A Numeric Study of the Strength for the Riveted Plates during the Riveting Operation

Using rivets to join the metal parts has always been commonplace, not only in aerospace but also in automotive industries. In order to have a rivet joint work properly upon assembly, It is a common practice that the rivet shank has to be radially expanded and fit tightly with the holes of the jointed components, under a great amount of pressing loads on it. When the stiffness around these holes is insufficient due probably to the design limitation, the deformation may be severe enough to induce high stresses on them. It is very beneficial to use numeric methods to simulate the riveting process and predict whether a rivet joint will be sustainable in the manufacturing process. In this work, analyzed is a specific type of riveted assembly in which its rivet hole is at the close proximity to the edge of plate. In addition, the material characteristics for the riveted plates with case hardening are accounted for by modeling them as bi-layered structures. The primary interests of this study are to determine the stress on the riveted plates during the riveting and after riveting tools are removed. The interesting case studies show that the stress depends on relative hardness of joined plates and the rivet head formed at the upsetting process, in addition to the localized topology of the geometric design.