Fatigue Analysis of Welding Seams and Spot Joints in Automotive Structures

For lightweight automotive structures, the stiffness and the fatigue behaviour is greatly influenced by the properties of its joints. The used joining technology, the number and locations of the spot joints are of high importance for both engineers and cost accountants. An overview of common computational procedures including European and national standards is given for the assessment of the stiffness and fatigue behaviour of thin sheet structures with spot joints and arc welds. The influence of the quality and the size of finite shell elements on the fatigue result is investigated and it is shown, how this influence can be minimized.