show the general trend
(Fig. 4a and b). As can be seen in Fig. 4 there is a
general linear relationship between the peak load (and
also failure energy) and the weld nugget size. The peak
point in load displacement plot of tensile shear test
corresponds to the point of crack propagation through
the weld nugget, for interfacial mode, and to the
necking/cracking point at failure location, for pullout
mode. For interfacial mode, the bigger the nugget size
the higher is the interfacial resistance to shearing. For
pullout mode, increasing nugget diameter increases the
nugget resistance against rotating and therefore,
increases the required force for necking/cracking at
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd

failure location. In both cases, increasing weld nugget

size increases the required force and energy for failure to
occur.22
According to Fig. 4, FZ size is the most important
controlling parameter of peak load and energy absorp-
tion of the DP980 spot welds. Similar conclusion was
obtained for TRIP800, DP800,4,25 DP600,7 spot welds.
In summary, the effect of welding conditions on the
mechanical behaviour of DP980 RSWs can be described
as follows:
Increasing welding current and welding time results in
higher heat generation at the faying interface. This, leads
9 Effect of welding current and welding time on a peak to the formation of larger FZ and increases overall bond
load and b energy absorption area. Moreover, this promotes pullout failure mode
versus interfacial failure mode. These facts can explain
increasing in peak load and energy absorption until
considered to predict and analyse the spot weld failure optimal welding conditions are received.
mode more precisely. Reduction of peak load and energy absorption at high
welding current and welding time can be attributed to
Mechanical properties the following effects:
To complete exploration of the mechanical properties of (i) reduction in FZ size due to increasing heat
the spot welds, their energy absorptions were also loss19,20
measured, in addition to the peak load. Failure energy (ii) increasing the electrode indentation due to
is a measure of the weld energy absorption capability increasing temperature of electrode sheet
whose higher value demonstrates an increase in weld interface
performance reliability against impact loads such as (iii) increasing the probability of expulsion occur-
accidents.27,28 It has been shown that there is a direct rence as well as its extent and its associated
relationship between the failure energy in static tensile defects: severe indentation and void formation in
shear test and the impact tensile shear test.29 the weld nugget.
Figure 9a and b shows the effect of welding current Reduction of peak load at high welding current and
and welding time on the peak load and energy welding time can be related to the reduction in FZ size
absorption of the spot welds respectively. As it can be due to increasing heat loss and thinning effect of
seen from Fig. 4a and b, increasing the welding time electrode indentation and associated stress concentra-
increases both peak load and energy absorption, until a tion, as reported by Zhang30 and Han and
maximum value after which both of them decrease. Indacochea.19 The surface indentation will change the
Moreover, it can be seen that the maximum value for stress at the weld nugget edge, and deep surface
both peak load and energy absorption happen at lower indentations are expected to promote premature
welding time by increasing the welding current. This failure.19 Voids formed due to expulsion can decrease
maximum value increases by increasing the welding load bearing capacity of spot weld which fail in
current up to 10 kA, and then it decreases. For example, interfacial failure mode.22
at welding current of 10 kA, peak load increases by Reduction of energy absorption at high welding
increasing the welding time up to 30 cycles and drops by current and welding time can be related to the reduction
further increase in welding time. Moreover, at welding of weld FZ, increasing expulsion severity, increasing

Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 6 743

 Nikoosohbat et al. Microstructure and failure behaviour of spot welded DP980 dual phase steel

electrode indentation and associated stress concentration Acknowledgements

and the change in the failure location from HAZ to weld
nugget edge, as explained before. Similar conclusion was The authors wish to thank the ministry of industries and
obtained for uncoated low carbon steel,22 galvanised low mines of Iran for financial support of a part of this
carbon steel20 and 304 stainless steel.6 In addition to the research. The authors would like to thank Novinsazan
effect of expulsion on the static performance, Ma et al.,10 Setareh Sanat Company for providing spot welding
in their study on the failure behaviour of DP600, machine for this investigation.
reported that expulsion can decrease the fatigue limit of
the spot weld. Reference
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744 Materials Science and Technology 2010 VOL 26 NO 6

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